“Jar of Hearts”, and the Art of the Long, Slow Build

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle, and kick-start your songwriting career! ____________ Christina Perri’s single, “Jar of Hearts”, currently no. 19 on Billboard’s Hot 100, is a beautiful example of how to contour a ballad into a hauntingly beautiful musical journey. The secret to the song’s success lies in its subtleties. The song evolves […]

Focusing on Pitch Plateaus Ensures Well-Crafted Melodies

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle. Here’s how to get your songs working right away! ____________________ There is a particular kind of melodic contour that allows melody notes to sit mainly in and around one particular pitch. Pink’s song “Raise Your Glass” is a good demonstration of this. The beginning of each […]

The Impact of Lyrics on the Shape of a Melody

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting”. It’s FUN to become the best songwriter you can be! ____________________ Remember back in December 2010, Paul McCartney and Jimmy Fallon singing “Scrambled Eggs,” McCartney’s purported original lyrics to The Beatles’ hit, “Yesterday”? I was watching the video again today because I had been preparing to write this article […]

Strengthening Song Structure by Reversing Melodic Direction

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle and learn all you need to know about how great melodies work. __________ Contrast is one of the most important elements of successful songs. You want to contrast one section (a verse, for example) with another (the chorus) enough so that they’re distinctive, but don’t differ […]

How Melodies Reflect the Form of a Song

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle to learn more about how to create melodies that work. _______________ When we think of a song’s melody, we’re often thinking of it in the singular. The fact is, however, that most songs use a variety of different melodies, each one hopefully connecting smoothly to the […]

What You Need to Know Before Writing Your Next Melody

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-book bundle, and learn to write better songs! We usually think of good melodies as having a distinctive shape and a climactic high point. It may surprise you to know, however, that it’s possible to have melodies that use very few notes, almost no distinctive contour, and seem to […]