5 Tips for Developing a Bridge (Middle-8) For Your Song

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 E-book Bundle. Become a top-level songwriter, starting now. _________ A bridge usually comes after the second chorus in a song, and it has many reasons for existing. Among those reasons, the introduction of new melodic material is probably the most important one. After two verses and two choruses, your […]

How Melodic Shape Can Support Your Song’s Lyrics

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 E-book Bundle, and kick-start your songwriting career! _________ I mentioned a couple of posts ago that good songs are usually better than the sum of their parts. Here’s what I mean. A good lyric can come across as stronger than it might really be if the melody and backing […]

After that Initial Great Idea… Then What?

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 E-book Bundle, and kick-start your songwriting career! _________ It can be interesting to debate the role of inspiration in good songwriting. I’ve written quite a few blog postings about that topic over the past few years. And to sum up my position: inspiration doesn’t really impress me all that […]

Good Songs Need That “Undefinable Magic”!

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 E-book Bundle, and become a top-level songwriter! __________________ There’s a similarity between songwriting and playing sports that bears mentioning: In sports, it’s quite possible to do nothing wrong, and still lose the game. More than getting it right, the successful teams have an undefinable “magic.” In that sense, a […]

Song Analysis: “Pumped Up Kicks” (Foster the People)

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 E-book Bundle, and become a top-level songwriter! __________________ Foster The People’s current hit song, “Pumped Up Kicks” is a good model for a song that uses one set of chord changes that serves as the progression for the entirety of the song. Our instincts usually tell us that using […]

Getting Power from Melodies that Match Bass Lines

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 E-book Bundle, and become a top-level songwriter! __________________ It may not occur to you as a songwriter to think all that much about how your melody line compares with your bass line. We tend to think of those two elements as being separate entities, with not much in common. […]