Do you dream of playing to huge crowds in huge venues? As a life long rock and metal fan, I’ve always had those dreams and there’s a type of song that fits them, a type of song that only makes sense when a crowd of tens of thousands sings along. Bon Jovi, Iron Maiden, [...]
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Writing a standard pop song? Something not quite right? Let’s try going through some basic troubleshooting to see if we can find out what the problem is. 1. Have you used a pop song structure? The standard pop song is an extension of the older 32 bar song structure. Or if you like, a compound AABA structure with [...] The word ‘Anthem’ usually refers to a song designed to bring people together – it’s the piece that everyone sings along to. The particular kind of anthem I’m refering to in this article is the moderately paced, string laden singalong ballad that have provided hits for bands such as Snow Patrol, Kings of Leon and [...] Whilst watching performances by Westlife (I know, I know) and Jack’s Mannequin, several songwriting thoughts occurred: If You’re Following a Formula, Tweak It The Westlife song followed the pop ballad formula perfectly – short verses, soaring anthemic chorus, contrasting bridge, drop chorus then a key change chorus to finish. But it followed it to the letter. Result? Too [...] I’ve a pupil who, in UK education parlance, is ‘gifted’. He’s an incredibly talented musician, who leads ensembles, plays percussion instruments, sings and plays the guitar. He has a fantastic ear for melody, a great sense of rhythm, a true passion for music. One of the most popular posts on this site is about the 32 bar song structure. That structure is quite old fashioned, but lots of modern forms developed from it. Compound 32-Bar structure. The standard 32 bar follows an AABA structure, with B providing a contrast to the A sections. It’s pretty much a ternry structure, with the [...] A few days ago I received an email from a reader named Martin Andersson. Martin writes: Do you write on request? I sure do Here’s a topic I’d like to see covered a bit more indepth, but seldom run into, although it’s one of the most important parts of making a song: the Intro. Do you have any tips on that [...] Marking students coursework at my school, I came to a song that I gave almost full marks to. One reason for the high marks was the song’s fantastic, subtle playing with songwriting conventions. - The Bridge – The bridge happens after the second chorus, right? Not according to my student. Instead she put it between the 2nd [...] NB.I’ve since written a follow up to this post which can be found here I watched Eurovision 2009 on Saturday. I even drank Bucks Fizz and managed to get through the interminably long scoring section without getting bored and turning over. I’ve watched Eurovision for the last three or four years, and the standard is getting better. [...] So how was your February? Mine was not nearly as productive as I thought it was goiong to be. I signed up to Febraury Album Writing Month, got all geared up to write, and then what did I achieve? Five songs, one of which wasn’t really new at all. In fact it wasn’t even a song. Seven [...] |
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