Seems like such an easy thing. Just be you. We hear it every day — but how? Especially when you’re struggling to become you (you haven’t had a lot of life lived yet), or you’re reinventing yourself from tough times, or from a period of time where the fountain of creativity just kind of stopped. […]

When Huntsville, Alabama songwriter Alan Little met John Schmitt, a San Francisco Iraq War veteran, the two had no idea their music would bring catharsis and joy to not only themselves, but their town and soldiers around the world. The Soldier and the Songwriter: How Music Helped a War Veteran Overcome PTSD Producing legend Nile […]

Song pitching has shifted from physical meetings to virtual meetings and conference calls, with publishers often sending label A&R reps the music beforehand. In Nashville’s Music Publishing Community, Song Pitching Goes Remote Writing the chorus part of a song is usually a very different process than writing the verse part. With choruses, you’re usually coming […]

One positive remedy, though, is to take in the words of comfort, inspiration and wisdom from the songs on your playlist—the ones you’ve kept on it—that offer lyrics that speak to you and lift you. Finding Inspiration Through Your Favourite Lyrics APRA AMCOS’ intensive songwriting residency SongHubs has started four days of virtual collaboration, with […]

John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, while writing songs for The Beatles, all were able to brilliantly synthesize what was happening in their culture and the musical currency of the day with their own ingenious new directions in songwriting. Answers to the Question, “What Songs Influenced The Beatles the Most?” Lyric writing is often […]

If you think the songs in the charts sound like they were made by machines, you’re probably wrong — an AI’s lyrics would be better. This AI wrote such Emo lyrics that humans thought it was My Chemical Romance Listeners are more likely to focus in on melodies and lyrics than anything else, and so […]

When author Michael Koppy gets going about popular songwriting, the heat rises fast and stays there. ‘We deserve better’: Taking aim at bad pop songwriting You might assume that a verse should have some connection to the chorus that follows it — something that makes the verse and chorus sound like musical partners. Creating musical […]

Over the years, as I’ve gotten more serious about my writing, I’ve gotten used to spending more time alone. Since I mostly write solo, getting comfortable with that temporary isolation has been a necessity. For A Songwriter, How Much Isolation Is Too Much? The songwriter John Nolt is having a lot of dark thoughts about […]

I’ll start with a caveat: Be cautious regarding advice on how to cope during a global pandemic. Unless the individual lived through the 1918 Spanish flu, he or she has as much experience with the current situation as you or I. Go Easy on Yourself (and Your Muse) An inverted chord is one where the […]

People moving in a similar culture, exposed to similar stimuli, and inspired by a similar history can come up with something pretty similar. It happens. But sometimes, someone is just stealing their ideas from someone else. 12 Songwriters Famously Sued for Stealing Their Content We are living in times that we haven’t seen in our […]