Songwriter - editing music

Making Improvements On Your New Song Hook

When you get an idea for a song, you’re actually getting several ideas all at once. That’s how creativity works. You might think that you’ve just conjured up a single entity called a hook, but in fact you’ve brought together at least 3 different things very quickly: A catchy little melodic bit; A chord progression […]

Evaluating Your Song At Every Step of Writing It

If you were going to go on a long journey, you’d consult a map. If you’re using your smartphone, you’d consult the numbered steps on a Google or Apple Maps list (“Turn left onto West Street…”), and you’d mentally check off each listed location along the way. And you’d be confident that as long as […]

Leonard Cohen

Using Similar Rhythms Throughout a Melody Strengthens a Song

I’m often asked about motifs – how they work in typical songwriting, and if songwriters even need to be aware of them. Unlike a hook, which does its work in the foreground, a motif is a small building-block of music that works mainly in the background. That’s not to say we don’t typically hear motifs — […]

Guitar and music paper - Songwriting

An Idea for Increasing Your Songwriting Output

For some songwriters the process that takes you from that initial idea to a completed song can be long, meaning that the number of good (finished) songs you write per month might be relatively low – maybe 1 or 2. Your instincts might tell you that the easiest way to become a more prolific songwriter […]

Lady Gaga - Poker Face

What Might Be Missing From Earworm Research

On November 3, both the CNN and BBC, as well as many other news outlets, reported new research, published in “Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts“, into the issue of earworms: what makes an earworm, and why some songs are more likely than others to possess the characteristics of an earworm. CNN refers to […]

Rolling Stones - Satisfaction

Exploring a Deeper Definition of a Song Hook

In pop songwriting, the word hook is often used synonymously with chorus. “I’ve just written a hook” usually means that you’ve got the main part of your chorus done. But in fact, that concept we call the hook is more complex, and overlaps with other elements we typically call riffs, motifs, maybe even loops and other types of repetitive patterns. […]