In songwriting—as in all writing—events should follow a logical, believable sequence. Early on in Inferno, our main character Dante stands with his guide Virgil at the edge of a cliff. The pair must …
New Page: Table of Contents for the Dante’s Inferno Series
Good morning! Or afternoon, evening… whatever it is where you are. I just added a landing page for my Songwriting Tips from Dante’s Inferno series, and I thought you might like to check it out. I’ll …
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Lyric Writing Exercises: a 5-Day Workshop
Guest post by Maria Rainier If you’re anything like most songwriters, you’re all too familiar with that frustrating sensation of being stuck in a rut. You know it’s important to write something – …
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What’s Your Songwriting Goal for 2011?
Matt Blick e-mailed me just after January 1st, asking what my songwriting goals are going to be over the coming year. Hmm. What’d I accomplish in 2010? Wrote ~150 songwriting articles for this …
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Your Impact as a Songwriter
The experiences you create are the moments that define you. We'll miss you when you're gone, because we will always remember the mark you made on us. There's a sign on most squash courts …
The Art of the Listener
(Raimon) discusses the art of the listener (li auzidor) and [their] responsibility to understand the troubadour works. Raimon's insistence that the audience understand what is sung and that they keep …
Songwriting Tips from Dante’s Inferno: Sensory Images and Vivid Horror
In his timeless Inferno, Dante Alighieri uses sensory imagery to immerse us in his dark underworld: the far-off wailing of the damned; the bubbling of a dark purple river of blood; the orange glow and …
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Songwriting Tips from Dante’s Inferno: Structure Controls Pace
Dante’s thought tends to conclude at the end of each tercet… [which] clearly determines the “pace” of the writing; i.e., the rate at which it reveals itself to the reader. -Inferno translator John …
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Songwriting Tips from Dante’s Inferno: Rhymes Should Sound Natural
“I have not hesitated to use a deficient rhyme when the choice seemed to lie between forcing an exact rhyme and keeping the language more natural.” -Inferno translator John Ciardi If you’ve been …
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Songwriting Lessons From Dante’s Inferno: Write Conversationally
Here’s one translator’s comment on Dante’s writing style in his Inferno: “…it seeks to avoid elegance simply for the sake of elegance. And overwhelmingly it is a spoken tongue.” –translator John …
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What is a Hook?
A “hook” in songwriting is simply a short phrase or passage that grabs a listener’s attention and sticks in their memory. A hook can be musical, lyrical, or both. In commercial songwriting, strong …
The Key to Being a Truly Great Songwriter:
Work on your art. Often. That’s the only way. If you’re like me, you’ll easily be able to provide half a dozen reasons why you can’t work on your art today. Most of these excuses are just symptoms of …
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