Why I Use Twitter, and Why You Should Too

Written by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website
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I signed up for a Twitter account back in May, but because of my schedule only started getting familiar with it a few months later, during the summer. And though it took a little getting used to, I am now seeing Twitter as an important way to get informed and stay informed.

Here are a few ways Twitter has helped get me up to speed and communicate with the world around me:

1. While most of the official news media was unable to report anything coming out of Iran leading up to, during, and following theIranian summer election, private citizens using Twitter were able to get the message out about what really was going on in the streets. (And Iranians using Twitter were able to find out when and where the next protests were being held, how to identify secret police, and what to do if your eyes were sprayed with an acidic substance.)
2. After hearing a loud bang outside my house one evening, a “Nearby” search on Twitter revealed a tweet from a local resident who had just seen a transformer blow. Mystery solved.
3. By checking out the “Trending Topics”, I am able to get news regarding what’s going on in the world, often before news outlets report it. (For example, like many, I found out about the death of Michael Jackson on Twitter first.)
4. I’m now able to let regular visitors to my website know when the next website and newsletter update has occured. I can also send out songwriting tips, information, opinions, and other news in an easy and unobtrusive way.
5. I can stay up-to-date with what some of my songwriting colleagues are working on (and I’m happy to follow you: just write me.)

I’m just getting started, and so I think I’ll be discovering even more ways that Twitter can be helpful to me. If nothing else, Twitter keeps me linked to the world around me, and has made staying informed much easier than it’s ever been.

As I say, right now I am using Twitter to help my fellow songwriters with tips and other information. And you’ll see that many others, from the President of the United States to your nextdoor neighbour, are using Twitter to get information and send information.

If you aren’t using Twitter, you should give it a try. Simply go to the Twitter website, click on “Sign up now”, create an account, and then start experimenting. And click here if you’d like to start following me.
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“The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” shows you how to write great songs. It’s just one of a suite of 6 songwriting e-books written by Gary Ewer. (His newest e-book, ”The Essential Secrets of Songwriting- Chord Progression Formulas” is being offered for free when you purchase any other of his songwriting e-books.) Let these six e-books show you every aspect of how to write great songs! Read more..

Songwriting Principle No. 11: A Good Hook Won’t Save a Bad Song

Why do so many songwriters swear by the power of the hook? It’s because the hook, by definition, can reel in a listener, and keep them humming your song all day long, for days, weeks and even years to come You can’t ignore the power of a well-placed, well-composed hook to drive your song into the minds of audience members. Sometimes, though, a hook won’t necessarily save your song. If your song has structural problems, a hook, no matter how good, will only make it listenable on a certain level; it will still have problems:

Adding a hook to a bad song gives you a bad song with a hook.

In “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting,” I use the analogy of selling a 10-cent ice cream cone: you sell the 10-cent cone as a way of getting customers in the door. Once they’re in there, you can sell them other things. But you can’t sell them anything if they don’t come in your store. Hence the 10-cent ice cream cone.

But no matter how great that ice cream is, it won’t solve the problem that your other food stinks. It only gets them in the door. The good restauranteur will solve what is bad about the other food. In that sense, the good food makes the ice cream an even better hook

So how do you write a good hook? You make sure that the rest of your song is structurally sound, with an interesting, hummable melody, great lyrics, and a chord progression that doesn’t get in the way. When you do that, the hook comes to the fore and really does its job.

So remember the important features of a good hook: keep it short and make it memorable. Make sure the rhythmic component is catchy, and use your imagination.

-Gary Ewer, via “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website

Songwriting Principle No. 5: Making Sense of Harmonic Rhythm

Setting up your song’s groove is not possible without considering harmonic rhythm. The harmonic rhythm of your song is, in short, how often the chords change. And for the best songs, this rate of change needs to be a constant factor most of the time. It’s what Songwriting Principle No. 5 is all about:

There should be a perceivable and somewhat predictable pattern to the planning of chord changes.

It’s that predictable nature of chord changes that helps establish the groove of your song. If you write a song where the first chord is held for two beats, then the next chord for a bar and a half, then another chord for four beats… this prevents the groove from establishing itself. That groove – the sense that the body wants to move to your music – is severely hampered by the unpredictable nature of the music.

You may worry that by being so predictable with your chord changes may cause the listener to become bored, but this simply is not a worry. Be innovative in other areas, but allow your chords to change with some sense of regularity.

Not all chords in your song will be the same length. It is OK to take certain chords and have them last longer. But that is part of harmonic rhythm: coming up with a pattern and then making it a feature of the entire song. Take the following progression and melody (To hear these samples, visit “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website:

C  C/E——-  F C

That extended sitting on the C/E chord kills the sense of internal rhythm – the groove. Why? Because slash chords (inversions) like C/E are inherently less stable than root position chords (like the C or the F). Extending the length of an inverted chord weakens the progression.

