Get “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” Deluxe eBook Bundle. Ten eBooks that describe every aspect of how to get your songs sounding better. Read more. Follow Gary on Twitter Are you stuck, creatively? Everything you try to write just turns into garbage within 2 minutes? It may seem strange to say this, but you might not be […]
Pharrell Williams’ song “Happy” was the number-one single on the Billboard charts for 2014, and by any measurement you choose it was the most commercially successful song of that year, with 13.9 units sold. If there was ever a song that could be called an “accidental hit”, “Happy” fit the bill perfectly. It innocently inserted itself […]
A circle of fifths (CoF) progression is one that includes chords whose roots move up or down by 5ths. Dm Am Em Bdim, for example, is an ascending CoF progression. You can hear that there’s a pleasant sense of predictability that results from this kind of progression. There are many ways to use the CoF, including […]
A 1-hour TV drama spends at least the two-thirds of that hour developing a story that pulls the audience in and poses questions that they want to learn the answers to. As the show nears its end, you’ll be presented with the strongest, most spine-tingling event: the main object of the script. All questions are answered. For example, a […]
You may have just as many people who hate your music as love it, but that shouldn’t bother you too much. Hoping that everyone loves what you do is unrealistic. Any time you express your thoughts, opinions and feelings in musical form, people will react; sometimes in favour of your art, and sometimes against. The […]
Written for The Essential Secrets of Songwriting Blog by Markus Rill. Here’s age-old songwriting advice: Every now and then you are going to have to abandon or change a line that you really like for the greater good of the song. But here’s the kicker: Every now and then you are going to have to trust […]
