What’s In A Critique?
Over a steaming cup of tea and some of the best sweet potato fries I’ve even eaten, I recently met with a past student and fellow songwriter of mine, Joy Gora, in Boston, MA. We talked about the craft, about the daily challenges and the victories we experience as we journey through the business. I [...]
Breaking Out of Your Current Style
If you’ve been writing songs for a considerable length of time, or even if only for a short time, you might notice that many of your songs have a similar style or sound. Perhaps it’s a tempo you write in often, maybe it’s the movements of your harmonies, or rhythmic pattern in your melodies, or [...]
Techniques for Tying Up the Chorus
Have you ever started writing a song, gotten a decent verse and prechorus down, then moved into the chorus and felt yourself losing steam as you tried to figure out how to tie up the section? Or, do you sometimes feel like your songs start strong, but somewhere in the middle of the chorus [...]
Baby, Baby, Where Did Our Craft Go?
I recently received an email from a fellow songwriter that raises some excellent questions about the relevance of what we write as artists to the commercial industry of songwriting, and I thought I’d share my response in a blog. The writer had read my book, Popular Lyric Writing: 10 Steps to Effective Storytelling, among other [...]
A Few of my Favorite Songwriters
Nashville, TN is the stomping ground of some of the best songwriters in the world. If there were graduate degrees awarded in songwriting, no doubt Music Row could sprout universities with top-notch professors as quick as major labels lose money. Because of the little big town feel, affordable living, and high quality of craftspeople living [...]
Great Songwriters: Reflections by a Legend
The first time I heard Thom Schuyler it was at the Bluebird Café. He was strumming along a little ditty in the round with songwriting greats Mike Reid and Don Schlitz. I was watching and listening from the ‘pew’ section of the café, the churchy benches in back where budding songwriters often go to catch [...]
Strategies for Chorus Writing
For a more detailed explanation of the tools I’m about to share, please refer to Popular Lyric Writing: 10 Steps to Effective Storytelling.
The chorus of a song is for some of us the first section that begins to take shape during the writing process. Whether we start from the title or a theme, focusing the [...]
Getting Songs Placed in Film and Television
If you’ve ever wondered about writing songs for the film and television markets, you might find this article answers a lot of your questions. Mike Todd, a wonderful resource and staff member in ASCAP’s Los Angeles office, shares some conversations he has had with several music supervisors about how to enter this exciting side of [...]
Common Songwriting Pitfalls
When I began writing songs, I remember the fear of sitting down in front of a blank page. There was a certain amount of trembling expectation, a sense of humility as I’d attempt to express myself through lyric and music. Nowadays, I still feel those same jitters, but with a great deal more foresight and [...]
Demo Production and Song Sharking
A student of mine recently asked a question that many of us consider as we embark on a songwriting career. I’d like to share it with you, and offer some advice from my own experience. The question is:
“Is it common practice for (unknown) writers to contribute some money to the recording costs of a song? [...]
