I talk a lot about the concept of “fragile” versus “strong” in songwriting, and particularly when I’m talking about chord progressions. In that regard, “strong” means “clearly indicating the key with a short, unambiguous set of chord changes.” With chords, “fragile” means the opposite: making the key less clear — less obvious, by creating a […]
It makes sense that if you want good feedback on your songs, you’ll want to run them by good, experienced songwriters. After all, they’ve been there; they know the struggles it takes to get a song working, and can (hopefully) pass their experience on to you. But have you considered musicians other than songwriters as […]
A number of years ago I taught aural skills (ear training) at Dalhousie University. As part of that course, students had to listen to melodies as I played them at the piano, and then they would write down in musical notation what they heard. As you can imagine, some students found this relatively easy while […]
When you think of the word meaning as it applies to your songs, are you talking about the picture that gets created from the lyrics? Or perhaps you’re talking about the picture that gets created from the sound of the instruments? For me, I pull more meaning out of the instrumental/vocal performance of a song than […]
There’s no way of saying how many songs a good songwriter should be writing. Some are fast writers, and can get a complete song ready in a day or two. Others (and it often depends on your genre of choice) may take weeks or months before they’re finished. Sometimes, though, the slow pace of songwriting might […]
I don’t know if you feel the same way, but I have a somewhat cynical view of the things I see online. I’ve learned (and hopefully you have learned as well) that you have to take much of what you see with a grain of salt, and do a bit of research. But of course […]
