Dolce

Good tip! It is amazing how many melodies follow natural speech inflections -when there is a strong accent the note often goes up accordingly -there are of course exceptions -often when the melody goes down on a strong accent -it happens on a strong beat -similarly with a repeated note -well worth studying this.

Well, why not take songs you like and use them as a template. You could use exactly the same chords but change the melody or keep the melodic rhythm but change the pitches -You could become a little more creative and change the chord durations, but keep the progressions -and make up a new melody =OR you could write out the chords of the song in each section and vary their order and durations - At least this way you will pick up how to write in various forms and keys. Good luck.

I love the approach in this video -though applying the choices would mean so many great songs would never have been written if it was applied -and what about minor keys? Modes? Blues Scale? Pentatonics? This is not to say you couldn't apply these ideas and make a great song -

First of all you need to be able to play to one or two friends- and then their friends -you have to realise one thing and one thing only -the fact people are watching you can't prevent you being who you are and expressing that though music. Don't allow an audience to intimidate you -they want you to do well and want to be pleased -if you have the confidence you can do that -there is nothing to be afraid of -enjoy it.

I would love to know if anyone mixes and masters like I do - and if you think my way is fundamentally wrong - why is it wrong? ;;;;; What I tend to do, is produce my song until I am happy with the general way the instruments work together. Then, I use the Master Bus - to place a top quality Parametric EQ - MultibandCompressor -and limiter. Then I can adjust any parameter in the mix I want - I sometimes find that after multicompressing - I can improve the sound by reducing compression on certain instruments - and changing pre eq in the fx chain to post eq can make the sound fuller and smoother somehow - I try both anyway! I feel that only the pros know when a mix is ready to bounce down to a single wave file - I have never liked mastering like this - When I export my song to a AIF/MP3 it is mastered!

Since you will be recording bass - I suggest you add a sub -woofer - cos bass guitar frequencies go lower than the 45hz - which the KRKS deliver. Another option is to swap/upgrade the KRKS for Mackie HR824's which will give you more bass extension. You can't really go wrong with the Focusrite Audio Interface - Personally I love the Lexicon interfaces - cos they give me another great reverb option. There is something quite magical about Lexicon Reverbs.

Both replies so far have been very insightful. There are online classes you can take. I have watched quite a few Berklee School of Music Videos on YouTube - and of course that site is in itself a great resource. Also I have found the people on this site to be very helpful and knowledgable, as well as there being sound advice and articles posted in the forums. Just keep working at it. Don't aim too high too soon - unless you are a genius!

Wow - I really admire your patience through this whole process!

Adele is the best female singer on the planet bar none. I like Stevie Nicks as well. Both women are great lyricists too . Male vocalists I like are Peter Gabriel and Ozzy Osbourne.

It's a good idea -but I agree that you would need some kind of strong motif to carry through each emotion - also if the second verse is about stability, there the song could end - it is probably wiser to order it as Anxiety, Anger, Sadness and Stability -In fact many Blues or Country songs take this sort of form - ending with lines like I now sit in my rockin' chair Smokin my pipe and cleaning my shack Watchin' the road from time to time Though my tired eyes are dimming I know she ain't never coming back - But I keep watchin', all the same. Top of my head stuff but that kind of stability - but not so stable that all the previous verses have angst have lost their power.

That's a hard question to answer. I wrote a song recently which didn't really work, because I mixed poetic language with more direct language - so consistency is important. I think also you can't really teach this - you either have it or you don't.

This is one of the most insightful posts I have ever read! Thanks for that! If you type into the YouTube search How to write Hooks - you get some very dodgy tutorials - telling you to sing lots of random stuff and then keep the ones you like - this might work now and agin I suppose - Melodies that are catchy generally have as you say a memorable rhythm and a consistent note pattern - check out Mr Saxobeat for the ultimate catchy tune! One thing I would also suggest is to learn about form - studying how song titles are placed and the different kinds of emphasis. For example: Beatles - We Can Work It Out This begins with the chorus - the form could be analysed like this: M standing for melody: line 1 -Ma (6) 2 -Mb (13) line 3 -Ma (6) line 4 -Mb (13) line 5 Mc (Title) (5) line 6 Mc' (Title) (5..6) The last word is slurred - I don't see any harm in writing a few melodies using structures you like - when you are learning - eventually they will become so much a part of you that you will understand how good songs work. Bear in mind also that at a primitive level all lines in a pop song will have lines made up of syllable patterns - like this: (Norwegian Wood -Beatles) / -/ / -/ / - / / / - / / / / - / / I generally pair one syllable words - but if you don't have a lyric, making these structures can help give you something to work with - you will often find that there is one note which dominates a line - not always - but often! Using the one note method though - every time! Anyhow these patterns will either be one, two or three syllables - 4 would be 2x2 - You and me could write a bad romance - would be / / /- / / / - / / /.. The dots just mean the last syllable was slurred - There is one decent book on melody by Jack Perricone - Good luck with your tunes!

I appreciate that Sonar is an excellent DAW - in fact before I switched to Macs - I had Sonar Producer 8 - I want to suggest something else though - if you can't play an instrument well, Ableton Live is a brilliant platform. Even though I can play keys and guitar very well, sometimes I will make patterns utilising all the chords of a scale - just triads and sevenths maybe - also I will add a few borrowed chords for fun ( chords which belong to a different key). The neat thing about Ableton is that you have the chord patterns you have written, available at the click of a mouse - a bit like one finger chords I suppose - anyhow I find this can be a great tool to sing over. You haven't got to actually play anything, but it is like playing a very very easy instrument. I also believe FL Studio has a command in which you can insert any kind of chord into your piano roll - Major-Minor-Augmented-Diminished-Minor 6th -Major 7th - etc etc The neat thing also about Ableton or FL is that they support any VST. My favourite software instrument is Omnisphere.

It's a bit like a novel - It would be strange if a writer was writing in third person and then suddenly an I appeared, because this I is unknown to the reader. I suppose there are arty novels which play with rule breaking where this is used - but songs should not be arty novels - If you can break the rules though and make it convincing - go for it -

I think you should just write everyday - even if you don't feel inspired - because from writing inspiration often comes - Even if I start a session feeling like a depressed zombie, I can suddenly get an idea that excites me. There are times when nothing happens - zilch. So then I just study great songs - try and understand what made them work so fantastically - I find this acts as its own form of inspiration - but I guess it depends on how ambitious and analytical you are - if this doesn't apply, then I guess you are better off waiting for the muse. Though if you have an engineering background, you must have a love of form and pattern?