Most songwriters know the benefits that come with creating a word list when writing song lyrics. And though there are several ways this can be done, most lyricists will create a simple list of words that pertain to the song’s topic. The benefit of doing this is that you establish a vocabulary that makes searching […]
Whenever anyone asks me how long it takes for the average song to be written, I usually tell them that it takes as long as it takes. That’s my way of saying that there is no norm. A song might come together in fifteen minutes, and it might take weeks or even months or more. […]
A bridge section, in a verse-chorus song, is the section that happens usually after the second chorus: Verse 1 – Chorus – Verse 2 – Chorus – Bridge… You also get bridge sections in songs that use one of the designs that don’t use a chorus, or perhaps use a short refrain instead of a […]
Chapter 5 of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” shows how melody and lyric need to work together. Learn how to do it right! Get the entire 10-eBook Bundle along with a free copy of “Use Your Words! Developing a Lyrics-First Songwriting Process.” An earworm is a tune (often a fragment of a tune) that gets […]
The music world lost another great yesterday: saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter. My first experience with Shorter’s playing was through my love of the fusion jazz group Weather Report, but he played with a huge number of well known artists from so many different genres: Miles Davis, Maynard Ferguson, Joni Mitchell, Carlos Santana and others. […]
It’s hard to talk about songs as being “good” or “bad”, since those terms refer so much to the taste and experience of the listener. What’s good for one listener might sound pretty bad to someone else. And that’s to be expected in the world of songwriting, or, frankly, anything in the creative arts. On track […]
