For many songwriters, writing a chorus is a logical first step. It’s the part with the hook, and you can make great use of repetition to come up with something that’s catchy and memorable. If you’ve started your song with the chorus, the next section you’ll work on is verse 1. That’s because whatever emotions […]
As a student of music composition a number of years ago, I never wrote a piece of music for which somebody didn’t express an intense dislike. Those were pre-internet days, so I didn’t have to deal with online trolls, who can demolish your confidence if you let them. The key phrase there is “if you let them.” It […]
I use the word “fragile” when talking about certain kinds of chord progressions. “Fragile” usually means that the tonic chord less than obvious. In that context, here’s a list of chord progression characteristics that might result in a “fragile” progression: “Fragile” may mean that it uses a lot of chords that don’t exist naturally in the song’s key. For […]
Everyone knows that if you want to improve, you need to know what the masters know. And that applies to every area of endeavour. If you want to be a better painter, baseball player, plumber, politician, teacher, musician… you need to study the masters. We have what might be called an embarrassment of riches in […]
I want to wish all of you, my loyal readers and followers, a heartfelt Happy New Year! I hope 2016 is the best year yet, and I hope you double your fan base! 🙂 And if you’re serious about pulling out the stops and making 2016 your best year yet as a songwriter, here are 3 points […]
Over on the Quote Investigator website you can read interesting research of the adage, “Easy reading is damn hard writing.” It’s commonly ascribed to the 19th century American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, but it probably existed long before he said it. I love that quote, because it sums up, in my opinion, the problems we face when trying to write […]
