When a song is working well, it means that all its separate components don’t just sound good on their own, but they also partner up well with all (or most) of the song’s other components. In that sense, a good song is typically better than the sum of its parts. Some songwriters find chords to […]
I’m back home after an absolutely wonderful 2-and-a-half weeks in the U.K. It’s been the first proper holiday I’ve allowed myself to have since 2009, fourteen years ago. It felt very odd — almost stressful at first — not updating this blog for two weeks. Sometimes the best vacation you can give yourself is one […]
Hello all – I hope you’re all doing well as I write this short message from the beautiful Dartmoor region of the south-west U.K. I am currently on holiday here, which explains why you haven’t been seeing any updates to my blog. I’ll be here in the U.K. for the next bit-more-than-a week, returning on […]
I’ve made the point many times on this blog that the one aspect of your songwriting that will contribute most to the power and longevity of your songs is your ability to write great lyrics. It’s not easy to be unique in songwriting, and it’s definitely hard to come up with unique chord progressions. What’s […]
Lyrics become all the more powerful when they’re properly paired with a good melody. That’s what Chapter 5 is all about in the eBook “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting.” Polish your songwriting technique with the 10-eBook Bundle. This blog post is a kind of “part 2” for the previous article on this blog, “Moving Melodies […]
It sometimes happens that both the verse and chorus in a song use the same melody — or at least a very similar one. The kids’ song, “Puff, the Magic Dragon“, is a good example. It seems to fly in the face of the otherwise important principle that chorus melodies are typically higher, generating more […]
