Remember when you learned to ride your first bicycle? It wasn’t easy. You fell down a lot, but you kept trying. At first you needed someone to hold on, keeping you steady. Then you used training wheels to help you stay upright as you pedaled. Then, finally, you were able to ride on your own. You had found that complicated thing called balance. After that, it was a breeze! The process of writing songs is a lot like riding a bike. Continue

Posted by Jessica Brandon on Mon, Jun 23, 2014 @ 02:04 PM THE MISSING LINKby John Capek Popular songs as we know them today perhaps found their shape and form with one of the seminal founders of American popular music, Stephen Foster. Stephen Foster is often credited as “America’s First Composer” and widely regarded as one of the first who made professional songwriting profitable. Foster wrote songs that we often mistakenly think of as folk songs. His songs include:“OH! SUSANNA”, “OLD Continue

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

   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

Posted by Jessica Brandon on Tue, Apr 22, 2014 @ 01:10 PM By Eric AlexandrakisA rogues’ gallery of slipups every recording songwriter should avoid!They’re everywhere, like cheap wine in a crinkly brown Mini-mart bag. Some think they look cool walking around drinking out of it, but in the end, it shows no control… no discipline… no clue. Yes, you know what I’m talking about. Or do you?I see them every day: those constant mistakes that artists make without thinking. Some Continue