Songwriting, pen, music, lyrics

Adding Lyrics to Music: Solving Rhythm and Timing Problems

For those of you who find setting lyrics to be the easy part, you can more or less ignore this post and go on with your regularly scheduled life. But if you find the whole issue of setting lyrics to music — especially with regard to rhythm and timing — to be one of the trickiest parts […]

Gregorian Chant - Rock Music

How Gregorian Chant Reminds Us Of a Vital Principle for Setting Lyrics

A number of years ago I wrote a blog article called “Pop Songs: What Checking the Fossil Record Can Do For Us“. In that post, I made a comparison between how Gregorian Chant (the music of the early Christian church of about A.D. 500) bore certain similarities to the way melodies are written today. You may […]

Toni Morrison

Words and Music: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Over on the Quote Investigator website you can read interesting research of the adage, “Easy reading is damn hard writing.” It’s commonly ascribed to the 19th century American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, but it probably existed long before he said it. I love that quote, because it sums up, in my opinion, the problems we face when trying to write […]

Turning Thoughts, Feelings and Opinions into Lyrics

Turning a thought or opinion into a lyric is easier if you start by writing a short story. ____________ “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” eBook Bundle packages will take your songwriting further than you’ve ever taken it before. They include the eBook, “From Amateur to Ace: Writing Songs Like a Pro”. Read more.. ____________ In 1967, John Lennon […]

What Songwriters Say About Writing Lyrics

Stuck for words? Here’s what the pros have had to say about how they write lyrics. ______________  Looking for good songwriting content for your iPad, Kindle, laptop, desktop, or other PDF-reading device? Gary Ewer’s eBook Bundle, “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting”, will show you why good songs are good, and how to apply those lessons […]

Creating Song Lyrics That Make a Powerful Connection to Your Audience

At a minimum, a song lyric is working if it connects to the listener on an emotional level. Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 10-eBook Bundle, and increase your song’s HIT potential. Every song communicates something to an audience, and not everyone will necessarily pick up the same message. For example, you may hear a song where the lyric is all about […]