Guitarist - songwriter

Solving the Problems of Chords-First Songwriting

Chords-first songwriting is a bit of a modern invention. For the great master composers (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, etc.), composing was almost always about the melody, and so the process of writing music would start there. That’s not to say that composing music was strictly a melody-first process for them after which they’d come up with […]

Guitar - Songwriting - Teacher

Teaching Others Can Improve Your Own Songwriting – Here’s How

Does your songwriting process need some help? The eBooks in “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 10-eBook Bundle are meant to do just that. Check them out at the Online Store, and get “Creative Chord Progressions” FREE with your purchase of the bundle. If you’re looking for a way to improve your own songwriting skills, it […]

Songwriting successes and failures

Solving Your Bad Songwriting Habits

The Essential Secrets of Songwriting Online Store has the answer to whatever frustrates you about songwriting. Anyone who composes music — songwriter, lyricist, arranger, film score composer — is a creature of habit. You are a songwriter, and you know that this is true. You probably have your go-to way of working on songs. Those are […]

Singer - songwriter at the piano

How to Avoid Getting Locked Into a Predictable Songwriting Style

Every songwriter has a style. If you’re a well-known writer, that style may be part of what makes your new song immediately identifiable to your listeners, even before they hear that you’re the one who’s written it. More often than not, however, a song’s style of performance is what will give the song’s authorship away, not […]

Computer - Music Studio

Writing a Verse Once You’ve Got the Chorus

It’s common to come up with a chorus before you come up with a verse. That’s because the chorus is the section with the hook, the catchy bit that you hope brings your audience back time and time again. They’re repetitive and of relatively simple construction, so they’re often easier than other sections to write. It’s […]

Songwriting music paper

What Music Theory Does (and Doesn’t Do) For Your Songwriting

Many (perhaps most) songwriters have less than what might be called a working knowledge of the rudiments of music. Most create their songs on instinct — they write what sounds good, what their ear tells them they should write. So what’s wrong with that? If that’s working for you, why muddy the waters with something like […]