John Lennon: Underrated Melodist
I write this on what would have been John Lennon’s 85th birthday – October 9.…
The Master of Melody
Billy Joel’s been around for a long time, and I’ve had mixed feelings about his…
The Early Genius of Brian Wilson
As time has passed – it’s been 55 years since ‘the ‘60s’ ended – it’s…
A Good Melody Tells A Story – Without Words
A good melody tells a story – without the words. You may think it’s the…
Why You Need More Uptempo Songs
Some years back I heard songwriter/music publisher Eric Beall talk about the value of uptempo…
Where Should Your Song’s Title Go?
What’s a Title-based song? I’d say one in which the Title phrase – of words…
How To Make 3 Chords Explode
Lately I’ve been hearing a lot of vintage Rolling Stones’ songs in various places… and…
How To Fix a ‘Key’ Problem With Your Song
The key in which you write a song often occurs randomly. You happen to start…
How To Keep Your Melody Alive
A good melody tells a story. It doesn’t just help tell the story of the…
Let The Words Change The Melody
We songwriters spend a lot of time contending with what I call the ‘crossword puzzle’…
Take The Great Leap In Your Songwriting
Melodies are a songwriter’s secret weapon. More than any other part of a song, a…
News Flash: You Can Improve Your Melodies!
It may seem too obvious to say that melodies, like all other aspects of a…
How To Come Up With A Great Intro
Catchy. You want your Intro to catch people, to grab them, to pique their interest.…
How To Change Keys Without Modulating
‘I Can’t Tell You Why’ is a classic song written by Timothy B. Schmit, Glenn…
Pedaling the Bass
When chords change and the bass note stays the same under the moving chords, that’s…
Details and Trade-Offs
The big ideas in a song are most important – the Chorus, the Hook, the…
Just A Simple Blues Melody?
Melodies are fascinating. Probably the most mysterious – and often under-explored, by us writers –…
How Billie Eilish + James Bond = an Oscar
I’m impressed by how Billie Eilish and her co-writer/brother Finneas O’Connell managed to craft a…
How To Make A Monotonous Melody Work
Regarding melodies, motion and variety are In most cases a good thing. A melody tells…
Lennon… or McCartney…?
It’s happened to me before. I fall into the trap of comparing the relative value…
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