August 17, 2019 Lil Nas X’s ‘Old Town Road’ has been sitting comfortably on top of the Billboard Hot 100 for over 12 weeks now.
July 23, 2019 Guest post by Randi Zimmerman. This article originally appeared on the Symphonic Blog.
If you’ve ever sat down to get some work done and been suddenly hit with a mental roadblock, this one’s for you. We all have moments where we feel uninspired no matter how hard we concentrate, and it can be frustrating when we can’t seem to find our way past it.
Luckily, there are many ways to boost creativity in a situation like this.
Advice, Creativity, DIY tagged Advice, Creativity, DIY, songwriting June 13, 2019 Songwriting tagged Creativity, composition, drug use, songwriting June 11, 2019 Guest post by Will Marshall. This article originally appeared on Soundfly’s Flypaper
Over the last few decades, there have been few songwriters as enduring or influential as Nick Cave. Originally of the anarchically violent post-punk band The Birthday Party, he subsequently formed the seminal Bad Seeds and has been releasing critically acclaimed music for four decades. He’s also a poet, a novelist, a screenwriter, and a film composer, sharing as much creative DNA with authors and visual artists as his cohorts in the post-punk movement.
Creativity, Songwriting tagged Creativity, fear, perfectionism, procrastination, songwriting April 29, 2019 Guest post by Sammy Hakim. This article originally appeared on Soundfly’s Flypaper.
You’re sitting down in your home studio with a cup of coffee in your hand, and your guitar on your lap, and it hits you: writer’s block. Rather than power through it, it makes more sense to take a day off and find a way to get re-inspired, right?
Wrong.
Ask any writer in Nashville and you’ll quickly find out that waiting for inspiration can be a quick death to your career as a songwriter. In fact, even in the Los Angeles and New York markets, writers can often have between one and four co-writing sessions a day — meaning that if they can’t write, they might not be paid.
So how do you train yourself to be able to write a song a day?
Advice, Songwriting tagged DIY, Lyrics Writing, composition, creative, songwriting April 18, 2019 Today we’re going to look at how to write a song. This won’t be your typical guide on songwriting though, there are already plenty of those floating around the internet.
Instead, I’m going to give you some unconventional songwriting tips that will help get you out of that beginner stage. Some of these ideas might sound bizarre initially, but give them a chance and I promise you your songwriting will benefit.
Songwriting tagged how to write a song, songwriting April 8, 2019 This post by Caleb J. Murphy originally appeared on the Bandzoogle Blog.
I hate songwriting when things aren’t flowing.
Okay, that’s not totally true. I always love the craft of songwriting, but I get super frustrated when nothing is showing up even though I am. When I’ve been working on a song for months or even years and it’s not finished, I feel like giving up.
So to help you (and me) stay in love with the craft of songwriting, here are some things you can do.
Advice, Songwriting tagged Advice, Creativity, DIY, inspiration, songwriting March 27, 2019 Smartphone apps are truly changing the world. Music apps have been used in music education for some time, but most of them only cover the basics. Instead of just teaching you the basics, there are many apps that can help you find inspiration and facilitate your entire recording process.
To help you write and records more songs, we’ve assembled this list of the 5 most useful apps that every musician needs. It might take some time to get used to utilizing apps to boost your creations, but they’re incredibly helpful in the long run. Add them to your daily writing/recording routine and you will see massive improvements.
Advice, Apps & Mobile, Songwriting tagged Songwriters, music apps, musicians, songwriting March 26, 2019 Back in March of 2015, Pharrell Williams claimed that the Blurred Lines copyright lawsuit will stifle creativity. Speaking for the first time since a jury determined that he and Robin Thicke copied Marvin Gaye’s ‘Got to give it up’. He explained: “The verdict handicaps any creator out there who is making something hat might be inspired by something else. This applies to fashion, music design…anything. If we lose our freedom to be inspired, we’re going to look up one day and the entertainment industry as we know it will be frozen in litigation. This is about protecting the intellectual rights of people who have ideas.”
Copyright, Creativity, Songwriting tagged Copyright, Creativity, Legal, copyright law, songwriting February 6, 2019 What gets us to remember a tune?
Have you ever remembered a song well enough to sing along to it the next time you heard it? Maybe you didn’t know the words, but you could at least hum along. Or have you ever played “name that tune”? What made you win some rounds so easily and yet lose others? One answer lies in how, precisely, the melody is set up.
Songwriting tagged composition, melody, songwriter, songwriting, writing December 18, 2018 1. WHERE TO START WRITING YOUR SONG
Beginning is regularly the hardest piece of the songwriting procedure. Building up your tune’s fundamental song or focal ensemble is considered by some to be the best place to start composing your next track. Once you have your snare or key harmony movement, you can manufacture whatever remains of your melody around it. In any case, don’t stress in case you’re attempting to locate the ideal tune straight away, this technique isn’t for everybody.
Advice, Songwriting tagged Advice, Songwriting Tips, composition, song, songwriting November 9, 2018 New music has been a major influence on people in society basically since the beginning of time. Nothing is changing much in that sense, either. New music approaches, however, change dramatically all of the time. Sources of inspiration change on a frequent basis as well. Musical acts get ideas in all sorts of intriguing ways.
Songwriting tagged inspiration, new music, society, songwriting June 15, 2018 Guest post by Ian Temple. This article originally appearedon Soundfly’s Flypaper
Last year, Rihanna’s hit single “Work” started an argument here at Soundfly. We come from an array of different musical backgrounds, styles, training, and instruments, and the question that kicked us off was:
What key is “Work” actually in?
It’s got that super repetitive synth bass line that returns to C# every time, giving the impression we’re in C# Dorian mode, but the key signature is B major, or G# natural minor. The melody floats around a C# note a lot, but it still sounds unresolved, except in a few moments where it lands on G#. There are even a couple moments that sound a little more major and could lead one to hear the B as an unplayed tonic (or “home base”).
Music Education, Songwriting tagged composition, music theory, songwriting May 24, 2018 Guest post by Erica Ann Sipes. This article originally appeared on Soundfly’s Flypaper
Yes, you read that correctly. In the course of this one blog post, I am going to attempt to use a brief study in botany to unravel an issue I am having in the accompaniment to a song by Richard Strauss.
Ready?
Music Education tagged Music, composer, composition, music education, songwriting