The Tonic Note's New Place in the Chorus

Get FANTASTIC RESULTS! – Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle and START WRITING GREAT SONGS! __________________ It’s a commonly-known songwriting principle that the tonic note – the note representing the key of your song – should occur more often in the chorus melody than in any other part of your song. This will probably happen […]

Avoiding the 7 Most Common Songwriting Problems

• Your songs missing something? Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle, and get back to writing great songs! Believe me, there’s much that can go wrong in the creating of music. But over my years of studying and analyzing music by both professionals and students, I noticed that the same errors and […]

What Else "Progresses" Besides Chords?

• Your songs missing something? Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle, and get back to writing great songs! _______________________ When you add chords to a melody, you’re really doing two things: 1) you are assigning chords that properly harmonize a small group of melody notes before moving on to the next small […]

Time to Check the Songwriters' Checklist Again

Your songs missing something? Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle, and get back to writing great songs! _______________________ It’s important to remember that successful songs don’t usually achieve that status by accident. There are reasons why songs work, and there’s usually a logic behind those reasons. When your songs are floundering, it’s […]

Creating Good Chord Progressions: See the Big Picture

Your songs missing something? Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle, and get back to writing great songs! _______________________ When you’ve got a melody that you’re wanting to harmonize, the usual way to proceed is to first establish a pulse (i.e., get your foot tapping). For most hit songs (more than 90%), that […]

Melodic Ideas from Stone Sour's "Say You'll Haunt Me"

Develop Your SONGWRITER’S MIND! – Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle and START WRITING GREAT SONGS! ______________ Try this little experiment. Take your latest song and sing the first few notes of the verse. Then immediately sing the first few notes of your chorus. And if your song has a bridge, sing that as […]