Rhythm and Lyrics: The Proper Placement of Your Words

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 E-book Bundle, and kick-start your songwriting career! _________ In songwriting, there are two problems that become immediately obvious if the placement of your lyric is wrong. You either 1) make your lyric unintelligible; or you 2) convey the wrong meaning. Words have a natural pulse, and if you […]

Good Songs Need That “Undefinable Magic”!

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 E-book Bundle, and become a top-level songwriter! __________________ There’s a similarity between songwriting and playing sports that bears mentioning: In sports, it’s quite possible to do nothing wrong, and still lose the game. More than getting it right, the successful teams have an undefinable “magic.” In that sense, a […]

Good Songs and Likeable Songs: Is There a Difference?

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 E-book Bundle, and become a top-level songwriter! __________________ In my opinion, the best songwriters are not overly trying to make their songs likeable. They’re simply trying to make their songs good. And for those top-level songwriters, you the listener can either come along for the ride, or miss out. […]

Writing Song Melodies That Use Pentatonic Scales

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” E-book Bundle, and become a top-level songwriter! __________________ Most songs are written in a major or minor key, and the scales for those keys use seven notes, not counting any altered tones. A pentatonic scale uses only five notes per octave. There’s a tendency to think of pentatonic scales as […]

Making a Complex Chord Progression Work

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 E-book Bundle, and become a top-level songwriter! __________________ If you’re the kind of songwriter that likes to experiment with innovation, you’re probably always looking for ways to integrate abstract elements into your songs. You are probably already playing with complex lyrical metaphors, nonstandard formal design, and melodic/harmonic combinations that […]

Getting Power from Melodies that Match Bass Lines

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 E-book Bundle, and become a top-level songwriter! __________________ It may not occur to you as a songwriter to think all that much about how your melody line compares with your bass line. We tend to think of those two elements as being separate entities, with not much in common. […]