Make your own song

Ok, I have written down this quality songwriting tips that any songwriter should not forget. There are certain songs that sounds exceptionally well but most of the songs sound crapped and unmarketable. Basically it is in my belief that regardless your status as songwriter, whether you are an amateur or a professional one. The word “Quality” should be kept into focus. Let me tell you a simple story of how “quality” is being measured by the Beatles Paul McCartney and John Lennon, we all know they have written hits more than anyone in this planet up to this time.

I have been reading the biography of these great songwriters especially John Lennon and Paul McCartney. “Quality” is important for them even though they are not considered as “professionals” before they become famous. What they define as a “quality” song is something that can be remembered the next day or in the coming days without the use of a recorder. Remember that these guys are busy, unfocused, always doing things informally that will increase chances of forgetting the tunes. In the next day, they will tend to forget most of the tune they have created days before. (more…)

Song reviews are ways to get others critique the song for improvements. Songwriters are afraid of this, they always like their songs to get praised. It is not actually the reality, in fact the only way to improve a song is to get song reviews. But most of the songwriters think that anyone can review the song, so they asked helped from their sister, girlfriend, boyfriend or other close relatives to review the song. This is not advisable because by psychology they will not tell the truth. A dishonest song review is good as nothing. Songwriters need to hear detailed and honest reviews from anonymous persons or music professionals. (more…)

Music nowadays is very competitive. Some issues such as cutting royalty rates, increasing recording cost and rampant music piracy hurts songwriting income and the entire music publishing business. Before, songwriter used to be just creating songs,will look for publisher and recording label will be asking songs from publisher to record.

Now things are very different, with more and more competition, music industry demands completed products almost right away from a songwriter or unsigned artist. And these completed products needs to be in extreme high quality compared to compete the increasing demos being submitted. The term “demo” does not anymore apply to a rough recording, it needs to be “excellent”.

Based on my experience, below are the proven tips you can become a competitive songwriter:

1. Learn to master a single genre which you are really good at. (more…)

You have written a piece of music with lyrics. Now what? You have difficulty in arranging the songs and it’s normal. Below are the tips I would like to share to minimize difficulties in arranging songs. These are the best ways to put a song together.

You must be familiar with different song arrangements style typically, it looks like the one below:

1. Start the song with Intro - if you are a singer-songwriter, you can start with a simple guitar strumming of your preferred song chord progression.

2. 1st stanza - using Intro chord progression, if Intro sequence is G-Em-C-D, then 1st stanza should have the same beat and progression as this.

3. 2nd stanza -still using the same chord progression and set of melodies as the 1st stanza but with DIFFERENT lyrics this time.

4. Chorus -using new chord progression called as the “Chorus chord progression”, but depending on songwriter creativity he/she may still use the stanza chords but with a different set of melodies already for the same chord progression. Chorus chords are characterized by being more lively, catchy and should produce the most memorable parts of the song called as “hook”. (more…)