I would say one of the most unspoken skills of a great songwriter is learning how to be objective about your own songs. This can be hard because when you are creating any piece of work it can feel like it’s your baby.  You can…

So following up on my last post about what chord extensions are (read it here if you need a refresher What are Chord Extensions?). I wanted to expand more on how to use them practically in songwriting.  In general, chord extensions can be used to…

Developing your songwriting style is really a lifelong process of experimentation and tweaking.  It’s likely going to change in some degree with every album because as a songwriter you probably don’t want to get stuck with all your music sounding the exact same all the…

I think it’s interesting how similar all creative fields are. From painting, to sculpting, to writing, the medium changes, but the intention to create and express ourselves is always there, and often follows many of the same general principles.  Among the wide array of creative…

While it’s really useful to use common chord progressions and song structure templates to edit songs, it can become a bit limiting and rigid when trying to come up with new song ideas.  For this reason, improvisation can breathe new life to your songwriting and…

Many artists write a ton of songs and eventually pick out the best ones and put them all on an album in a way that they flow well. This is totally fine. However, there are other formats for an album besides this.  One of these…

Where to begin? Sometimes that’s a tough question to answer because songwriting can get overwhelming quickly and give you paralysis by analysis.  The answer is often the same every time, just start simple, don’t overthink it.  Sometimes you won’t even think of an intro until…

For most artists there’s a few releases that are quite common and have different purposes. It’s good to know these because you will most likely have at least one of each over time.   The main types of music releases are the demo, single, EP, LP,…

All guitar players start in the same place, knowing absolutely nothing about guitar. So for many, if not all, these are the very first chords they will learn. So it’s safe to say that although they are considered very basic beginner-level chords, that is precisely…

Writing music in minor keys is a tool that should be in every songwriter’s belt, but nowhere is this more important than for those who are writing some form or subgenre of rock or metal.  These genre’s are generally characterized by aggressive, darker sounds because…