It’s a common technique for songwriters to write a verse that sits mainly in a minor key, and then switch to a major key for the chorus. The main reason for this kind of minor-to-major relationship working so well is that it considerably brightens the sound of a song. If you think of the verse […]
When you have difficulties writing good music, there can be any number of causes. Often we blame our level of creativity when there are other more likely suspects: fatigue, disorganization, fear of failure, and so on. It’s tricky to blame our level of creativity because we’re inclined to believe that creativity is similar to a pool […]
What does the word energy mean in music, and what role does it play? There are several possible ways to use that word when discussing music, and songwriting in particular. Energy might involve any, or a combination of, the following: Loudness; we think of louder music as being more energetic. Tempo; energetic music is often faster. Instrumentation; in […]
Many songwriters will find the chorus to be easier to write than the verse. That’s because a chorus design is typically simpler than that of a verse. In particular: A chorus melody features repetitive hook-like cells that are easy to sing and easy to remember. A chorus chord progression targets the tonic chord (i.e., they’re […]
A few weeks back I wrote about the need to save your failed songs. That’s because you might be surprised how something that sounds completely lame in one setting will sound much better in a different one, and it’s important to leave that option open. That’s got me thinking about something similar today: our negative […]
The following is an excerpt from “Beating Songwriter’s Block: Jump-Start Your Words and Music“, Chapter 6: Verses, Choruses, Bridge: The Moving Parts. It’s a book I wrote two years ago, published by Backbeat Books, a subsidiary of Hal Leonard Corporation: Music, in all the diverse ways in which songwriters create it, comes from what could be thought […]
