Neil Young

Simplicity in Good Songwriting is a Feature, Not a Bug

If you spend any amount of time listening to today’s pop offerings, you’ll be forgiven for thinking that mainstream pop music is steadily dumbing itself down. Lyrics often fail to inspire, melodies are less than inventive, and chords are usually simple and repetitive. Getting melodies and chords working well together is vital knowledge for any […]

Jonathan Groff

Telling People What You’re Feeling Is Tricky in Songwriting

To say it the way Barry Gibb of Bee Gees fame has said it: “Songs are about feelings.” If you aren’t causing your listeners to feel something when they hear your song, you’ve probably missed the main point of what good songwriting is all about. But there are many ways to deal with feelings in […]

guitarist - songwriter

How the Partnership Between Verse and Chorus Works

Learn how to take a song from faulty to fixed! “Fix Your Songwriting Problems – NOW!” It’s part of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle.” Get it separately, or as part of the bundle package. In songs that use the verse-chorus format, it’s the chorus that really needs to stand out and be memorable. For […]

Sting

Experimenting with Odd Time Signatures in Your Songwriting

A time signature is a way of indicating how the basic beat of a song is organized. By far the most common time signature (also called ‘meter’) is 4/4, or common time. Most of the songs you’ve heard in practically any genre are in 4/4 time. “How to Harmonize a Melody.” It shows you, step-by-step, […]

Song instrumental

Keeping Your Chords Sounding Strong and Creative

When a song is working well, it means that all its separate components don’t just sound good on their own, but they also partner up well with all (or most) of the song’s other components. In that sense, a good song is typically better than the sum of its parts. Some songwriters find chords to […]

guitarist - songwriter

Sometimes the Problem with a Song’s Chorus Is Its Verse

Lyrics become all the more powerful when they’re properly paired with a good melody. That’s what Chapter 5 is all about in the eBook “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting.” Polish your songwriting technique with the 10-eBook Bundle. This blog post is a kind of “part 2” for the previous article on this blog, “Moving Melodies […]