This is no music theory textbook. It will not teach you to read sheet music, understand counterpoint, analyze Bach chorales, or pass a conservatory entrance exam. It will not cover modes in depth, voice leading, the circle of fifths as…
Every songwriter has one. Some have dozens. It lives on your phone in a folder of unnamed voice memos, or in a DAW project called “idea_verse_MAYBE_06,” or in a dog-eared notebook on your bedside table. It’s the cemetery of unfinished…
By the time you, as a self-taught songwriter, start taking their choruses seriously, you sit down to write a chorus, ready to write a big, clear, anthemic — one chord per measure, four chords, room for the melody to breathe. …
Most beginning songwriters fail to accept the following truth that the chord progressions inside professional records are almost never complicated. They are simple chord progressions, played with conviction, voiced with care, and dressed in production choices that make four ordinary…
Every January, the industry rolls into Anaheim and unveils enough new gear to bury a working musician at NAMM. Flagship amps, six-figure mixing consoles, modular eurorack systems with seventeen voices and three patches that anyone could ever need were on…
Swift’s chord progressions, melodies, structures, harmony, rhythm, and production are rooted in pop conventions. The songstress’ songwriting success largely stems from her use of familiar chord progressions like I-V-vi-IV, which provide emotional resonance while allowing room for lyrical storytelling. Swift’s…