If you listen to early Bee Gees tunes, you’ll notice how much they favoured slow tempos. Everything (well, almost everything) seemed to be a ballad. That’s not a criticism of their compositional prowess. But they were definitely, at least mostly, in ballad mode in their pre-disco days. Check out their 1971 album “Trafalgar” and you’ll […]
When you’re experiencing a creative block of some sort, one where writing is causing considerable frustration, a good solution is often to simply step away for a few days and let your creative mind have a bit of a rest. And during that stepping away, it’s good to keep yourself immersed in music. There are […]
The following is an excerpt from Chapter 3 of “Use Your Words! Developing a Lyrics-First Songwriting Process.” That eBook is currently a free add-on to “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle.” Poems don’t always make good lyrics, if only because the emotional ups and downs of a poem are often subtler than is required […]
There’s a list online of classical music’s most prolific composers, and at the top of that list is the Austrian composer Simon Sechter (1788-1867), who wrote more than 5000 fugues, as well as operas, masses and oratorios. Sechter is certainly not a household name. And it seems rather sad that his Wikipedia entry says, “His […]
A number of years ago when I was looking to buy a house, the real estate agent I was using was explaining some of the terminology to me. I found it humorous, for some reason, to find out that the term “improvement” was used to describe the house I was considering. As I understand it, […]
If hooks seem elusive when you’re trying to write a song, give this ebook a read: “Hooks and Riffs: How They Grab Attention, Make Songs Memorable, and Build Your Fan Base.” Get it separately, or as part of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle.” On CBC Radio 1 last week, host Tom Power interviewed […]
