The Human Voice and Key Choice

“The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle” covers every aspect of how to write great songs. Contains a Study Guide that keeps you focused on becoming a consistently better songwriter. Get today’s FREE DEAL when you make your purchase. Click below for details. I was watching an interview with Phil Collins, and he was talking […]

Recording Studio - Producer

8 Tips For When All You’ve Got Is One Good Song Idea

How often does this happen to you: You sit down with your guitar, and within moments you’ve got something nice. A great little hook, a riff, or some other kind of musical idea. You play it over and over and it sounds great. And then you draw a blank. And it doesn’t seem to matter […]

Keyboardist songwriter

Instrumental Music: What Do You Want Your Listeners to Hum?

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, […]

Is There a Time To Stop Writing Songs Forever?

Get the eBook bundle that thousands of songwriters are using to improve their songwriting technique. “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle” comes with a free copy of “Use Your Words! Developing a Lyrics-First Songwriting Process.” I was reading a recent interview/conversation with singer-songwriter Billy Joel on the Vulture.com website. In that interview he was asked why […]

Changing Up the Form of Your Song

When we talk about the form of a song, we’re usually talking about the arrangement of its basic elements such as verse, chorus and bridge. That word form, though, can refer to other things: aspects of the lyric, the design of a melody, or how keys are established and changed as a song progresses. Listeners to […]

Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen, 21 September 1934 – 7 November 2016

I was very much saddened, as I know most of my blog readers were, to hear the news of Leonard Cohen’s passing. His contribution to the world of poetry and popular songwriting is immeasurable; his music will be studied and performed for centuries, there can be no doubt. Over the past 8 or so years of […]