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
Songwriting thought of the Day
What is your lyric’s focal point?
Songs have focal points, they take the form of choruses, refrains, or hooks. As a lyricist, a question to ask yourself is - 'what is my lyric's focal point?' Many professional lyricists consider the focal point to be the most important part of their lyric, i.e., they've thought about the one or two repeating words or phrases intended to stay 'in the head' of the listener! Some lyricists write entire lyrics around a focal point (or chorus). The focal point is written first, the rest outwards from that. Here's a great article on this very subject >>
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
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
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
