Songwriting Feelings Aren’t Facts
When writing songs lately, I’ve felt… listless. Uninspired. My ideas seem ‘weary, stale, flat, and…
‘The Elements Of Style’ – In Songwriting
The Elements Of Style, Strunk and White’s classic and still magisterial book about written English…
Joni Mitchell: The Power Of Subtlety And Restraint
Joni Mitchell’s song ‘For Free’ is a superb example of storytelling in a song. It…
Creative Harmonization – Radiohead’s ‘Karma Police’
In a previous post, I explored making a simple melody more interesting by creatively harmonizing…
Right Now This Song Is A Mess… And That’s Fine
Life is a seesaw between chaos and order. Why should Songwriting be any different? There’s…
When THAT Is In Your Song’s Title
If you’re going to use the word ‘that’ in a song’s Title, it’s usually a…
Are You Giving Your Song The Steady Groove It Deserves?
Pardon the oversimplification, but people tend to respond to songs three ways – emotionally, intellectually,…
In Praise Of Songwriting ‘Mistakes’
Things sound ‘right’ to us when they’re familiar – when we hear what we expect…
On Doing Something 100 Times In A Row
The only claim I make for my weekly Songwriting blog is factual: this is my…
What’s the REAL Title Of Your Song?
You can call your song anything you want. You can use a word or phrase…
Harmonize Your Song By Not Listening To The Chords
When choosing chords for (harmonizing) a song, you can tell a lot from listening to…
The Title: To Rhyme Or Not? And, If So… Where And How?
In a song I wrote recently I was puzzled, not for the first time, about…
The Eternal Songwriting Question: Stick With What I Know? Adapt? Or Both?
The kind of songs I grew up with, the genres I loved the most, the…
Songwriting Day 2014: Put 40 Songwriters Together In A Room And Shake…
It’s interesting when you get 35-50 songwriters together for a full day, as we do…
Songwriters… Be Impatiently Patient
Ideas and inspiration are indispensable, but for most writers putting in the hours is how…
Places To Find Songwriting Inspiration – And Ways To Use It
It’s no surprise that artists get inspiration from other artists, both in their field and…
Confidence + Humility = Creativity
Most of the great musicians and songwriters that I’ve met and worked with have two…
When I Get Sick Of The Song I’m Writing
Songwriting, like recording, is usually a very repetitive process. I have to play the song…
When Songs DON’T Rhyme – Leonard Cohen’s ‘Suzanne’… and Others
The useful, musical qualities of rhyme are many – though that’s not the subject of…
What Makes A Song A ‘Song’?
Why do songs need structure… and why do they have the structures that they do?…
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