On November 3, both the CNN and BBC, as well as many other news outlets, reported new research, published in “Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts“, into the issue of earworms: what makes an earworm, and why some songs are more likely than others to possess the characteristics of an earworm. CNN refers to […]
There are many differences between classical music and pop music. Some of those differences are easy to hear. For example, pop music often relies on rhythmic syncopations and obvious rhythmic grooves, while classical music tends to use syncopation sparingly, and not in a way that sets up a groove. You’ll also notice that pop music tends to […]
Chords-first songwriting is a bit of a modern invention. For the great master composers (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, etc.), composing was almost always about the melody, and so the process of writing music would start there. That’s not to say that composing music was strictly a melody-first process for them after which they’d come up with […]
If you’ve written a hook, and most if not all of the following aren’t true, you’ve not really written an effective one: It’s got a short and easy-to-remember melody. It incorporates a catchy rhythm. It uses a relatively simple, short chord progression. It usually appears, disappears, and reappears throughout a song. It’s fun to sing. When […]
If you ask someone what they like about a song melody that they love, they’ll usually mention one or more of the following: It’s got a nice contour that explores a large range, from low to high. It’s got a moment (the so-called climactic moment) that acts as a point of focus for the entire tune. […]
How do you know that the chords you’re experimenting with are going to be the best choice for the song you’re working on? We know that certain chords — it’s probably more accurate to say certain chord combinations — create specific moods and support certain attitudes in a listener. So getting the right chord combinations is […]
