Songer - Songwriter

Why I Like the Melody-First Process When Composing Music

When I’m writing original music — which is to say, composing, not arranging someone else’s tune — I practically always do some kind of melody-first method. When you hear a problem with your song, but don’t know how to solve it, you might find the answer in “Fix Your Songwriting Problems – NOW!” Get this eBook separately, […]

When Improvising Doesn’t Result in a Song

Do you ever find that you spend a lot of time improvising on ideas, but often not able to come up with a song? Improvising plays a crucial role in musical composition of any style, so what’s happening when you’re improvising but there’s no song to show for your efforts? An analogy might help here. […]

piano keyboard

How Interesting Your Chords Are Isn’t the Most Important Part of a Song

However you start the songwriting process, you’re likely starting with the aspect of music with which you feel most comfortable. Start with lyrics? You probably find words easy to combine and finesse. Start with chords? You likely feel most comfortable setting the mood and colour of the music. If you’re a chords-first songwriter, you’re probably […]

Songwriter improvisation

Can You Have Bad Songwriting Instincts?

When we talk about an instinct, we’re usually referring to something that’s born within us, something for which we have an obvious talent or aptitude. In common usage, we usually take the term even further and say that an instinct is something that we do without thinking. (“A bird flew toward my car as I […]

Guitarist - Songwriter

Songwriting and Healthy Self-Criticism

One piece of advice songwriters hear over and over (and I think it’s usually good advice) is to “silence your inner critic.” The belief is that songwriting can grind to a halt when you spend all your time finding fault with what you’re writing, before it’s even finished. Being critical, though, need not always be […]

Songwriter working at a keyboard

Writer’s Block: Getting All the Parts of Your Creative Brain Moving Together Again

Get the manuals that thousands of songwriters are using to polish their technique: “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle.” And download a FREE copy of “Use Your Words! Developing a Lyrics-First Songwriting Process.” There are days when coming up with good songwriting ideas just seems impossible. You shouldn’t let that overly discourage you, though. […]