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#1. Getting past the rust. Write literally the most cliched lyric you can think of. Really squeeze that juice. Just write the most trashy, obvious, cliched thing you can muster. String together cliches. Write the cheesiest love song you can. Google “cliches you should avoid”, and then unavoid them. Aim for a Verse and Chorus.…
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And do your creative work this year As writers, creators, artists, and musicians, we all have the same ugly little inner voices that try to sabotage us from doing our work. They come in different flavors: You’re not good enough. You have nothing important to say. This is boring. Ssssleep is sooooo much better than…
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We have just released (as in, literally JUST published) our second online mini course: The Art of Co-Writing and Collaboration. The course is a tour through the co-writing process, divided into 3 sections: Preparation, Process, and Professional Practice. We’ve brought together our best insights into successful collaborations from over 20 years in a variety of co-writing…
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There are so many amazing wonderful songs that absolutely do not have a chorus! A few that come to mind immediately: Blackbird, by The Beatles The Mother, by Brandi Carlile America, by Simon & Garfunkel Will You Love Me Tomorrow, by Carole King And more recently, Nothing, by Bruno Major. What these songs DO have…
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When we are talking about ‘ideas’ in songs, it’s helpful to draw this distinction: There is the ‘big idea’ – the broad story, experience, or concept we want to write about. What Jimmy Webb is talking about here is when the BIG IDEA becomes a SONG IDEA. What’s the difference? A SONG IDEA isn’t just…
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There’s more to life than the major key and the minor key. I’ve been thinking about this a lot in the past few weeks, listening to Sam Smith and Kim Petras’s new song, Unholy, which was topping the global charts (until Taylor Swift released Midnights a week or so ago). I wrote in a previous post…
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I got a phone call from my friend Benny the other night (Benny, who I make videos with on all things songwriting). He was very excited: “Kep! You have got to listen to the new Sam Smith song! It’s in…Phrygian!” What the hell is Phrygian, and why is this so exciting? Well, music nerds, Phrygian…