10 Top Features That Show Up in Most Hit Songs

Learn from history! Here are the ten most common characteristics of hit songs, no matter when they were written. ____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and increase your song’s HIT potential. _____________ If you’re a songwriter and you aren’t listening to music from a decade or more ago, you’re missing out on an amazing opportunity to […]

Strong and Fragile: Using Chord Progressions to Their Greatest Effect

So what’s the deal with strong and fragile chord progressions? What are they, and how do you use them? Answers here! ____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and increase your song’s HIT potential. _____________ If you’ve been writing songs for a while, you’ll notice something about chord progressions: they all tend to point to one particular […]

Creating a Climactic Moment in a Song’s Melody

Though many listeners aren’t consciously aware of it, most of their favourite melodies have a climactic point. Here’s how to create one. ____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and increase your song’s HIT potential. _____________ Whether people are aware of it or not, the melodies of most hit songs have a moment that can be described […]

Hit Songs Are Mostly About the Hook

How much material does a hit song need? Not a lot. Rihanna’s no. 1 hit “We Found Love” is mostly hook, and little else. ____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and get back to the basics of why hit songs sell. _____________ When you listen to songs on the Billboard Hot 100, you can start […]

Rihanna's "Only Girl (In The World)": Implied Harmonies and More

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle and discover how to write great songs. __________________ It’s important to hear things repeat within a song, but the danger is if something repeats so much that it becomes boring. The obvious answer is to have things repeat in slightly different ways, so that each time […]

Pop Songs Need a Groove, or They're Just Aimless Wandering

Written by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website Follow Gary on Twitter In the pop music world, songs need a groove, and that usually means that you need to limit the number of chords you use. A groove chiefly happens when the tonic (key) chord happens over and over again. Our musical instincts […]