If Your Song Lacks Excitement, Here's What to Do

From “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website:   If you find that some aspect of your new song bores you, don’t toss it out. The solution may be easier than you think. Take a look at these tips and see if one of them does the trick: 1- Take another look at the basic rhythm of […]

Breathe Life Into Your Chord Progressions – With Pedal Tones

A bad chord progression can kill a song, but don’t assume that a good chord progression must grab your attention. Many of the best songs in the world use very basic chords which, by themselves, are probably a bit boring. That’s because a chord progression must work with your melody and lyrics without pulling focus. […]

Chord Progressions that Change Key

It’s relatively commonplace to change key in the middle of a song. It happens for various reasons, but probably the reason that stands out over the others is the need to increase the song’s overall energy. In that regard, you’ll find that raising the key by a half-step (semitone) or a whole step (whole tone) […]

Good Songs Must Capture the Listener Right Away

From “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website:   For your song to be successful, it needs to capture the listeners’ attention right away, and really make an impact. If it doesn’t, it won’t sell, and it’s as simple as that.   There are three aspects of a song that rise above the others in importance: the […]

Finding the Right Chords, Part 2

From “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website:   Any melody you come up with will be able to be harmonized in a variety of different ways. And that’s a good thing. It would be a very boring exercise if there was only one possibility for matching chords with melody notes. In the previous article we came […]

Finding the Right Chords

From “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website:   In the previous article, I discussed strong and fragile chord progressions, and the need to have both in your songs. But how do you actually choose the chords? How do you know which chords go with the key of your song? And how to you get them […]