Improving Your Musical Abilities: Music as a Language

If you truly think of music as a language, you can improve your songwriting abilities the same way you learned to speak. _____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and solve your songwriting problems TODAY. _____________ Recently I tweeted a video from TedEd that featured Grammy award-winning bassist Victor Wooten called “Music as a Language.” In […]

With Songwriting Ideas, It’s Fragile First, Followed By Strong

In verse-chorus formats, tentative ideas need to be followed by strong ones. _____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and solve your songwriting problems TODAY. _____________ When I use the words “fragile” and “strong” as they pertain to songwriting, I’m usually describing chord progressions. A fragile progression is one that has a certain degree of ambiguity, […]

Songwriting Tips and Tricks: Contouring a Melody

If your song melodies sound like random, aimless wanderings, here are some ideas for curing your problems. _____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and solve your songwriting problems TODAY. _____________ Take a look at any successful song melody from any era, and you’ll see almost universally that it has the following characteristics: A general sense […]

Writing Music Creates Its Own Inspiration

If you’re waiting for inspiration, you’re probably wasting a lot of time. _____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and solve your songwriting problems TODAY. _____________ Songwriter’s inspiration happens in two possible ways. The first way I would call spontaneous inspiration, and appears as a wave of creative excitement that causes you to drop everything, pick […]

Choral Music at Pantomime Music Publications

For those of you who are interested in seeing what I do when I’m not focused on helping songwriters, you may want to have a quick look at my choral music that I’ve published through Pantomime Music Publications over the past number of years. For the past few months I’ve been editing my latest choral arrangements […]

Extending Verse Melodies With a Minor-3rd Key Change

Moving the key upward by a minor 3rd and repeating a melody is a great way to extend the length of your verse. _____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and solve your songwriting problems TODAY. _____________ I wrote recently about the pre-chorus and how to effectively write one. One of the main reasons you might […]