Constructing a Style Sheet

This is exactly the right way to come at Suno. Remember, you’re not “making songs,” you’re building demonstration vehicles for your unique lyrics, lyrics  that YOU wrote! Continue reading →

I wrote this blog in 2017. I’m posting it again with some minor updates, because it clearly needs repeating.

I have no voice. It doesn’t bother me, but it’s quite noticeable. Never negotiate with illusions. Continue reading →

SONG: “6-7 State of Mind”

Verse 1 / Refrain
I’m not just okay, I’m not feeling fine
I’m just in a six–seven state of mind
Not falling apart, not crossing lines
Just standing here in the in-between time Continue reading →

I had an idea for a song that centered around “affordability”, a term that’s being wagged all over town. something ironic, like i can’t afford an extra pickle cause the government took every nickel, maybe the hook is “affordability”, even though there are very few rhyme choices there, maybe I’ll just let it roll out whatever way it does: Continue reading →

Chapter 20 — Ten Song Seeds to Get You Started

Prompts, Beat Patterns, Hooks, Titles, Situations

Here’s the thing… people always say they want to write songs, but then they sit down, stare at a blank page, and suddenly decide this is the perfect moment to reorganize their sock drawer or research the history of the banjo, or build that perfect moustrap they’ve been thinking about for years. Continue reading →

Chapter 19 — From Idea to Finished Song

The Whole Journey, Start to Finish, Without Losing Your Mind (or Your Lunch)

This is the chapter where the rubber hits the road, the muse hits the fan, and I suddenly remember that I  had promised our Zoom group that I’d have a clear set of instructions on how to get from A to B and back again, and moreover that I’d have it ready today, and here it is, today, already. So here goes:

Songwriting is a process.
But it’s not a straight line.
It’s a wandering goat on a hillside, eating whatever looks safe and tasty. Continue reading →

Chapter 18

Collaboration: How to Work With Musicians, Bands, and AI

Most writers think collaboration is some mystical ritual involving incense, candlelight, and artists behaving like delicate orchids. Not so.

Collaboration is actually simple, once you understand the production work-flow. There’s a natural direction to the work: lyricist → arranger → band. If you master that series of steps, you can work with pretty much anyone — from a real live human drummer to a virtual AI orchestra that never sleeps and never asks for pizza money.

Let’s break it down, to see how this really works: Continue reading →

[commercial break: just wanted to take a moment to remind you to order your virtual sculpture now, while there’s time to get it to you or your giftee for the holidays. That sculpture pictured above comes in a Godd Engine Walkabout — which means you can walk all around it. Very collectible. Gallery Tagged at $125.00 — your price just $49.]

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Chapter 17 Daily Practice

Songwriting as a Daily Practice

Ritual, rhythm, flow — how to keep the well full

You know what most people think songwriting is?
A lightning strike.
A muse descending.
A rare moment when the heavens part and a melody drops straight into your cereal bowl. Continue reading →

Chapter 16

Writing From Persona

How to write as a character, a narrator, an alter-ego, a ghost, a god

Sometimes the only way to tell the truth is to lie a little — or at least to wear a mask long enough for the deeper voice to come through. Writing from persona isn’t acting, and it isn’t pretending. It’s opening a side door in the brain and letting someone else walk through it with your shoes on. Continue reading →

Chapter 15

Song Forms: Beyond Verse–Verse–Bridge–Verse
You don’t need to be a musicologist to write a killer song. But knowing a few basic shapes — the containers songs like to live in — can save you a ton of grief and open up creative shortcuts you didn’t know were there.

Most people think song form is some mystical textbook thing, but really it’s just pattern recognition. You already know these forms because you’ve heard them your whole life. All we’re doing here is shining a flashlight on what your ear already understands. Continue reading →