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Songwriting Tips by Gary Ewer.
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Song Structure: When It's Right, You Don't Notice It  |
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| Thursday, January 26, 2012, 11:12 am AST |
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Back in 2003 I started doing research into pop music in preparation for writing “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting.” At that time, I had a number of students in my theory classes at Dalhousie University who were songwriters. They were keen to show me the songs they were working on, and I was very interested to help them. In fact, my desire to help them improve is what led to me... [READ FULL ARTICLE... ] |
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The Essential Secrets of Songwriting website shows you how great songs work. Read daily articles that explore the fascinating world of songwriting.
If you struggle with writing a great song, and you can't seem to finish any song you start, Gary Ewer has written a set of songwriting ebooks designed to get you doing the thing you love. Let those e-books be your guide. They'll show you how to improve your writing skills by showing you how lyrics, melodies, hooks, chord progressions, and every other aspect of good music works. The books take a look at hit songs from the past, showing how and why they became winners.
Along with tons of chord progressions and formulas you can use, you'll be writing the songs that you always knew you could write! The instructional e-books come with sound samples and a glossary of musical terms, so even if you don't read music, these e-books will clear up the muddle and get you enjoying songwriting again.
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Why the Hook is Vital in the Writing of Hit Songs |
Wednesday, January 25, 2012, 10:57 am AST Sometimes a song will become a hit to the surprise of the writers, performers and producers. But so-called "sleeper hits" - songs that rise to hit status unexpectedly - are actually not all that common. Suffice it to say, songs are usually greater than the sum of their parts, and so it can be a little bit unpredictable to determine which songs will become hits. But producers usually know... |
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Strong and Fragile: Using Chord Progressions to Their Greatest Effect |
Monday, January 23, 2012, 10:29 am AST If you've been writing songs for a while, you'll notice something about chord progressions: they all tend to point to one particular chord as being the harmonic goal. That harmonic goal is the key of your song. So if your song is in G major, the chord progressions are going to move away from and toward G. It's not unlike all the little walks you take during a normal day: they take you... [Read more] |
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Power-Up Your Chorus by Fiddling With Verse Rhythms |
Friday, January 20, 2012, 11:08 am AST Verses differ from choruses in several ways. It's easy to notice things like melodic range: we know that chorus melodies tend to be higher in pitch than verse melodies. We also know that verse lyrics will tend to be descriptive of people and situations, while choruses tend to allow a more emotional response. The difference also extends to rhythm, particularly as it relates to melody... |
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7 Tips for Changing Key Within a Song |
Thursday, January 19, 2012, 10:17 am AST The key that you choose for your song has more to do with your (or your performer's) vocal range than anything else. That original key choice is a whole topic that requires considerable thought. There's a notion that you should choose a key that allows your voice to reach all melody notes easily. But good performers know that you sometimes want to sing in the highest range possible... |
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5 Ways to Increase the Number of Songs You Write |
| Wednesday, January 18, 2012, 8:47 am AST If you're like most songwriters, you've probably got a ton of musical bits that don't have a home yet. Snippets of melody, a great bit of lyric, a chorus with nothing else... that kind of thing. And it's frustrating, because those fragments of music probably arose from moments of great musical inspiration, and then - nothing. It's important not to obsess about this sort of thing... Read more |
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Tips 'n Tricks: Chord Progression Guidelines for Songwriters |
| Tuesday, January 17, 2012, 11:30 am AST When songwriters go looking for a "killer" progression, what they're really looking for is something that's unique, and something that really clicks with the melody. But uniqueness can sometimes, or often, lead to shaky progressions. Whether we like it or not, what makes progressions work is a good dose of predictability. It's OK to have moments where strange, unpredictable things... Read more |
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Vital Features of Good Song Melodies |
| Monday, January 16, 2012, 3:30 pm AST There's nothing like succeeding in writing an "ear worm" - a melody that grabs hold of a listener and won't let go. It's very hard to define why some melodies do that to us, why some melodies just seem to go around and around in our brains. It can annoy us, but most of the time it's because we thoroughly enjoy that melody on some level. Good song melodies don't need to be ear worm, but... Read more |
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5 Reasons Your Song Might Use a Pre-Chorus |
Friday, January 13, 2012, 10:51 am AST A pre-chorus is the short section that sits between a verse and a chorus, and its main purpose is to build energy. A most recent example is Katy Perry's "Firework," with the pre-chorus starting with the words, "You just gotta ignite the light..." There are no rules regarding how long a pre-chorus needs to be, and no rules that state that a particular song must have a pre-chorus. Certain... |
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“Stairway to Heaven”, and 5 Other Killer Minor Key Progressions |
Thursday, January 12, 2012, 11:49 am AST The main deciding factor in choosing a key for your song is the vocal range. The reason is obvious: you need the song to be singable! If your song is in a major key, it's easy enough to find the 7 chords that naturally go with that key. Simply take the major scale and build chords above each note. If the song is in a minor key, you do the same thing. But with minor keys there is a... |
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Getting Your Song Lyrics in the Right Order |
Tuesday, December 27, 2012, 12:26 pm AST You might think that writing lyrics is a bit like writing a story. But there are important differences between writing prose and writing lyrics. The chief difference is that while stories are primarily concerned with recounting a story, lyrics have a special responsibility for creating emotion-based images in the minds of the audience. Sometimes those images will occur to us spontaneously... |
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5 Improvisation Activities That Generate Song Ideas |
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| I applaud the songwriter who spends as much or more time working out small songwriting challenges than they do actually writing songs. So here are some ideas for improvising your way to a great song. Read more |
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