“Heart and Soul“, that popular song that so many people like to plunk out mindlessly on piano, is a lot older than many realize. It was written in 1938 — 80 years ago! — by American songwriters Hoagy Carmichael and Frank Loesser. If you look up “infectious” in a music dictionary, don’t be too surprised […]
We typically talk about a song’s hook as if there is just one. But in fact, most songs have several hook-like elements, all working to make the song attractive to listeners. While one of those hooks tends to stand out as the main one, songwriting success comes from having several of them on the go, […]
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 remember a university prof years ago asking us fledgling students a question: What is the one thing that all pieces of music ever written have in common? You might think that it’s a pretty easy question. Obviously, all music involves sound, right? No. John Cage’s “4’33” is a work in which the performer (usually […]
“The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle” contains several eBooks that are meant to get you moving quickly in your songwriting process. They’ll give you progressions, formulas for creating your own, and all the info you need to add chords to an existing melody. Many songwriters love the chords-first songwriting process, for several reasons: Chords […]
