A repetitious element, like a motif, adds important structural cohesiveness to songs of any genre. _____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and learn the 11 principles crucial to any songwriter’s success. _____________ In songwriting, there are two elements that owe their existence and noteworthiness to repetition. One is a hook, that repeating element that […]
When a verse and chorus melody use the same notes, the song starts to sound tired. _____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and learn the 11 principles crucial to any songwriter’s success. _____________ It’s important to write a chorus melody that sounds like an answer, in a sense, to the verse melody. That’s achieved […]
“Progression” in music causes expectations. What things other than chords progress in your songs? _____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-Ebook Bundle. 11 Songwriting Principles That Will Turn Your Writing Around – Guaranteed. _____________ The idea of chords progressing is a well-known one to us. But other song elements also progress. I’ve mentioned in this blog many times […]
Melodic repetition is a good thing, but works best if the chords are different with each repetition. Here’s an idea for achieving that. _____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-Ebook Bundle. 11 Songwriting Principles That Will Turn Your Writing Around – Guaranteed. _____________ Recently I wrote about creating chords and melodies in the dorian mode. It got me […]
A short primer on the creation and use of the dorian modal scale. _____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and learn the 11 principles crucial to any songwriter’s success. _____________ A discussion about modes can get very technical, so let’s look at a simple, immediately useful definition of modal scales. For our purposes, a scale […]
Chords need to do 2 things: 1- Support the melody, and 2- establish and reinforce the key. _____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and learn the 11 principles crucial to any songwriter’s success. _____________ This is a bit of a follow-up to a previous post, “Making Chord Progressions By Categorizing Them.” In that article, […]