Now check out this modification:

C  C/E  F——- C

That feels much better, doesn’t it? Extending the length of the F chord feels more natural. And now that we’ve set up a pattern of two shorter chords ( C to C/E) followed by a longer one (F), we can take that pattern and use it throughout the song. That’s our harmonic rhythm.

If you want to read more about chords, or any of the other eleven songwriting principles mentioned in this article, click here to read about “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting”, and my other songwriting e-books. Download them in seconds, and start learning how to make your songs really work.

-Gary Ewer

Songwriting tips! Write Better Chords, Melodies and
Hooks!.

Beatles Bootleg Recording Up For Auction

According to the CBC, a bootleg recording of the Beatles final concert in Canada goes up for auction on the online auction site eBay on Saturday, August 30. The concert took place on August 17, 1966 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. The taped recording contains over two hours of music, including Nowhere Man and Yesterday.

Along with the recording, the winning bidder will also receive a reel-to-reel tape recorder and carrying case.

The Beatles performed their last live concert a couple of weeks after this Toronto concert, in San Francisco on August 29, 1966. For the remainder of their career, they concentrated solely on recording.

eBay estimates the value of this recording at between $20,000 and $30,000.

 

-Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website:
Songwriting tips Write Better Chords, Melodies and Hooks.

Tips for Making Your Melody and Lyrics Work Together

A good melody can help your lyrics really pop and come to life. And it’s really important to remember that all aspects of a song work together, not separately. So a lyric is only great in a song if the melody and chords are working together to make it great. I call melody, lyrics and chords the “three buddies:” they must work together.

If you’re the kind of writer that likes to think of text first, and then create a melody that works, try considering the following advice:

If your lyric:

• expresses feelings of anger, determination or forthrightness, or expresses strongly held opinions: your melody should use many repeating notes, should start on a strong beat, and should be pitched high in the singer’s range.
• expresses feelings of love, compassion, tenderness: your melody should use a motivic leap i.e., a leap, generally upwards, that gets repeated throughout your song, and should be placed generally in the middle of the singer’s range.
• tells a story: your melody should use lots of stepwise motion, with leaps at those climactic moments.

If you havent considered that rule, that melodies and lyrics need to work together, you really need to go back to your songs and take another look at them. If youve been a struggling songwriter, it may be why your songs just aren’t making it. If your melody feels like aimless wandering, don’t expect the listener to connect with the song, no matter how powerful the lyric is.

 

-Gary Ewer, from ”The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website:
Songwriting tips Write Better Chords, Melodies and Hooks.

How to Find the Chords that Belong to a Key

For a lot of songwriters, finding the chords that fit with a given key causes a mass of confusion. There are so many possibilities, it seems – which ones to use?

To be in a key means that the melody you've written, and the accompanying chords, all point to one certain note as being musically more important than the others. This note is called the tonic note. And it stands to reason that if you just throw any old chord in your progression, the tonic note can become obscured. It can feel like taking a walk, where every footstep goes in a random direction. You need to get things going more or less in one direction.

How we do that is probably simpler than you think. Here’s the process, using A major as a sample key.

The A-major scale is: A B C# D E F# G# A (A major uses 3 sharps, a C#, an F# and a G#).

Build a triad above each note of that scale. A triad is a 3-note chord comprised of stacked 3rds. For example, a triad built on A would be A C# E. A triad built on B would be B D F#, and so on.

Continue building triads above each note.

You’ve now got the seven chords which belong to the key of A major. They are:

A  Bm  C#m  D  E  F#m  G#dim

Does that mean that we can’t use other chords if our song is in A major? Of course not. That’s what makes music so interesting. These seven chords (and in particular, the A D and E chords) will be the ones you use the most. But music would be boring if we didn’t venture a little further afield.

Try some of these progressions, which feature chords other than the ones that come directly from A major. To start with, try two beats for each chord.:

A  Bm  A/C#  C  F  G  A

A  F#m  Bm  Dm  C#m7  Dmaj7  C#sus4  C#

A  Em  D  G  C  E  A

-Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website:
Songwriting tips! Write Better Chords, Melodies and
Hooks!.

Songwriters, Stop Using the (*yawn*) Same Old Formula

From “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website:

 

Have you ever noticed that even though The Beatles had dozens of hits, none of those hits seemed to rely on the same old formula. Each song sounds unique. From ‘She Loves You’, to ‘Penny Lane’, to ‘I am the Walrus’ to ‘The Long and Winding Road,’ no song followed the formula of the previous hit.

