Becoming a Better Lyricist: Making an Emotional Appeal

When songs sound “corny”, bad lyrics are almost always to blame. Here are some ideas for improving your lyrical abilities. ____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and get back to the basics of why hit songs sell. _____________ Every language has a written form and an oral form. In songwriting, you’ll want to focus on […]

Has Technology Changed the Length of a Song Intro?

Keeping in mind how quickly a listener can change songs today, has technology been changing the standard length of a song intro? ____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and get back to the basics of why hit songs sell. _____________ Technology has been catering to the short attention span of humans, and it’s […]

Building a Climactic Moment: the Tonic Note and Chord

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-ebook bundle, and kick-start your songwriting career! _____________ Adele’s hit, “Someone Like You”, demonstrates an important feature of melody; specifically, how the power of a melody is, in partnership with vocal range, governed by how the tonic note and chord are used. Most songs will exhibit an important principle of […]

Making a Verse “Sound Like” a Verse

There are many reasons why a verse sounds like a verse and not a chorus. Decades (centuries, actually) of musical tradition shows us that verse melodies tend to be a bit lower in pitch than choruses. We also know that the tonic note and chord show up more often in a chorus than they do […]

A Simple Way to Create the Framework for a Song Melody

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-ebook bundle, and kick-start your songwriting career! _____________ Creating melodies can turn your brain to mush. You can have a chord progression that you really like, and you may even have some great lyric ideas. But then you try to get something going melodically and nothing happens. Or worse, […]

Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep”: Why it Works

Lately I’ve been hearing lots of people lament the dreadful state of pop music, and wonder what the future holds for us. Nothing’s new: every year has its hit-makers whose popularity can make any self-respecting pop music enthusiast weep. But Adele, pop soul artist from England, should give any and all reason to hope. Her […]