A lot of times, creating a contrast in your melody is a great way to keep your melody interesting throughout your song. This is particularly true as you travel from one section of your song to another. For example, melodic contrast is key when going from your song’s verse to its chorus. Or from [...]

  Melodies are essentially composed of only two parts: pitch and rhythm. However, singers often infuse their own stamp on melodies with their unique vocal deliveries. While vocal delivery isn’t technically part of a melody, it’s an important part of infusing any melody with your own vocal sound. Vocal delivery can give any given melody [...]

  One of the things I’ve noticed while researching various topics for articles and blog posts is the lack of reliable statistics relating to independent musicians. It’s easy enough to pull up statistics from the Recording Industry Association of America but their data is largely related to what is happening in the main stream of [...]

  What makes a song emotionally powerful? Most often, the impact comes from a special combination of melody, chords, groove and lyrics. With Dolly Parton’s song “Coat of Many Colors”, one element seems to stand out most: the lyrics. Learn about this concept in the audio file below. Click Play: Using the Universal Human Experience in Your Songwriting [...]

  NOTE: This article should not be considered legal advice. It discusses opinions on copyrighting your music. Copyright laws are different in each country, so if you’re unsure about how something will affect you specifically, please contact a lawyer for how to proceed.   In this article, we’ll get into what you need to do [...]

NOTE: This article should not be considered legal advice. It discusses opinions on copyrighting your music. Copyright laws are different in each country, so if you’re unsure about how something will affect you specifically, please contact a lawyer for how to proceed.   Before we get into exactly what you need to do to protect [...]

As passionate as we are about our songwriting, the reality is that sometimes it’s difficult to motivate ourselves to write. Whether it’s the fear of plumbing our emotional depths or just good old fatigue after a long day, there are often obstacles to overcome when it’s time to write. While flashes of inspiration are great, [...]

  The other day I was browsing around the wonderful online world, when my eyes got fixed on a new blog post from Derek Sivers. He was talking about his adventures in online business, and his experiments into whether or not it’s better to focus your efforts locally or go for the global market.   [...]

  In this video, you’ll learn an easy technique for writing effective, singable melodies your listeners will be singing, even after your song is over. Watch it here:  

When I’m putting together a song, I always like to plan out each section of the song, before I put pen to paper to write the lyrics. I find it helps to keep the song focused. A lot of songwriters just write line after line until they’ve filled up a song, but a lot of [...]

  In this video, you’ll learn how to write a song in any style by modeling the style of songs you already like.  

  In this video, you’ll learn how to get the full potential of your lyrics based on where you put them in your music. This technique will help your listeners better relate to the lyrics you’re singing.  

  You may have heard me discuss why a strong opening line is an important gateway into your story. A great lyrical introduction is an excellent way to get your listeners interested in your story right off that bat. Plus, if it’s a snoozer, you run the risk of losing them. People have really short [...]

  I always love a great example of a strong use of prosody in a song. When the words and the music work together towards the same idea, you can create some really magical musical moments. This is especially true when those moments span the length of the entire song, for the most impactful listening [...]

  In this article, I want to talk about the use of grammar as it applies to your lyric writing. In most cases, it’ll be in your best interest to be grammatically correct when you’re writing lyrics, but as you’ll see here there will also be times to break that rule. So let’s look at [...]