songwriting collaboration

When Are Songwriting Collaborations a Good Idea?

The FREE DEAL continues… Get “Use Your Words!” free with your purchase of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle”, and learn how to develop a lyrics-first songwriting process. First, the easy answer: a songwriting collaboration is never a good idea if it means making compromises that you aren’t happy to make. So if you’re […]

Is There a Time To Stop Writing Songs Forever?

Get the eBook bundle that thousands of songwriters are using to improve their songwriting technique. “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle” comes with a free copy of “Use Your Words! Developing a Lyrics-First Songwriting Process.” I was reading a recent interview/conversation with singer-songwriter Billy Joel on the Vulture.com website. In that interview he was asked why […]

Guitarist - songwriter

The Many Benefits of Speedwriting Your Songs

It’s exciting when a song seems to happen spontaneously and easily; within what seems to be a few minutes, you’ve written something that is, for all intents and purposes, a great song that’s ready for prime time. As you hopefully know, that’s not the norm. It usually takes a lot longer to write songs, anywhere […]

Write Way Too Many Verses, Then Choose The Best Ones

Sometimes just editing verse lyrics won’t give you what you want. It might happen that despite how many times you change a word here and there, you still wind up with a verse that’s weak in some way. It can be frustrating. So here’s a different way to fix the verse (and lyric) that isn’t […]

John Newman - Losing Sleep

Constructing the Bridge Section of Your Song

I’d be in favour of a name other than bridge to describe the optional song section that occurs after the second chorus. Maybe “section 3.” A bridge implies that its main job is to transition from one thing to another newer thing, and to make that a smooth connection. But a song’s bridge most often takes the […]

Guitar and paper

3 Ideas For Starting Lyrics When Ideas Aren’t Happening

No matter what your favourite songwriting process is, all songs start with you getting some sort of musical idea. It might be a fragment of lyric, a catchy chord progression and rhythm, or even just a short bit of melody. Who knows where these ideas come from… often they seem to pop out of thin […]