Any creative activity requires the brain to be generating new ideas spontaneously. As a songwriter, you know that there are days when that feels easy and natural, and other days when it feels impossible. There is debate over whether or not it’s good to force yourself to write, even on the days you don’t want […]
When a song sounds great, we like to think that there’s a certain magic involved. But if you are a student of songwriting, as most good songwriters consider themselves to be, you’ll know that it’s not magic that makes a song great. A song sounds great when it follows basic musical principles. And we love […]
Everyone has their favourite songwriting process. For you, it might be strumming some chords and see what kind of mood you can create, and then come up with a melody. Or perhaps you like working out a bit of lyric, almost like a poem, and then see what musical ideas come from those words. And […]
An aimless lyric, as the term implies, is one that keeps changing its direction, so it’s hard for an audience to get a handle on what the song is actually about. It’s a common problem in lyric writing. If your own lyrics seem aimless, that’s usually because you’ve spent a good amount of time getting […]
Occasionally I write about the benefit that comes from analyzing your own songs. The biggest benefit that comes from self-analysis is that you get a clear picture of the kinds of things you like to write about; the words and phrases that seem to occur most in your lyric; the kinds of chords you typically […]
You’d be surprised how much of a strong role honesty plays in how your song comes across to an audience. Honesty, from a audience’s perspective, is simply this: Are you writing music that accurately reflects the person you are. You can spend an awful lot of time trying to figure out what your target audience wants […]
