Songwriting - Form

Unguided Practice in Songwriting Might Be Your Biggest Problem

Like starting the songwriting process by working out the chords first? There are benefits and dangers. Read “Writing a Song From a Chord Progression” to get this process working properly for you. Let’s say you’re a guitarist and you want to improve. It makes sense that your best way forward is to practice. But if that’s all […]

Joni Mitchell

Viewing Your Songs in Chronological Order

All songwriters fight with frustration. I’d say that if you don’t get frustrated from time to time, you’re not growing the way you should. Artistic growth requires getting excited about what you’re writing, but it also requires feeling dissatisfied. Dissatisfaction is not a negative reaction if you use it to propel you forward. Chapter 5 of […]

songwriting technique

The 5 Best Things You Can Do To Improve Your Songwriting Skills

I don’t know of a single songwriter who doesn’t want to improve on what they’re doing. But how do you do that? And in the songwriting field, what does improvement actually mean? It doesn’t often take much; sometimes improving just one aspect of your songwriting — the lyrics, let’s say — will take an entire song […]

Keyboardist songwriter

Instrumental Music: What Do You Want Your Listeners to Hum?

A number of years ago when I was looking to buy a house, the real estate agent I was using was explaining some of the terminology to me. I found it humorous, for some reason, to find out that the term “improvement” was used to describe the house I was considering. As I understand it, […]

songwriting dissatisfaction

Dissatisfaction With Your Own Songs Can Be a Positive Step Forward

How many times do you listen to songs you’ve written in the recent past — say, six months or a year ago — and feel dissatisfied with what you hear? Is it a bad sign if you feel some measure of dissatisfaction with your older songs? The eBook “From Amateur to Ace: Writing Songs Like […]

Genesis

Becoming Positively Critical of Your Own Music

No one likes negative reviews. You put your heart and soul into the music you write, and then someone says that the lyric doesn’t work, or the instrumentation feels wrong, or they simply… don’t like it. If there’s a way to put your emotional reaction to a bad review aside, you’ll find that you will […]