Try This Method For Writing a Verse Melody

There are several important characteristics of good song melodies, even if those characteristics don’t all show up in the same melody. Here’s a few you’ll see in most songs that make it to the top of the charts: Lots of repetition, either exact or approximate. A nice shape that can be drawn as a line. A climactic […]

Writing a Song Melody that Works Well With a Lyric

There are times when a climactic moment in a song melody may not be necessary. ___________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and become the songwriter you always thought you should be. ___________ Do you find writing lyrics to be the fun part of songwriting, and melody-writing the difficult part? Sometimes you’ll find […]

Bach Would Have Been a Killer Songwriter

J.S. Bach’s ideas of how good music works still apply today, and (believe it or not) work amazingly well for today’s pop music. _____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-Ebook Bundle. 11 Songwriting Principles That Will Turn Your Writing Around – Guaranteed. _____________ For all intents and purposes, it’s easy to think of a melody as a […]

Is Your Song’s Melody Working? Run It Past This Checklist

If you can tell your melody isn’t working, but you don’t know why, this list will help. ___________________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-ebook bundle, and start building your audience base. ___________________ It’s often the case that the best time to analyze your music is when it’s not working. That’s because even though we know there […]

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 […]

Learning Melody Writing from 2000-Year Old Music

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-ebook bundle, and kick-start your songwriting career! _____________ It’s fascinating for a songwriter to look back almost two thousand years into the “ancient DNA” of songwriting. You would be hard pressed to listen to Gregorian Chant and hear any similarity to the music being written by today’s songwriters. But […]