Category: Music
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Learn to Turn Basic Chords Beautiful
Learn to Turn Basic Chords Beautiful There’s absolutely nothing wrong with using basic chords. After all, they’re safe, reliable and well-known. However, to truly make the most out of your basic chords, you have to learn how to make them interesting. In this article, we’ll take some of the most common chords on guitar and…
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Songwriting Tip #5 – Listening to Your Audience
Songwriting Tip #5 – Listening to Your Audience As songwriters, we’re often focused on the details of our songs and the creative process. However, it’s important for us to remember that our audience deserves to feel like they’re a part of our songs as well. Through analysing Queen’s song “We Will Rock You”, we’ll discuss…
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Step #3 of Writing Great Melodies – Use Steps and Leaps
Step #3 of Writing Great Melodies – Use Steps and Leaps A common trap that most songwriters fall into, is not making enough variations to keep a listener’s interest. In this blog post, we’ll explore the importance of combining steps and leaps to make melodies more interesting and emotionally resonant. This article is a summarised…
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Let It Go – A Lesson in Songwriting
Let It Go – A Lesson in Songwriting The song “Let It Go” from the Disney musical Frozen is a song that solves an age-old problem that songwriters face: how to repeat something, but make it get more interesting, not less interesting. So, whether you’re into Disney or not, take a moment to read this…
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Songwriting Tip #4 – Turning the Chorus into an Anthem
Songwriting Tip #4 – Turning the Chorus into an Anthem The goal in most songs is to shine a spotlight on the chorus, and really ensure that the hook sticks in our listener’s minds. In this blog post, we’ll analyse how “We Will Rock You” by Queen turns their chorus into a powerful anthem. This…
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Step #2 of Writing Great Melodies – Create a 4 Note Melody
Step #2 of Writing Great Melodies – Create a 4 Note Melody Songwriters commonly assume that using as many notes as possible in your melody is a great thing to do. However, the truth is that when you first start composing a melody, it’s best to limit yourself to using 4 notes from the scale.…
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Songwriting Tip #3 – Moving the Story Through a Timeline
Songwriting Tip #3 – Moving the Story Through a Timeline A common problem that songwriters face is not knowing how to structure our verses. Through analysing Queen’s hit song “We Will Rock You”, we’ll learn one of the ways we can develop the storyline of a song. This article is a summarised transcript of the…
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Step #1 of Writing Great Melodies – Figure Out the Scale
Step #1 of Writing Great Melodies – Figure Out the Scale Many songwriters often wonder where they should begin when trying to write melodies. In this blog post, we’ll demystify the first step to creating great melodies – figuring out the scale. This article is a summarised transcript of step one of our video “How…
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Songwriting Tip #2 – Using the Voice as a Percussive Instrument
Songwriting Tip #2 – Using the Voice as a Percussive Instrument Usually when we write songs, we focus a lot on using a good amount of variation between our verses and choruses. This is so that we can create a build-up of tension, followed by resolution in the chorus. However, it’s entirely possible to place…
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Writing Great Melodies in 7 Steps
Writing Great Melodies in 7 Steps Writing great melodies often feels like a mysterious art. In this blog post, we’ll break down the melody writing process into 7 simple steps. Of course, there’s no one right way to write a melody and these steps are just designed to show you the essential elements of melody…
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Songwriting Tip #1 – The Power of Simplicity
Songwriting Tip #1 – The Power of Simplicity As songwriters, we try hard to distinguish ourselves and create memorable songs. Unfortunately, many songwriters often feel as if things need to be complicated in order to stand out – this is inaccurate. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the power of simplicity through studying Queen’s classic…
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Discovering the Magic Chord Modulation
Discovering the Magic Chord Modulation The magic chord modulation is a powerful songwriting tool that can help us establish key changes and special moments in our songs. Here, we will learn what is the magic chord modulation, examples of songs that use it and how we use this in our own songs. This blog post…
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Songwriting Tips to Learn from Queen’s “We Will Rock You”
Songwriting Tips to Learn from Queen’s “We Will Rock You” “We Will Rock You” by Queen is arguably the greatest rock anthem of all time. In this blog post, we look at some of the songwriting secrets buried within its seemingly simple form. This blog post aims to summarise our video “How to Write a…
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Learning About Secondary Dominant Chords
Learning About Secondary Dominant Chords Although the “secondary dominant chords” may sound intimidating, it’s a simple concept to grasp once you understand the formula behind it. In this blog post, we’ll discover what secondary dominant chords are, have a look at some song examples and learn how to make this technique our own. This blog…
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Study Your Heroes
Study Your Heroes The importance of studying your heroes is often overlooked by most when learning the art of songwriting. Through this blog post, you will learn why studying your heroes is important, as well as how to use what you’ve learnt from them in your own writing. This blog post aims to summarise the…
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Exploring Minor Line Clichés
Exploring Minor Line Clichés Since we previously learnt about major line clichés in this article, we will now learn about its darker cousin – the minor line cliché. Among the topics we’ll discuss are what is a minor line cliché, examples of songs with minor line clichés, and how we can incorporate them into our…
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Balancing Truth and Fact
Balancing Truth and Fact A common struggle among beginner songwriters is the notion that they can only write about experiences that have personally happened to them. Here, we discuss how to walk the fine line between truth and fact when songwriting. This blog post aims to summarise the second part of our video ‘New to…
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Flip Method #1 – Replacing
Flip Method #1 – Replacing Clichés are convenient ways to express ourselves but because they’re so well known, they can make our writing sound mundane and unoriginal. That’s why in this blog post, we’ll be going through a technique called replacing, which will help you freshen up those old clichés you might be tempted to…
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How to Write a Song – Stand Out with The Bridge
How to Write a Song – Stand Out with The Bridge In the world of songwriting, the bridge holds a special place. It acts as a contrasting section within the song, introducing a new dimension and adding depth to the overall composition. In this article, we’ll explore the art of writing bridges and how they…
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Explaining Major Line Clichés
Explaining Major Line Clichés There are many techniques we can use to spice up our chord progressions, and the one we’ll learn about today is major line clichés. Some of the topics that we’ll cover include what is a major line cliché, and how can we incorporate them into our songwriting. This blog post aims…