There are commonly-used words in the music world that have several meanings, depending on who’s using the word, and the context in which the word is being used. For example, you’ll find that the word “hook” can mean a short, catchy bit of music, but it also might mean an entire chorus — depending on who’s talking, and on […]
It may seem illogical to save bits of songs that you’ve determined are failures. After all, if you’re trying to write a song and it’s not working out, surely that means that the ideas you’re creating are simply bad ones, and you should toss them and try new ideas. It really depends on what you […]
Here’s a quick tip for writing a lyric that helps to ensure that your verses are descriptive in nature, while your choruses mainly express an emotional response to those descriptions: Choose a topic for your song. Make a list of words that pertain to your song’s topic. Circle the words that seem to be mainly […]
Most songs, if they are one of several possible verse-chorus formats, usually start with a verse, and before the 1-minute mark will move on to the chorus. The timing involved with this — i.e., the fact that we usually hear the chorus at or before the 1-minute mark, as you hear in a song like […]
As a songwriter, your hope is usually that once people have heard your song, they want to hear it again. That usually translates into sales, so the more clicks your songs generate, the more potential there is for monetary reward. It’s unlikely that anyone will want to listen to your song again if there’s nothing […]
Improvising happens in every genre of music you can name, some genres more than others. A jazz concert will likely feature improvisation as a key element in practically every song. In that case, we usually mean a sax player or guitarist that might take a solo. But improvisation, of course, happens in every sub-genre of pop music, […]
