Posted by Jessica Brandon The Most Important Thing Is Everything by Barbara Cloyd If your goal is for your songs to be hits on Country radio there are a lot of factors to consider when you write. Does every line make sense? Do they all work together to support one main idea? Is the language conversational? Is there a solid rhyme scheme? Is the melody memorable? Is the chorus catchy? That’s just a small sampling of what it takes for Continue
Songwriting thought of the Day
Writing a Melody? – use a starting point
Start with a clear idea or inspiration: Whether it's a feeling, a phrase, or an image, having a starting point can guide your melody creation process. What inspires you? Try letting it influence your melody!
Finding Time to Compose Is finding time to compose or write a challenge for you? I suspect it is for most people, at least some of the time, and so I offer some thoughts and suggestions on this topic: First, it helps to understand that composing is a skill, like playing piano, shooting a basketball, or public speaking. As a general rule, the more time spent developing a skill, the greater one’s level of achievement. Also, skill development proceeds Continue
Posted by Jessica Brandon on Wed, Jul 23, 2014 @ 12:48 PM Your Best Bet for a Smash Hit! by Ralph Murphy For a small business owner such as a songwriter/publisher, knowing the market is vital. Budgeting for success means looking at income (when it decides to come in!) and making informed decisions about how to spend it most effectively. Up near the top of the list of expenditures (almost right next to eating) are demo costs. The financial Continue
Capturing Musical Ideas By Sven-Erik Seahom Grab those ideas and turn them into great songs with the right tools “A song is like a dream, and you try to make it come true.”—Bob Dylan A song comes to us with a blend of three complementary ingredients: lyrics, melody and harmonic structure (chords). Each of these essentials supports the others, so while the lyrics may often directly refer to a particular feeling or emotion, the melody can actually help to emphasize Continue
How can one write better lyrics? Here are a few lyric writing tips and suggestions. 1. Is there a particular incident that you think may have some song value? Write a song about it. If it’s something you personally experienced, then that’s even better. 2. Practise writing lyrics that have nothing to do with anything you’ve actually experienced. This could really add more variety to your songs. Was it something experienced by someone you know? Write about it. 3. Take a very good concept and Continue
