Most songs have a moment that can be identified as being its climactic moment. More often than not, it’s somewhere toward the end. Climactic moments are sometimes easy to identify: “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (Paul Simon): You can hear the song constantly building, and, like many songs, is really a series of climactic moments, each […]
One of the most potent strengths of being human is the ability to be creative. There’s a wonderful sense of empowerment that comes from assembling something beautiful out of what seemed to be disorder. Songwriters know this; I’ve heard many describe their songwriting as a kind of therapy for the soul. Finishing a song feels […]
There is a lot to be said for the chords-first songwriting process, not the least of which is the fact that when you start vamping on a chord progression, a mood usually becomes quickly obvious. And once you’ve got the mood of the music, a topic will often be easier to settle on. And once […]
If you write your own lyrics, I hope you know the value of creating word lists. One benefit is obvious: once you have a general topic, lists of pertinent words will give you the basic vocabulary from which you can pull together a lyric. But there is another benefit that you may not be thinking […]
You’d be forgiven for thinking that we’re living in scary times right now. The media, both official and social, have a way of making it almost impossible to not obsess over it all. You literally cannot turn on the radio or watch network TV and not be watching something about COVID-19. That kind of saturation makes […]
If you’re the kind of songwriter who can’t even imagine starting the day off by writing music, I hope you’ll consider at least giving it a try. You may have always considered yourself an evening/nighttime songwriter, but radically changing that can offer impressive results. Trying to get a handle on writing song lyrics? Discover the […]
