Graham English

If you make music with Logic Studio, you’ll be interested in a tutorial I just published showing you a cool time-saving trick for your Logic Studio Templates.

TextMate is my second favorite app right behind Logic Studio. I’ve written about my TextMate love affair a lot. In this tutorial, I wanted to share how I use TextMate to write and analyze lyrics, including tips for finding the perfect rhyme and spotlighting important ideas.

Just a couple of links for you to peruse over Labor Day.

If you hear some music and don’t know what it is, figure it out immediately. The next time you hear the same chord progression, melodic structure, or rhythm, you’ll probably know what it is. It’s usually as simple as that, and not unlike looking up a word you don’t know in the dictionary. Read on…

I’m running a little poll to help me better serve you. If you could take just a moment to answer the following question, I’d greatly appreciate it. Read on…

The concept is this: To be a good, competent songwriter, it will take 1,000 hours of practice. If you want to be a great songwriter, it will take 5,000 hours. Read on…

Mind Hacks pointed me to an interesting study by science journal PLoS One on the cognitive neuroscience of Jazz.

I’ve talked about the Shepard Tone before but NewScientist has just posted Five great auditory illusions.

It’s the 5th annual February Album Writing Month. The challenge? Write an entire album in just 29 days. Read on…

Here’s some recent podcasts from around the web that I’ve been inspired by musically. Read on…

Make 2008 the year you master songwriting like a Samurai masters his sword! Download Samurai Songwriting issues 1 and 2 PLUS the John Lennon Hit Songwriting two-part telesminar for one super low price. Read on…

In preparation for my 2008 song-a-week project, I wanted some numbers to give me an idea of how much writing I would need to do. Using the 80/20 rule, here is what I came up with.

Here’s an exercise I love to do when I need inspiration for song titles. If nothing’s coming naturally, this trick can really get the creative juices flowing. Even if I end up using nothing that I come up with, I find that within a day or two, one of my ideas will trigger something completely different, usable, and inspiring.

Music is like a language. And we all know that learning languages comes easier when you’re a child. And in some ways, it’s much easier for a child to learn music, especially to learn how to play by ear. Putting two and two together, you might ask yourself what is the difference between an adult [...]

MindHacks pointed me to the just launched Musicophilia, the site and book by Oliver Sacks, a neurologist who has become quite popular publishing books about his patients and who also contributes to the advancement of music as a powerful tool for healing and awakening.

If you don’t already write songs regularly, then it’s safe to say that you don’t yet have a songwriting habit. Because if you did, you would feel compelled to write songs every day and perhaps all day long.

The Collaborative Piano Blog started 31 days to better practicing on October 1st. I’m only just finding it but so far it looks like some really good advice. It would probably go well with my schedule to turbocharge your practicing.

So far, hundreds of Diggers are getting their mind’s blown over the Shepard tone audio Illusion. I have to agree. