Today’s world of pop music can be a very insular one, in the sense that many “discoveries” pop musicians make about what people like aren’t really new after all. I’ve posted an article from the New Yorker recently, called “The Sound Machine,” about how hits are written today. In that article, Jay Brown (president of Roc Nation) said: “You’ve […]
When you conjure up the first musical bits that will become your next song, those bits are likely going to become part of your song’s chorus. That’s because it’s most likely that you’ll find it easy to think up something like a hook than something like a verse or a bridge. And hooks are going to be the […]
I mentioned in my blog post yesterday that I was just about finished a new short ebook about chords-first songwriting. It’s now finished, all except for a final thorough proofread. It’s part of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 10-eBook Deluxe Bundle. Read more. Here’s a short excerpt from the 35-page “Writing a Song From a Chord […]
Many songwriters love starting the writing process by generating ideas from a chord progression. That’s a legitimate way to write, and it’s very popular. By starting with chords, you lay down what is in effect a landscape upon which you can place other items. I’ve been working on a new short manual for songwriters who […]
This month (February 2016) is Country Month at Toontrack, online maker of sample-based software and other songwriting tools. I’m honoured to have been asked to write an article for their Country Month launch, and they’ve posted Part 1 over on their site. Here’s a short excerpt: Has Technology Changed the Nature of Music? PART 1 Only […]
It’s easy to see songwriting as a kind of problem-solving activity. The problem? Well, coming up with a finished song of course. And every decision you make – in a sense, every problem you solve – moves you closer to the end product: a completed song. But this kind of activity differs from most other problem-solving activities in the sense […]
