As an experiment, I committed to making music every day for at least 10 minutes a day (sometimes more) for a month. It might seem like a small amount of time, but that’s the point. It’s something that I could do consistently. Before I would usually wait for weeks until I had the spare time...
There are a lot of songwriters who create their own musical arrangements. I am one of them. But 85 percent of the songwriters I know don’t. They only write songs. And if they end up recording one, they leave the arrangement to someone else, such as another musician with a studio or an online remote...
C7(b9)(b13)!!!! What’s this and why are you screaming jazz at me? The answer to that question, my friend, is simple. Advanced harmony and complex chords are not as mystifying as you might think and we producers and audio engineers who are getting a little stuck writing music have the tools to understand what’s going on....
What if I told you that the answer to your creative problem was as simple as going for a walk? Whether it’s generating musical ideas, transforming an idea into a song, or finishing up a mix… Or fine tuning THAT @#$%^^&* SNARE DRUM! It so happens that a simple change of scenery can yield remarkable...
I want to share with you my two songwriting techniques to assist you with your songwriting process and keep you in your creative flow. Whether you’re just starting as a songwriter or have been writing for years, these two little techniques can save you time and prevent you from breaking out of your flow when...
Writer’s block is the worst. It’s something that every creative has to deal with—but that doesn’t make it easy to beat. Writer’s block can feel overwhelming at times. All you want to do is create but you end up wasting time and getting nowhere. You might even start to doubt yourself or believe that you’re not...
Producing a song can seem like performing magic. What music producers do — that’s smoke and mirrors right there. It’s like they pull awesome tracks out of their pockets. Nah, it’s really not that complicated, once you break it down. And in this post, I’ll break down the basic stages of putting a song together,...
Royalties can be freakin’ confusing sometimes. And I think that’s why a lot of songwriters are not registered with a Publishing Rights Organization (aka a PRO). It’s overwhelming and hard to understand. Well, in this post, I hope to clear things up a bit by asking the question, “What can a PRO do for you?”...
Lennon and McCartney. Richards and Jagger. Simon and Garfunkel (but mostly Simon). We all know these names as the power songwriting duos they were. Their stories show us how to go about co-writing a song — with a teamwork mentality. In this post, I’ll go through the benefits of co-writing, how to find a co-writer,...
You may be a good songwriter. But imagine if you knew some basic music theory. People say it can give your songwriting a serious boost. As a songwriter myself, I was curious. So I did some digging to see what music theory could actually do for me. And here are the three most compelling ways...