I’ve been offering private songwriting sessions for the past few years to interested songwriters, and every spring I put out a reminder of my availability. The fall and winter are very busy times for me as I do a lot of conducting, writing and adjudicating. But once May hits, I find my schedule pleasantly freed […]
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I recently read an interesting article written by Susan Reynolds, “Five Reasons You’re Experiencing Writer’s Block,” available at the Psychology Today website. In it, Reynolds make the case that writer’s block is a condition that we’ve created for ease of identification, and that it doesn’t actually exist. She starts this way: We’re going to go […]
A good lyric tells a story, whether that’s an actual “first this happened, then that happened” kind of lyric (like the stereotypical “A Boy Named Sue” – Johnny Cash), or whether the story happens indirectly, and we piece the details together, like Pink’s “Funhouse” (Pink, Tony Kanal, Jimmy Harry). A lyric where the story is […]
I’d be in favour of a name other than bridge to describe the optional song section that occurs after the second chorus. Maybe “section 3.” A bridge implies that its main job is to transition from one thing to another newer thing, and to make that a smooth connection. But a song’s bridge most often takes the […]
Most of the time, inspiration gets far too much credit. At least, inspiration as the term is usually used. We commonly think of inspiration as that thing or event that targets our emotional soul and makes us want to express our emotions by writing music. So we feel most like expressing ourselves when we encounter […]
