Tips & Tricks: Writing a Song that Doesn't Use a Chorus

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle. Here’s how to get your songs working right away! ______________ It may be your normal way of writing to automatically go for a verse-chorus design, possibly  because the chorus (particularly the title) offers great potential for a hook. For many songs, the hook is a crucial aspect […]

Using 2 Chord Progressions for the Same Melody

Written by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website Follow Gary on Twitter “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle will show you how to write great songs, harmonize your melodies, and give you hundreds of chord progressions in the process. PURCHASE and DOWNLOAD the e-books for  your laptop/desktop or GET THE iPHONE/iPOD […]

Seven Progressions that Use Altered Chords

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-ebook bundle, and discover the secret of getting chords to work. An altered chord is simply one which doesn’t naturally occur in a given key. Altered chords add musical interest to a song by creating a small harmonic surprise. They work particularly well as accompaniment to melodies that are […]

Rihanna's "Only Girl (In The World)": Implied Harmonies and More

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle and discover how to write great songs. __________________ It’s important to hear things repeat within a song, but the danger is if something repeats so much that it becomes boring. The obvious answer is to have things repeat in slightly different ways, so that each time […]

Generating Momentum Is Job #1 in Songwriting

Momentum in the songwriting world comes from the sense that whatever is happening in the song right now is about to get better; whatever questions are being asked are about to be answered; whatever tension is being created harmonically is about to be resolved, and so on. Momentum, otherwise known as song energy or forward motion, […]

The Role of the Tonic Note and Chord in Songwriting

The term “tonic” refers to the first note of a scale, and also to the chord that is built upon that note. In A major, A is the tonic note, and the chord built on it (A-C#-E) is the tonic chord. It’s an important note and chord because it so happens that they usually appear […]