If songwriting is the kind of activity for you where there’s no particular pressure to get something written, there’s nothing like the freedom of starting and stopping as the whim hits you. The biggest problem with writing when you want to is keeping disciplined. There can be days (weeks? months?) when it’s hard to get something […]
Starting the songwriting process by working out chords makes a certain amount of sense, mainly for the reason that chords can provide a strong sense of mood. The theory is that if you can get some good chords working, and then pair them up with a rhythmic groove, you’ve got the makings of the feel […]
There’s an interesting history behind why pop songs tend to be 3-to-4 minutes in length, and it has to do with the nature of the medium: typically, a 10-inch record spinning 78 times per minute, as you would have had when rock & roll was in its infancy. That usually meant that it was not […]
Back when I was a music student at university, composition was my major, so I was writing constantly. My main instrument was (and is) trumpet, and so I was also practicing when I could get the chance, and I was involved in many ensembles. It didn’t take me long to notice something interesting: When I ran […]
As a songwriter, you’re going to encounter your fair share of frustration mixed in with the joy that writing music should give you. Writing something that works and sounds great gives you an incredible rush of excitement and confidence, and so when you find that your next song isn’t working, you can feel a bit […]
Last week, I wrote about earworm melodies, and how chords (specifically open cadences) can play an important role in keeping a melody rolling around in a listener’s mind. That got me thinking about songs in general: What keeps people listening to your songs? I’m not talking about the larger topic of what keeps people coming […]
