Letting Others Listen to Your Songs is Vital to Your Growth as a Songwriter

An important part of improving your songwriting skills is singing your songs for others to hear. Not doing this is like writing in a vacuum, and your artistic improvement will be slow and restricted. Having someone else judge your music can be a very humbling and unnerving experience. It takes a lot of inner strength […]

If You're Waiting For Inspiration, You're Wasting a Lot of Time

So what’s wrong with inspiration? Don’t the best songs in the world inspire us? And so doesn’t that require inspiration? The simple answer is: no, songwriting does not require you to be inspired. And in fact, if youare waiting for inspiration, that could be the source of that pesky writer’s block that keeps raising its head. The role […]

Why A Good Chord Progression is Like Going for a Walk

Any of you who have read my e-books, particularly my chord progression e-books, know that I often use the analogy of taking a walk to describe how a good chord progression works. It’s a good analogy for many reasons. But here’s the main one: when you take a walk, the path you’re on is like the chord progression […]

How to Create Modal Chord Progressions to Use in Your Songs

The term “modal chord progression” may technically be a bit of a misnomer. But in common usage, a modal progression could best be described this way: a set of chords that points to a note other than the tonic (key) note. In other words, if you’re using what appear to be chords from the key of A […]

Giving Your Melody a Shot of Excitement – Can You Say "Appoggiatura"?

Normally, an Italian musical term from the classical music world would send any self-respecting songwriter running for cover. In this case, the daunting word “appoggiatura” can actually become your best friend if you’re trying to find a good way to inject some energy and interest into an otherwise boring melody. Here’s how it works. An […]

How to Write a Hook For Your Song

Written by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website. • Follow Gary on Twitter ________________________________ How do I write a hook for the song I’ve already composed? Is that possible, or must the songwriting process start with the creation of a hook? In a way, all songs have a hook if they’re memorable. A hook […]