Songwriting tips, techniques, and ideas
When I first began writing songs, I depended on my intuition to tell me when it was time to vary a song by adding a new section or introducing a new idea in the lyrics. My grasp of song form was …
Continue Reading about Dividing Space: Making Sense of Song Sections →
I first picked up a guitar when I was fifteen years old, but I practiced and played only sporadically for ten years. When I look back on that period, frankly I don't know what I did with all that …
Continue Reading about The Songwriter’s Compass: How to Set a Course and Make Progress Every Day →
In the previous post, I kicked off a series of articles that will run for at least another week. My goal for this series is to provide a comprehensive but succinct summary of the entire art of …
Continue Reading about Getting the Most out of Your Practice and Writing Time →
How Ruts Form Ruts form when you over-emphasize certain skill sets while neglecting others. It’s like a weightlifter working only his chest and not his arms. He looks funny with giant pecs and tiny …
Continue Reading about Bust out of a Rut with Creative Self-Sabotage →
This is a transcript of my first songwriting podcast, cleaned up a little and given headings. If you missed the audio version, you can download it here. During my senior year of high school, our …
Continue Reading about Transcript: How the Haiku can Improve Your Songwriting →
Andrea Stolpe is a hit songwriter, former student of Pat Pattison, and the author of a Berkleemusic online songwriting course. Throughout this book, she demonstrates her penetrating comprehension of …
Continue Reading about Book Review: Popular Lyric Writing by Andrea Stolpe →
Over on "Songwriting Scene" I found an interesting argument. The controversial question is: "Can chord progressions/rhythms be plagiarized?" Some say it's morally fine to lift a chord progression …
Continue Reading about Is it Okay to “Borrow” Chord Progressions? →
Many songwriters develop ideas in parallel structures without even being fully conscious that they're doing so. It's a reaction to one of the most challenging and persistent puzzles of songwriting: …
Continue Reading about Six Powerful Structures for Lyric Phrases →
You can begin a new song anytime you want. Is that good news, or what?! Every song has a humble beginning: at first, it's little more than a glimmer in its writer's eye. You can trace any song back …
Continue Reading about Four Easy Ways to Begin Writing a New Song →
When we buy and listen to music, we experience it linearly: the song moves in a straight line past our ears, from beginning to end. But the process of writing a song is anything but linear. It was …
Continue Reading about Try Index Cards for Non-Linear Songwriting →
Matt Blick has got a great project happening over at his Beatles Songwriting Academy. The tagline says it all: Sitting reverently at the feet of Lennon & McCartney...& then stealing their …
Continue Reading about Tickets to Write: Songwriting Prompts Inspired by the Beatles →
"Rhyme is an important structural and sonic element of great lyrics. When used well, rhyme helps us to control the pace of the lyric, where the listener feels conclusion of our thoughts, and …