Using Metaphor to Build Song Ideas
If you are Object Writing or Destination Writing each day, you’re undoubtedly coming up with lots of material you can turn into songs. Many times we think we’ve got to start with a theme or topic clearly outlined to get a good tune. But, I’d like to show you how you might burst open another [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Music and Relationships
Musicians aren’t exactly famous for their ability to handle relationships well. The stereotype is that our art comes first, and that there is always a part of ourselves we withhold from our loved ones as we’re devoted to another muse. That may be true for some, but perhaps it’s impossible to distinguish whether it’s a [...]
Silencing the Critic
Songwriting like any other art brings with it a fair share of critics. After all, anyone can listen to a song and form an emotional opinion. In fact, music is an art that anyone can make, whether novice or experienced. Anyone can call themselves a songwriter by writing a few tunes, effective or ineffective in [...]
Time for Change: Expanding Your Writing Process
Keeping the ideas fresh and flowing often requires a lot of flexibility. It’s easy to suddenly find ourselves in a dead space, a plateau where all the shimmer is gone from our ideas. When this happens to me, I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve that will keep the pen in my hand and [...]
Write What You Know
I recently received an email from a songwriter bringing up a very important idea in the world of songwriting called ‘write what you know.’ It sounds so obvious, but in fact it’s one of the most difficult ideas when trying to make a living writing songs.
I’d like to describe this idea of ‘writing what you [...]
