Composing Song Melodies: Taking Advantage of Pattern Recognition

Humans innately recognize patterns, and are drawn to them. So why are you writing melodies without patterns? ____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and increase your song’s HIT potential. _____________ For most animals, pattern recognition is a survival tool, an ability to make sense of the surrounding environment. But we humans have an ability that most […]

The Role of Song Energy: It’s All Relative

Energy is what propels your song forward and keeps listeners interested. But it can be a subtle quality. ____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and increase your song’s HIT potential. _____________ It’s a basic principle of songwriting that energy should increase as your song progresses. The energy at the end of a song will usually exceed […]

Song Structure: When a Pre-Chorus or Bridge Is a Good Idea

Here’s how you know that a pre-chorus or bridge will help your song’s structure. ____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and increase your song’s HIT potential. _____________ The verse-chorus form is probably the most common in pop song genres, songs in the 3-6 minute time frame. Of those, many use bridge sections – that shortish part […]

A Guideline for Creating and Using Fragile Progressions

Fragile progressions have a charm that really works well in song verses. Here’s how to create them. ____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and increase your song’s HIT potential. _____________ In simple terms, chord progressions are either strong or fragile. A strong progression clearly and unambiguously points to one chord as being the tonic, while a […]

10 Top Features That Show Up in Most Hit Songs

Learn from history! Here are the ten most common characteristics of hit songs, no matter when they were written. ____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and increase your song’s HIT potential. _____________ If you’re a songwriter and you aren’t listening to music from a decade or more ago, you’re missing out on an amazing opportunity to […]

Switching From Major to Minor; Keep the Same Melody

Balancing major and minor within the same song is a great way to make use of the contrast principle. ____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and increase your song’s HIT potential. _____________ When you choose a key for your song, the main factor is usually vocal range. You don’t often have to think about whether a […]