A great way to engage your listeners is to engage all five of their senses. Here’s how… As human beings we tend to be fairly visually focused, and as a result lean heavily on describing what we can see in our songs. However, this is only a small portion of what we experience day to … Read More
Use this classic writers rule to achieve pop perfection. The rule of three is a well known principle among writers which states that everything is more humorous, satisfying, or effective when it involves three events or characters than any other number. Certainly this is borne out in well known story themes: the Three Little Pigs, … Read More
Supercharge your lyrical dexterity with glittering descriptions. Grammarly says “A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes an object or action in a way that isn’t literally true, but helps explain an idea or make a comparison.” Basically, a metaphor means using words to describe something in a non-literal way. For example: The clouds … Read More
In this article, we look at some of the basic song structures which you can use to build your songs around. Song forms are many and varied, but over time some have been proven to be more popular than others. In particular, in the world of modern pop music, the “Rule of Three” is used … Read More
Great songs engage the listener, take them on a journey, and reveal new and interesting details with each next section of the song. Think of your song like a mini film. You want to set the scene, explain the main character’s problem, show how they resolved it, and give interesting details about how they got … Read More
Often known as “the hook”, because it contains the most memorable combination of melody and lyrics which aim to get stuck in your listener’s ears, the chorus is arguably the most important part of any pop song. In modern pop music especially, this will be the peak moment of your song, both in terms of … Read More
Closely linked to the topic of song forms is the subject of rhyme schemes. When you see a song structure described as ABABCB, or verse chorus verse chorus bridge chorus, what does that really mean? What, in essence, makes a verse a verse or a chorus a chorus? Underneath the lyrical content, each song section … Read More
In today’s music industry, you have to shout louder to be heard above the noise. Once upon a time, music production was so expensive that it was common practice for songwriters and artists to cobble together basic sounding demos via any means they could, and send cassette tapes of these to record companies and publishers … Read More
Breaking down the production of Adele’s smash hit Send My Love. In this video, I run through my recreated version of Adele’s Send My Love track by track, showing you how everything has been layered up, and how such a big sound has been created from comparatively few instruments. Eagle-eyed (eared?) viewers will notice the … Read More
Despite the horrible press that accompanied the birth of Spotify and the decline of major labels, life has actually never been better for an independent musician looking to stand on their own two feet. While its true that sales of physical media (CDs, vinyl, erm… cassettes??) have dropped since their peak in the 90s, the … Read More
