It’s always a good idea to find a way to expand your soloing “vocabulary”. Whatever is your instrument, finding new ways to approach your lead sections is a must if you’re a lead player. You might prefer to write them first, or you might feel like improvising them completely. However, you need to have a better grasp on the matter and have more material to work from. While the choice of scales for lead sections is somewhat limited and usually relies on the minor pentatonic scale or natural minor and major scales, there are a few others worth mentioning. One of the examples is the Dorian mode, which comes as a very interesting collection of notes (so to speak) that can completely reinvent your music and add a new dimension to it.

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Writing songs is a tough task if you don’t know the basics of music. Melody is what listeners remember in their head after listening to a melodious song. Melodies are fun to hear but hard to create. Melodies feel like they have already been written before. So, if you want to write unique and memorable songs, this post is for you.

What is Melody?

The basic definition of melody is that it is a series of notes that seems like a single entity to the listener. When a listener hears a song, he or she does not listen to it as a series of notes but as a continuous tone.

The listeners are not interested in the notes or efforts you put in to create a melody. They look for what they can take away from the music you created. Let us dive deeper into the melody and check what is inside it.

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Sometimes a song overheard on the radio or TV can be quite catchy and can stick to one for a long time. Such songs, or ‘earworms’ as they are usually referred to, can cause a lot of trouble simply by humming its own tune in one’s ear for days, or even weeks. For this, there are certain ways of how to get rid of them or calm them down in order to restore the peace of mind. (more…)

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If you are confused on whether to start writing lyrics or music first, you are not alone. Many musicians are still struggling with this issue too. The thing is you can choose to write either of them or both at the same time. You can write your lyrics without any musicals or after composing the music. You have to select a strategy you feel suits you. You can also experiment with various approaches to know the challenges and advantages. (more…)

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Here is a question from a songwriter regard how to begin songs.

Do you need to have music before you can write the lyrics or do you work the music around the lyrics?

This is one of the most common questions beginning songwriters ask. Keep in mind that songwriting is a unique craft that bring words and music into unison.  Words are matched up with a melody to create a song.

The short answer is you can begin either way.  You can begin with the lyrics or begin with the melody.  Every songwriter has a preference.  There is no right or wrong answer in regards to how to begin songs.  Regardless of how you begin songs the most important is to get started. (more…)

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Writing songs is usually a personal process. What works for you may not work for others, which is why most composers write their song.  Writing songs is the process of discovering sound, melody, and lyrics that harmoniously complement each other. With this in mind, here are 10 tips on composing music: (more…)

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Songwriters may often ask themselves, “What makes a song great?” The answer to that question can make the difference between a mediocre song and an amazing song. Hopefully, once you finish reading this post you will be on the path the write great songs. This is not a new topic it has been written about by many experts in the industry. Trying to unravel the right formula is a lot like hitting a moving target. Taste change, technology changes making it difficult to nail down the right formula. (more…)

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Decide for which target audience when you write music for your song

If you write a music only for yourself, you are not limited in your self- expression. But if you are composing music for other people, it should be understandable for them also. For example, the songs in a rock style won’t be accepted by a large number of elderly people, while tracks in chanson style will be pleasant for them. (more…)

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An earworm is best described as a catchy piece of music that continually repeats through a person’s mind after it is no longer playing. There are several phases describing an earworm.  These descriptions include…

• musical imagery repetition,
• involuntary musical imagery, and
• stuck song syndrome.

Musicians and people with OCD most commonly suffer from earworm attacks. An earworm involves a small portion of a song, a hook. That auditory portion is equal to the memory capacity of the victim’s auditory short-term memory. (more…)

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The Learn How to Write Songs website has many songwriting tools to help stimulate creative ideas.  Here is a collection of those tool in one single post.  Keep in mind these tools were not created to automatically write a song for you, they were created to help songwriters acquire ideas to help write a song.  Sometimes all that is needed is a simple idea to get started. Here are app you can use to build songs…

Create a Song Prompt

Prompts are a great way to seed an idea.  Use the prompt idea as a starting point to create a song story.  Here is a song prompt you can start with… (more…)

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When it comes to writing songs there are certain elements that make supercharge your songwriting. Using these elements will supercharge your creativity.  Some of these elements may seem obvious but other will be new or you didn’t think about them.  As you go though these twelve item examine your current song to see if you can apply these ideas to them.  Never be afraid to re-write songs.  As you re-write you get better and help polish your song. (more…)

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A song’s melody is perhaps the most important element of the song.  Writing a good melody should not be difficult. However the songwriter must understand certain principles associated with writing a good melody.

The bedrock of music belongs to the melody.  This is one of the most important aspects that make a great song.  It is what makes a song memorable. (more…)

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Here is a technique you can use to create and compose melodies.  All you need is a few everyday items to create an unlimited number of melodic ideas. This will help you when you need to generate new ideas.  Here is what you will need to get started:

1. Dice
2. Coins
3. Pencil
4. Staff paper to record notes
5. Container to toss dice and coins
6. Instrument to play the melody
7. Optional – Notation Software

The Dice

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In this post we will explore Songwriting Rhythm Patterns. When a composer writes a melody they work with two basic elements. These elements are tone and rhythm. Tone is the pitch and rhythm is the duration of the note being played. Let’s take a look at rhythm. For this exercise I limited shortest note duration to a quarter note. What I found was there are only 16 rhythm pattern combinations. In the info-graphic is the result of those patterns. (more…)

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There is a universal love for music built into the soul of mankind.  From the very day we are born to the day we die, music surrounds our lives.  Music is a universal language that affects the way we act or feel.  As a music composer, it is important to understand the fundamental elements that make music.  To get understanding, there are three key elements that make music what it is.  These elements include: (more…)

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