Folk Band concert

Stop Playing Catch-Up – Keep Your Songs on the Cutting Edge

If you spend any time at all listening to or reading interviews from top-level singer-songwriters, you’ll find that they spend a lot of time talking about other songwriters. That’s because for the most successful artists in the business, it’s always about knowing what else is going on in their genre, and trying to stay ahead of […]

Guitar and piano - chord progressions

5 Creative Ways to Use a Chord Progression Formula

Ever try playing a good chord progression backwards? It doesn’t always work, but it’s worth the time to experiment. When you do something in songwriting the same way each time, it’s called using a formula, and it’s not usually the kind of thing a songwriter should be aspiring to do. But there is one exception, […]

New Songwriting Video: How Keys and Chords Relate

New instructional songwriting video is up on YouTube! ____________ Get “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and take your songwriting further than you’ve ever taken it before. ____________ I’ve not done many instructional videos, mainly because it takes a fair bit of time. But I’ve decided that for some songwriting concepts, video might be […]

Turning Thoughts, Feelings and Opinions into Lyrics

Turning a thought or opinion into a lyric is easier if you start by writing a short story. ____________ “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” eBook Bundle packages will take your songwriting further than you’ve ever taken it before. They include the eBook, “From Amateur to Ace: Writing Songs Like a Pro”. Read more.. ____________ In 1967, John Lennon […]

How to Deal With Songwriting Frustration

There is an important difference between being dissatisfied with your songwriting, and being frustrated. ____________ Take your songwriting further than you’ve ever taken it before. Get “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 10 eBook Deluxe Bundle, and get this special deal. ____________ As a songwriter, what do you do when frustration sets in? If you find […]

When the Feel of a Song is More Important Than Anything Else

Get “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 10-eBook Bundle. Discover why great songs are great, and how to use those secrets in your own music. Buy today and get “Creative Chord Progressions” FREE. In the last post, we saw that contrast in modern pop music has a lot to do with melodic shape and chords, and not […]