Epic Chord Progressions        by Daniel Ran http://www.danielran.com/ In this post, I’ll be going through some chord progressions commonly associated with a grand feeling, or “epicness,” with some examples of how they’ve been used in popular media. Expression isn’t strongly intrinsic to a chord progression. On their own, chords don’t do much and are reliant on the arrangement for their expressive power. Even if it is a simple Continue

AN INTRODUCTION TO COPYRIGHT FOR SONGWRITERS AND LYRICISTS (by Chris Connor) This month we are delighted to welcome Songbay Artist Chris Connor to our Blog. Chris is a professional  lyricist/songwriter based in UK. His work is in frequent demand on Songbay. Thanks to Chris for this useful article on the mystery of copyright! For more details of Chris’s work please see his artist page on Songbay-  http://www.songbay.co/artists/1396/   What is Copyright?   The Paperback English Dictionary (Second Edition) defines copyright as: “the Continue

We are delighted to welcome Songbay Artist Justine Perry to the Songbay Blog. Justine is a professional songwriter and lyricist based in UK. For more information see http://www.jpmusicandlyrics.com/ Sense Orientated Lyric Writing, Metaphorand Imagery By Justine Perry (@justine_perry11)   To introduce myself briefly, I graduated from Falmouth University in July 2013 after studying BA (Hons) Music Composition. I now work as a professional lyricist and music tutor. During my final year at university, I specialised in lyric writing. It was fascinating to Continue

INTERNATIONAL SONGWRITING COMPETITION FINALISTS ANNOUNCED   JUDGES INCLUDE TOM WAITS, AVICII, FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE, IMAGINE DRAGONS, DURAN DURAN, JOSHUA REDMAN, SELENA GOMEZ, AND MANY MORE March 6, 2014…Finalists for the 2013 International Songwriting Competition (ISC) have now been announced. Recognized as the most prestigious international songwriting competition in the world, ISC awards excellence in the field of songwriting. Representing a broad variety of musical genres, finalists were selected from 124 countries worldwide. To view the list, go to http://www.songwritingcompetition.com/winners   Continue

Six Ways To See If Your Song Is Ready  POSTED by CLIFF  Introduction One of the big decisions that we, as songwriters, have to make is whether or not one of our songs is ready for a professional demo.  In other words, is our song good enough to warrant spending the money and time necessary to make a high-quality recording? While our instinct may be to love all of our songs equally, the reality is that some of our songs are simply Continue