Do you like starting the songwriting process by coming up with a chord progression first? Every songwriter has done that — even writers that focus on lyrics as their strongest suit will occasionally resort to playing a chord progression, even if just to get in the composing mood. But here’s a problem you’ll often notice […]
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, […]
You really have to admire the producers of “Hunting Ground,” the 2015 documentary about rape on college campuses, for presenting a difficult topic with such unblinking honesty, courage and power. Just watching the film trailer will change you, assuming you didn’t already know the scope of the problem. Lady Gaga teamed up with hit songwriter […]
A chord is 3 or more notes all sounding together. Those 3 notes form what we call a triad, and they are the bulk of the chords that get used in most songs written in any of the pop genres (rock, country, folk, etc.) As you know, there are lots of ways to modify triads. One of […]
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 […]
