Microphone

Using the Range of Your Melody to Create Musical Energy

For those who don’t create (write or perform) songs, they’d probably have a simple answer to how you generate musical energy: turn up the volume! But if you’ve been a musician for a while, whether that’s writing songs, or being involved in producing or playing them, you likely know that there’s a lot more you […]

Lang Lang, piano

…And On the Other Hand…

A few days ago I wrote a post in which I talked about the chords-first method of songwriting (“Giving Your Melodies Some Shape in the Chords-First Songwriting Process“), and warning of the main pitfall of this process: the ignored and uninteresting melody that might result. As in all things in songwriting, you can find exceptions […]

singer-songwriter

5 Tips for Writing a Verse-Only Song

You can spend a lot of time worrying about how to get a verse and a chorus to work well together, but don’t forget the other option: consider writing a song that doesn’t use a chorus at all. Sometimes the melody for that kind of song will end with a kind of repeating refrain, like […]

Songwriting: Melody and lyrics

Finding a Great Melody By Experimenting With How You Say Your Lyric

Lyrics and melodies go hand in hand when you’re writing songs. In truth everything needs to partner up well in order for a song to sound great, but that particular partnership between lyrics and melody is perhaps one of the most crucial ones. But how do you ensure that your melody is properly supporting both the […]

Singer-songwriter

How the Shape of a Melody Affects the Mood of a Song

If you’re ready to take your songwriting to its highest level possible, you need “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle.” Get the manuals that thousands of songwriters are using. When we talk about a melody’s shape we’re talking about how it moves up and down. That concept of shape becomes more obvious if you […]

Studio microphone

Solving a Common Melody Problem in Your Songwriting

A good melody needs to be memorable and at least somewhat easy for the average listener to sing or hum. Someone singing and humming a tune as they walk down the street is one of the proofs that a melody has done its job. When you hear a problem with your song, but don’t know […]