No one likes negative reviews. You put your heart and soul into the music you write, and then someone says that the lyric doesn’t work, or the instrumentation feels wrong, or they simply… don’t like it. If there’s a way to put your emotional reaction to a bad review aside, you’ll find that you will […]
Sometimes you’ll find that a song you’ve written will succeed even when it seems to violate some of the basic principles of good songwriting. It might be a melody that just lingers around one or two notes, when our instincts tell us that good melodies should have a nice up-and-down shape. Or it might be […]
When was the last time you had a talk with another songwriter? These days, especially when computers, iPads and smartphones play such an important role in songwriting and production, it’s too easy to isolate yourself and forget to communicate. Because one-on-one communication is easy to avoid, you don’t even know that you’re missing out on […]
Feedback is a tricky thing in the creative arts. Just because someone dislikes a song you’ve written is not an indication that you’ve done something wrong, or that you need to change anything about the way you’re writing. By the same token, if you only surround yourself with people who claim to love everything you […]
Go on almost any songwriting forum these days, or check out the Songwriting Reddit, and you’ll see that a large percentage of the interactions are people giving a link to their latest song, with a plea for the rest of us to “check it out” and tell them what we think of it. Having others […]
If you’re not familiar with the music of Jack Garratt, you’re missing out. Every aspect of his music is worthy of some pretty intense study: the melodies, the power of the vocals, the fantastic production, and then those captivating videos. I think what I like most about his music is his ability to create something […]
