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
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
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
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.]
===========================================================================
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
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
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
Style is the secret sauce that nobody can quite point at, but everybody feels. There’s style in music, style in fashion, style in cooking — there’s style in pretty much anything you do, wear or live in.
Style isn’t something you “add on” at the end of a song, like you’re applying glitter glue — it’s baked in from the first phrase that pops in. The first note. It’s the fingerprint, the gait, the swagger, the limp, the wink, the shrug. Marshall McLuhan told you in his book, “The Medium is the Massage” It’s how you say a thing, not what you say. The voice behind the voice. Continue reading
Editing the Song Without Ruining the Magic — How to fix a song without killing it.
Editing a song is like trimming bonsai miniature tree: a little snip here, a gentle tuck there — not a lumberjack attack with a gas-powered Tesla chainsaw. This is the chapter where you learn how to clean up a lyric, tighten the emotional spine, and fix the wobbly bits without strangling the living soul that made the song work in the first place. Continue reading
Two different modes, both useful. When to use which???
Let’s get right to it: every songwriter has two gears, even if they don’t know it.
One gear is fast, the other is deep, and the real craft is knowing exactly when to slam the pedal on one, and when to sink slowly into the other, like a hot stone into cold water.
Most writers — especially beginners — try to write everything at one speed, usually whatever speed their anxiety or caffeine level happens to be set to, that day. But the pros? They switch gears intentionally. They don’t wait for inspiration; they pick the right mode and force the muse to keep up.
Let’s break these two modes down in a way that actually helps you use them. Continue reading