by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website: You can learn as much by looking at bad songs as you can by looking at the good ones. The problem is that it’s difficult to find a lot of bad songs to study.If a song has made it to the radio, it usually means that […]
by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website: The old adage, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression” is never truer than in the songwriting business. Audiences are somewhat fickle, and if you aren’t grabbing their attention pretty much right away, you’re wasting time, and probably squandering the only chance […]
by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website: Because songwriting is as much or more a craft than it is an art, I am a big fan of working and re-working songs. For most composers, the working out of a song from start to finish can take weeks or months. Any songwriter who says […]
Written by Gary Ewer, from the “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website: The word “modulation” is a music theorists’ term that means“to change key.” Changing key in the middle of a song is a great way to add interest and prolong a song. Done correctly, it can generate excitement and make a good song even better. […]
Written by Gary Ewer, Senior Instructor, Dalhousie University, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website. • Follow Gary on Twitter • Good songs sell! Check out “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle – available now at a 50% savings! ________________________________ The pre-chorus (sometimes called the “rise” or “climb”) is an occasionally-used element situated between a verse and a chorus. […]
All songs exhibit a balance between what could be thought of as typical traditional songwriting structures, and innovative elements. And this is quite a delicate balance; A song that has too many traditional elements risks being predictable and boring. And a song with too much innovation risks being just weird. It’s a dilemma because unless you can set your song […]
