Paul McCartney - John Lennon

The Differences Between Lennon’s and McCartney’s Melodies

Generalizing any aspect of a songwriter’s output is straying into dangerous territory. That’s particularly true of the music of Lennon and McCartney. They were arguably the most versatile writers of pop song of their generation, and probably even now. As soon as they wrote a hit, it was back to the drawing board to come […]

What Can Today’s Songwriters Learn From Yesterday’s Songs?

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 E-book Bundle. Kick-start your songwriting career, starting now. _________ History, at least as it pertains to the arts, has a way of filtering out garbage. For example, it’s easy to think that during the Classical era it was mainly Mozart and Haydn who were doing the bulk of the writing, […]

Songwriting Collaborations Are Usually Win-Win, and Worth a Try

Written by Gary Ewer, Senior Instructor, Dalhousie University, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website. • Follow Gary on Twitter • Good songs sell! Check out “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle – available now at a 50% savings! ________________________________ It’s not common to find songwriters who excel in all facets of music creation. The best songs […]

Is "With a Little Help From My Friends" the Perfect Song?

by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website: I believe the best songwriters in the world are the best listeners. You can spend a lot of time trying to come up with the next gem, but it’s the ones who really listen to successful songs, trying to figure out why they work, that […]

Maybe Your Song is Just Too Weird

All songs exhibit a balance between what could be thought of as typical traditional songwriting structures, and innovative elements. And this is quite a delicate balance; A song that has too many traditional elements risks being predictable and boring. And a song with too much innovation risks being just weird. It’s a dilemma because unless you can set your song […]