Written for The Essential Secrets of Songwriting Blog by Robin Frederick You’re Inspired! You woke up in the middle of the night with a killer first verse running through your head. You actually sat up in bed and said: “Man, that’s killer!” You managed to write it down before you forgot it. Maybe you even got […]
When you have an instinct for something, it means that you have an innate talent or gift for that activity. A songwriter’s instinct means that you enjoy writing, that it makes you happy, and that it satisfies you on an artistic level. And of course, that you find it to be easy (all things being relative, […]
Not all songs use a bridge — that short section that typically follows the second run-through of the chorus. In the earlier days of rock & roll, it was normal for that section (if it existed at all) to be 8 bars in length, hence the alternate term “middle 8.” These days, a bridge need […]
If you spend any time at all comparing verse and chorus melodies, you’ll notice right away that verses often centre in on one or two pitches. And it may not be that they sing those one or two constantly, but you’ll hear everything coming back, over and over again, to those couple of notes. A […]
If you spend any time at all listening to or reading interviews from top-level singer-songwriters, you’ll find that they spend a lot of time talking about other songwriters. That’s because for the most successful artists in the business, it’s always about knowing what else is going on in their genre, and trying to stay ahead of […]
Turning a thought or opinion into a lyric is easier if you start by writing a short story. ____________ “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” eBook Bundle packages will take your songwriting further than you’ve ever taken it before. They include the eBook, “From Amateur to Ace: Writing Songs Like a Pro”. Read more.. ____________ In 1967, John Lennon […]
