I would like to think that every song written is perfect. But, in the real world, most songs don’t meet these lofty criteria and fail. Why is this and how can we tell when a song isn’t working? A song that doesn’t work is evidenced by when the listener becomes disinterested in listening. They zone […]
Tag: #songwritingworkshops
Songs are like children. They take on lives of their own. When they leave the nest, we never know what is going to happen to them. We never know who is going to hear our song, like it or not, get inspired by it or not, or record it or not, and we never know […]
I admit it. I love everything I write. Good or bad, it is amazing to me that ‘out of my head’ a song emerges. It’s a wonderful feeling to know that I created something from nothing, and even more wonderful when I hear a recording of one of my songs for the first time. I’m […]
In Listening To Songs – Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4, we explored how to listen for the HOOK, CHORUS, PRE-CHORUS. We talked about hearing these combination of song parts as key to knowing the structure of a song. The remaining part we want to listen for is the BRIDGE. Where does it live and […]
In Listening To Songs – Parts 1, 2 and 3, we learned how to listen for the PRE-CHORUS lifting into a CHORUS that included the HOOK. Hearing this combination of song parts is key to knowing the structure of a song. But structure doesn’t tell you what the song is about. What the song is […]
In Listening To Songs – Parts 1 and 2, we listened for the HOOK connecting to the CHORUS. Today, we will listen for the PRE-CHORUS. PRE means BEFORE – BEFORE the CHORUS. Simple! Then why is it that many songwriters ask the question? Where does the PRE-CHORUS née PRE live? The PRE-CHORUS precedes the CHORUS. […]
In Listening To Songs – Part 1, we identified the HOOK of the song. This was the first step in focused listening. Next is to begin to listen for the structure of the song, the outer shape of the song. There are a variety of structures, and to be able to hear them, you must […]
Today’s Song Tip Tuesday is about my favorite part of songwriting which is listening to songs. What do you do for a living? I listen to songs. How cool is that? A common approach to song listening is to play it, enjoy it and go on with life. But if you are a songwriter with […]
In What Can A Song Do? – Part I, I wrote about a song ‘doing’ ‘a bunch of things’. A song can make you want to sing and dance, it can awaken emotions and focus on particular subjects. But the ultimate power of a song is when it effects mass groups of people to ‘do’ […]
I’ve always felt that a song has great power. A song can ‘do’ a ‘bunch of things’. Do? Things? What can a song do? A song can make you want to sing along. Example: She’ll Be Coming ’Round The Mountain, African-American folk song. Oh, if you don’t know the example, may I suggest that you […]
