Piano - Songwriter

Can Songs Be Too Short?

Over the past number of years, I’ve worked with songwriters mostly via email and/or Skype. Every songwriter has their issues, the problems they’re trying to solve. If I were to make a list of every problem songwriters are dealing with, a song that’s too short wouldn’t be on it. Let me qualify that. There are lots of […]

pharrell-williams

New Video: Why Hooks Are So Important To Pop Songs

It’s only taken me about a year and a half, but I finally have a new songwriting video up. “Why Hooks Are So Important To Pop Songs ” is an introductory view of song hooks – what they are, and their fundamental characteristics. The video actually serves as a good introduction to more in-depth look […]

Songwriting: Working From the Title Gives Your Song a Point of Focus

It’s helpful to learn how some of the world’s biggest hit songwriters do what they do to create those songs. Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb (The Bee Gees) wrote some of the world’s biggest pop song hits, for themselves and for others, from the late 60s into the 21st century. Do you know how to […]

Rush

Astonishing Beginnings, and What They Can Do For Your Songs

Every time I hear the opening bars of “Thus Spake Zarathustra“, by Richard Strauss, even after decades of being familiar with it, I still feel an incredible sense of awe and amazement. You may not know that title, but you do know the piece: it’s the theme from “2001: a Space Odyssey.” Context is everything. […]

John Mellencamp - Peaceful World

Two Simple Tricks to Make Your Song Stand Out From the Rest

Visit the Online Store for all your songwriting materials, including “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” eBooks, plus the video-based “Easy Music Theory” course. Songwriters have a tricky relationship with predictability. A successful song is usually one that is innovative enough to stand out from all other songs, but similar enough to everything else (i.e., predictable enough) that […]

Recording Studio

The New World of Songwriting – But Not That Different, Really

Today’s world of pop music can be a very insular one, in the sense that many “discoveries” pop musicians make about what people like aren’t really new after all. I’ve posted an article from the New Yorker recently, called “The Sound Machine,” about how hits are written today. In that article, Jay Brown (president of Roc Nation) said: “You’ve […]