Rewriting your songs? What? Take my finished masterpiece, and change it? You can’t be serious! The A&R guy says “Fix this part”. The Producer says “What if…”. Even worse, your significant other says “It’s about me, isn’t it”? Alter the whole and utter zen of my song? Really? We’ve all read about the songs that […]
Tag Archives | songwriting class

Six Basic Elements of Song Structure
So, your mechanic is going to check the oil in your car. Does he grab the air-hose and head for the rear tire? Or, your personal trainer is going to work on your abs today. Does she hand you a cheese Danish and say “nice work”? Pretty silly huh? We expect the professionals that […]

Writing for a Singer – Key Elements When Writing for a Particular Singer
Writing for a singer can be challenging. Knowing a great deal about the voice and the personality you are writing for is essential. If you’re writing songs for a particular singer there are key points to keep in mind. Gender Obviously… this is one you don’t want to overlook. If you singer is male, is […]

Writing a Song – 8 Ways to Boost Your Own Creative Abilities
There’s no question that the act of writing a song can pose something of a dilemma to many musicians. The following tips will show you how to enhance your own creative abilities, when it comes to songwriting. 1. Consider your passions Lots of musicians over the years find their own passions from issues that affect […]

Great Reads – 15 Excellent Songwriting Books
There are reams of great songwriting books out there. It was tough, however I’ve done my best to select fifteen of my favorites. I’ve chosen excellent books about the craft, skills building, and the business of songwriting. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to study ‘the science’ of songwriting to become successful. Let […]

For Innovation, try Alliteration – Alliteration in Songwriting
Alliteration in songwriting is a powerful tool in the songwriter’s gig bag. Put simply, it’s two or more words (consonants) that have the same sound, either adjacent, or separated by a word or two. Using alliteration in your writing can help make the lyric more striking, memorable, or more pleasing to the ear. Alliteration can […]

Writing lyrics – 10 Great Tips to Inspire
There can be no argument that writing lyrics is a very personal discipline – what tends to work well for one person will not necessarily be good for someone else. For some, it can take months to craft a song, while for others, it may only take a few minutes.

Creating a Compelling Song Title
It’s no doubt that an excellent song that has a fairly bland song title will attract far less interested listeners to it than if it had a really great title. With a good song title, it will draw in far more radio station attention as well as listeners. Here’s an example – the original […]

Songwriting Techniques – Vary the process
Generally, most people who enjoy the pursuit of songwriting undertake the task in much the same way. Music writers, as opposed to those who specialize in lyrics, normally utilize an instrument to improvise with the hope of eventually finding something that they like. The goal here is to create a completed song. But a better […]

Seven Steps for Songwriting Success
There’s no doubt that even the most talented songwriter experiences times when inspiration for the pursuit seems to go ‘bye-bye’. It’s a fact that songwriting is a rarely taught skill. Musicians are generally instinctive writers, taking their inspiration from both structure and form of the music they hear. They use inspiration to create a lyrical […]