Tag: creative process
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Songwriter Habit #1 – Write Everyday
Songwriter Habit #1 – Write Everyday It’s a hard thing for songwriters to hear, but highly effective songwriters practice writing everyday. This is hard to hear because it implies that getting good at songwriting requires dedication and discipline. In this blog post, we’ll talk about how writing everyday us a habit necessary to become a…
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Songwriter Habit #2 – Revise Your Songs
Songwriter Habit #2 – Revise Your Songs The media often portrays great songwriters as simply having inspiration strike them, then magically writing inspiring songs on their first try. In reality, a lot of revision is done between the song’s first draft and the version that the listener hears. Here, we’ll discuss how revising your songs…
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Step #4 of Writing Great Melodies – Create Rhythmic Interest
Step #4 of Writing Great Melodies – Create Rhythmic Interest Although the notes that you choose for your melody are important, that’s not the only thing that matters. We also need to think about the rhythmic variation of our melodic phrases. In this blog post, we’ll discuss creating rhythmic interest in our melodies. This article…
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Songwriter Habit #3 – Collecting Everything
Songwriter Habit #3 – Collecting Everything We’ve all been there before: You get a sudden idea for a song, and you tell yourself that it’s alright, you’ll remember it later. But let’s be honest, most of the time, we won’t be able to accurately recall what it is later. In this article, we’ll teach you…
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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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Songwriter Habit #4 – Getting Feedback
Songwriter Habit #4 – Getting Feedback Songwriters are often solitary creatures. Most of us like to work away at our projects, treating them as our babies and ensuring that they never reach another person’s ears till they’re complete. However, one of the most crucial habits that distinguishes highly effective songwriters from the rest is their…
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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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Songwriter Habit #5 – Stepping Away
Songwriter Habit #5 – Stepping Away Songwriting isn’t just about writing songs. It’s about how we find inspiration and ensure that we can write not only consistently, but also regardless of whether inspiration jumps out at us or not. Here, we’ll discuss a part of that process: Stepping away. This article is a summarised transcript…
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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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Songwriter Habit #6 – Thinking Like An Anthropologist
Songwriter Habit #6 – Thinking Like An Anthropologist It’s easy for us as musicians to say that we listen to lots of music. However, what differentiates the way we listen to music from the way popular songwriters listen to music? In this blog post, we’ll discuss what we mean by thinking like an anthropologist when…
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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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Songwriter Habit #7 – Listening to Lots of Music
Songwriter Habit #7 – Listening to Lots of Music As musicians, we often fall into the trap of listening to things that we’re used to. After all, the familiar is safe and comfortable. However, this is actually something that might be detrimental to your growth as a songwriter. Here, we’ll discuss why listening to lots…
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7 Traits of Highly Effective Songwriters
7 Traits of Highly Effective Songwriters It’s one thing to be able to write a great song. However, it’s an entirely separate thing to be able to write great songs consistently and be a great songwriter. In this blog post, we’ll countdown what we think are the 7 traits of highly effective songwriters. This blog…
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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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14-Day Songwriting Challenge: DAY 4
#4. Listen deeply. This task is excerpted from the wonderful book, ‘The Art of Noticing,’ by Rob Walker: “The composer Pauline Oliveros was known, among other things, for a practice she called deep listening. This evolved in part from her experience performing with a couple of other musicians in an abandoned cistern in the state…
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14-Day Songwriting Challenge: DAY 1
#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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How to put your inner critic in its place
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…