 

We can learn a lot from this. Don’t keep using the same songwriting format just because it worked for you once. Be unique. Try different ways of writing, different kinds of lyrics, different forms, different everything. It keeps everything you do sounding fresh and new.

 

So what are some different ways to keep your songwriting fresh?

 

   1. Chords and rhythm first. Come up with a progression that demands attention, then construct the rest of the song to fit it. (Caution: This is used a lot, so if you already use this method, try one of the next suggestions.

   2. Melody first (or melody only). Write a melody that implies, but doesn’t actually use any chords or accompaniment. It’s a refreshing change from what you’ve probably been doing all along.

   3. Song with no introduction. Many songwriters mindlessly strum away on a guitar before they start singing. It’s their way of saying, “Hey everyone, my song is about to start.” But unless your intro is actually interesting and adds to the song, why not try launching right in? The Beatles did that a lot (“Penny Lane”, for example.)

   4. Song with untraditional accompaniment. Try getting a music student from a local university to write a string quartet arrangement for your song. Or try redoing that heavy-metal tune with 12-string guitar and flutes in the background. Or… do anything that throws a curve ball at your audience.

 

Innovation is what’s often lacking in most people’s songwriting approach, and as long as everything you do isn’t from left-field, that bit of songwriting freshness will keep bringing listeners back to your songs.

 

-Gary Ewer

Making Chord Changes Work

From ”The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website:

 

A good chord progression is like a piece of land that you’re planning to build your house on. If the land is too bumpy, placing your house is going to be a problem. If it’s too flat, there won’t be enough there to grab a person’s interest.

 

More importantly, good land is all about the house that eventually will sit on it. A great piece of land can make your house look even better than it is. And eventually, when you try to sell your house, you’re going to have problems if the land is unmowed, untidy, or otherwise messy. So land has a very important responsibility to make your house a sellable item.

 

In a similar way, chord changes have an important responsibility to make your songs sellable. If your changes sound confusing, like one or more of your chords don’t really fit, you’re encountering what I like to call chord muddle, and it can take your song from being sellable to being amateurish and uninteresting.

 

If you learn only one thing about chords, you need to know this: All progressions fit into one of two categories: strong or fragile. (You can read all about this in Chapter 4 of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting“) The first and most important principle of harmony is: Two chords that have a note in common will form a strong progression. And if that second chord is four notes higher (or five notes lower) than the first chord, the progression is even stronger. So G7 – C is a very strong progression.

 

Dm7 – Em7 fits into the fragile category. Fragile does not mean undesirable or weak in the aesthetic sense. Your song needs fragile progressions if you really want your song to be interesting. Where do we use fragile progressions?  The verse of your song  will usually tolerate more fragile progressions than the chorus. The chorus of your song will usually require more strong progressions.

 

Learning how to get chords to help and not hurt your songs is crucial to being a good songwriter. Click here to find out how to make your songs really work.

 

-Gary Ewer

What Key Should My Song Be In?

From “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website:

 

The key you choose for your song depends on several factors. Of course, the most important consideration is the range of your voice; that’s obvious. But beyond that, there are other factors to keep in mind.

 

Singers use the term tessitura to refer to the basic range of a song. Songs that require the singer to be in their upper register are described as having a high tessitura. This is an important consideration because the higher the tessitura, the more energy the listener will perceive.

 

If your song is energetic, or full of emotion, you will want to place the song higher in your voice. Here’s what to do in that case: sing through your song, find your highest note, and adjust the key until that note is pretty much the top of your range.

 

Experiment with the range, and observe the effect moving the key up or down has on  the feel of the song. Another factor that may affect key: the accompanying instruments. If you find that you like the key of E major, keep in mind that if you’re using an alto sax, that intrument will be playing in C# major – 7 sharps (ouch!)

 

If you’re compiling a CD or a playlist for your upcoming gig, your listeners will fatigue if all your songs are in the same key. Be sure to mix the keys to prevent this from happening.

 

-Gary Ewer

Songwriting E-book – Don’t Forget the Sound Samples!

From ”The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website:

 

I have received a few emails lately from songwriters who’ve purchased “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” e-book, and want to know if they can hear the musical samples that are described in each chapter. Yes, you certainly can! The link for the sound samples is at the bottom of this page, and you can also simply click here. Once you’ve clicked, you may need to wait for a moment for the sounds to load. Each sound sample is listed according to the page number from the e-book.

 

You can also hear sound samples from “How to Harmonize a Melody.” (Right now, that e-book is being offered free of charge to purchasers of any other songwriting e-book instructional package.) All the e-books are, of course, downloadable, which means that you can be discovering great tips, chord progressions, and other info regarding songwriting just moments from now. Read more..

 

Sound Samples

 

-Gary Ewer