3 Powerful Activities Guaranteed to Improve Your Musical Ear

If you’ve got a bit of a tin ear, it doesn’t mean you’re unmusical. Try these tips for improving your aural skills. _____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and solve your songwriting problems TODAY. _____________ The ability to identify and label musical sounds is a very sophisticated activity. Just think about it: you listen to […]

Successful Songwriting: A Partnership of Song Components

No one song component lives in a vacuum — how well they work together determines the success of your song. _____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and solve your songwriting problems TODAY. _____________ When you glimpsed the word “partnership” in the title of this article, you might have thought that this would be another post […]

The Dominant and Tonic Notes: Creating Forward Motion in Melodies

Designing melodies that use the dominant and tonic notes to create forward motion _____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and solve your songwriting problems TODAY. _____________ Back a couple of weeks ago I wrote an article about Taylor Swift’s current No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together“. […]

Creating a Song Format That’s Just a Little Different

Try these easy modifications in standard song structure that keep your music fresh. _____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and solve your songwriting problems TODAY. _____________ The verse-chorus format is by far the most popular structure in modern day songwriting. It’s easy to see why: it’s a basic songwriting principle to build energy as a […]

What To Do With Verse 2 Lyrics

If your song isn’t telling a story as such, what should a verse 2 lyric look like? _____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and solve your songwriting problems TODAY. _____________ Because songs represent a musical journey, every moment along the 4-5 minute timeline needs to represent something new. Since verse 1 and 2 will usually […]

Why the Hook Is So Important In Pop Music

Classical composers almost never talk about the hook. Why? _____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and solve your songwriting problems TODAY. _____________ I’ve put a good deal of thought over the years into listing the ways that Classical music and pop music are similar. That activity has always been a source of fascination for me, […]