For many songwriters, it’s the lyrics that are the toughest to write. A lot of the difficulty comes from not having a clear understanding of the nature of lyrics. And that nature changes from song to song: Some lyrics rhyme, some don’t. Some lyrics are comprised of sentences, others seem to be more fragments of […]
You are more likely to hear the word “creativity” when talking about the arts than you are to hear the word “imagination.” We usually speak of creating — not imagining — something artistic. Nonetheless, when we do use both words, we tend to use them interchangeably; we think of someone’s creative abilities as being synonymous with their […]
I was remembering this morning a discussion I had with a drummer many years ago. This guy told me that he loved the band he was with because they were so rhythmically tight that he didn’t have to work very hard to “keep things together.” That meant, as far as he was concerned, that he could think of his […]
There’s a good reason why repetition factors into most good songs: it ensures that a song is easy to remember, which means that people are more inclined to sing them. But there are other qualities that make melodies easy to sing. And as a songwriter, you should consider the singability of your melodies to be […]
Every now and then I clean up my Inbox and give a quick re-read of the emails I’ve received from songwriters for the past while. Those emails serve as a reminder to me of what issues up-and-coming songwriters are dealing with, and the best way to solve them. Here’s a quick summary, in no particular order, […]
I’ve always felt that humans learn more by connecting to a great metaphor than they do by a more direct (metaphor-less) description of something. Saying to someone, “I’m in love!” is, of course, clear and obvious. Saying “I’m over the moon!” is full of emotion and power, the kind of power that connects strongly to listeners […]
