One way to make a song stand out and grab attention is to create an instrumental hook, one that may or may not have much to do with the song itself. One of my favourite examples of how this can work is Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition“. The sung part of the song doesn’t really have a […]
Most songs consist of several sections that are all woven together to produce one coherent piece of music. The trick is to get all those sections to move seamlessly one to the next. Seamlessly, in this context, doesn’t mean that you move from section to section without realizing it, of course. In that sense, it’s […]
There are very few songs on the Rolling Stones List of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time that made it to the list because of their stunning chord progressions. Chord progressions, when they work well, should almost disappear into the background of your song. Occasionally it’s nice to throw a chord in there that grabs attention, but […]
Music develops and changes over time as a kind of evolution: it takes what’s happened before, copying it to a large extent, but making small changes that move in a slightly new direction. It’s what biologists call “descent with modification from a common ancestor” in their field. We like to think that the music we’re writing is […]
Back in 2008 I began a newsletter for songwriters, “The Songwriter’s Quick-Tips Newsletter.” My last edition was in January of 2014, but I’m happy to announce that I will be starting the newsletter up again, with the first edition of the new version to be sent out later this month. It’s completely free, and I’d […]
If you were to ask me to describe what makes a good song melody, I’d probably tell you this: On the whole, when you look at songs that have made their mark and have been held up as iconic representations of their genre, the following is usually true: They move in a mainly stepwise way. […]
