Songs that use the same progression for the verse and chorus aren’t unusual, but when you write that kind of song you need to think about other ways to create contrast between verse and chorus. Most songs need that contrast, because it’s contrast that keeps audiences interested on a musical level. And chords often play […]
Choosing the key for your song usually involves, at least in the first instance, finding the key that suits your vocal range. Most of the time this isn’t specifically a songwriting issue as much as it is a performance issue. But there are other aspects of key choice that amounts to making a songwriting choice. […]
If you like the chords-first songwriting process, you need to read “Writing a Song From a Chord Progression.” It will give you important step-by-step descriptions of how to make this method really work for you. Get it separately, or as part of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle” If you’re having a day when […]
For most songs in the pop genre, the bit that you really love will be some short, catchy fragment. That fragment — the hook — is the bit that you’ll remember forever about that song. Long after you’ve forgotten almost everything else, you’ll remember that hook. “Hooks and Riffs: How They Grab Attention, Make Songs Memorable, […]
Let’s say you’ve come up with a hook that you think should be something that works well as the main flag-waving part of your chorus. So then you set about to write a verse that leads into that chorus. But once that’s done, and you play the verse and chorus in sequence, you find that the […]
If you were a novelist, you’d be hoping to write a “page-turner.” As you know, all that means is that the reader simply can’t wait to turn the page to see what happens next. Is there an equivalent to the page-turner in the songwriting world? That concept of anticipation exists in every art form, though […]
