Starting today, I am offering a free copy of my eBook “Use Your Words! Developing a Lyrics-First Songwriting Process” when you purchase “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle.” It’s been interesting to study the stats on my blog over the past decade of its existence. It used to be that easily 8 out of […]
Most songs consist of several sections, such as verse, chorus, bridge, etc. When we talk about or analyze those various sections, we’re talking about a song’s form. One of the most common forms in popular songwriting genres is the verse-chorus format, with all of its many possible variations. Who knows how many possible problems or […]
There are many songs that seem to show no particular relationship between the verse and the chorus, except for the fact that they both exist in the same song. Take a hit song like “Somebody That I Used to Know” (Gotye), and you’ll notice that the verse and chorus bear no obvious similarity. For the […]
I write a lot on this blog about song melodies and their so-called climactic high point. That’s a term that refers (usually) to the highest notes of a song. I say usually because sometimes the climactic moment in a song isn’t necessarily it’s highest note. For example, choruses will often sound more climactic — more exciting […]
Nothing slows the songwriting process down as much as second guessing every idea you get. Silencing your inner critic, at least temporarily, is a good way of making sure that you give yourself a fair chance to get something written. You need to give yourself the opportunity to hear what different song components sound like […]
It’s a bit of a favourite activity for me to look at hit songs from years ago and try to figure out why some of them fade quickly from the musical radar (“Disco Duck“, by Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots, No. 1 in 1976), while others never make it to No. 1, but […]
