Category: Music
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Write Small Moments, Not Big Themes
Write Small Moments, Not Big Themes A common pitfall of many songwriters is to try and tackle grand themes from the start. In this blog post, we’ll discuss what that means, how to avoid it and some exercises to help you practice avoiding this mistake. This blog post aims to summarise the first part of…
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How to Write Your Best Lyrics: The Flip Method
Explaining the Flip Method Tired of your lyrics? Can’t seem to create anything that sounds interesting or original? Well you’re in luck because this blog post is all about helping you break free of cliched lyrics so you can start writing better songs!This blog post aims to summarise our video “The Crazy Easy Trick to…
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How to Write a Song – A Catchy Chorus
How to Write a Song – A Catchy Chorus When it comes to songwriting, the chorus plays a crucial role in capturing the listeners’ attention and making a lasting impact. In this article, we will explore three essential tips that can help you create a chorus that hits hard and resonates with your audience. By…
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Chord Tricks to Learn from “Something” by The Beatles
Chord Tricks to Learn from “Something” by The Beatles George Harrison’s song ‘Something’ (on The Beatles’ iconic 1969 album Abbey Road) contains 4 exquisite chord moves – once you know what they are and how to use them, you can use them in your own songwriting to create some of the same harmonic sophistication that…
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Essential Songwriting Tips for Beginners
Essential Songwriting Tips for Beginners Amidst all the doubts and fears, it can be difficult to know where to begin when songwriting. All too many times, songwriters get stuck staring at an empty page in frustration. In this blog post, we’ll explore three essential songwriting tips for beginners that will help ensure that this is…
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The Pedal Note Exercise
The Pedal Note Exercise Here, you will be introduced to a guitar exercise that will not only help you build speed and accuracy, but will transform the way you write songs, create melodies and improvise over any chord progression. Not only does it enhance your fretting hand’s agility, but it also sharpens your picking hand…
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How to Write a Song – Creating the Melody
How to Write a Song – Creating the Melody When it comes to songwriting, one crucial element that can make or break a composition is the melody. The melody carries the emotions and conveys the message of the lyrics, acting as a musical thread that binds the song together. In this article, we will explore…
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Song Analysis – ‘You Oughta Know’ by Alanis Morissette
Song Analysis – ‘You Oughta Know’ by Alanis Morissette Alanis Morissette’s 90’s smash hit ‘You Oughta Know’ has three weird and wonderful musical moves that make it totally unique. This blog post, for songwriters and musicians, dives into the musical concepts, and shows you how to use them in your own songwriting. This blog post…
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A Songwriter’s Enemy – Mistaking Universal Ideas for Generic
A Songwriter’s Enemy – Mistaking Universal Ideas for Generic There’s a surprising enemy that lurks in the good intentions of songwriters chasing the ‘universal’ song lyric. In this blog post, we’ll explain what that enemy is. This blog post aims to summarise our video ‘The Surprising Enemy of Good Songwriting’. Click here to watch the…
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How to Write a Song – Creating Lyrics
How to Write a Song – Creating Lyrics Crafting compelling song lyrics is an art that can make the difference between your song being memorable and relatable, or not. In this blog post, we will explore the process of finding inspiration and developing captivating song lyrics. This blog post aims to summarise the second part…
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What I’m listening to and why.
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…
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Starting with loops is one of the most enjoyable and effective ways to spark new ideas and breathe life into your songwriting process. In this video, we write a whole song from scratch using loops as inspiration – featuring the sample-based instrument ‘Chromatic’ from LANDR. Save 30% now with this coupon: GETLANDRWRITESONGS30OFF LANDR Studio includes…
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Creating the Perfect Pre-Chorus – Part 1
The pre-chorus is NOT just the bit before the chorus – it is the bit before the chorus that creates TENSION! Building up and releasing this tension is one of the most effective ways of writing big, beautiful and impactful CHORUSES! In this video, Part 1 of a 3-part series, we examine how to use…
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How to Use Chromatics to Write Killer Chord Progressions
Break out of predictable patterns and inject some colour into your craft with this chromatic approach to writing killer riffs and memorable melodies! In Part 1 of the CHROMATIC MAGIC mini-series – we look at a simple yet effective way of breaking old patterns and introducing new sounds to your repertoire. Starting with some warm-up…
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Picking the Perfect Chords
As songwriters we often start with a chord progression, using it as a framework to add lyrics, melodies, textures and embellishments. But one question that continually pops up is ‘what chord do I choose next?’ In this video, my musical compadre Ben Romalis looks at the functions and relationships of chords in a diatonic system,…
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Understanding Musical Genre for Songwriters
Professional songwriters often need or want to write in specific genres. This video explains 5 different ways to understand and emulate musical genre. This video was made for a Songwriting class I teach at Collarts in Melbourne, Australia. A major project during the semester is to write a song to a specific brief provided by…
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The Secret Life of ‘Hallelujah’ by Leonard Cohen.
The song ‘Hallelujah’ by Leonard Cohen is now thought of as a glittering jewel of genius. But the story of its rise to recognition reveals that it was the thinnest thread of circumstance that brought the song to the attention of the public imagination at all. Malcolm Gladwell tells the story of the song in his wonderful…
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Soft Songs for Sleepy People
Exactly 11 months and 30 days ago I was 8 and a half months pregnant. That’s a lot of pregnant, by the way. It is so much human inside another human. At that exact time, I also made ONE single new year’s resolution: that I would release these 3 songs, which I had virtually…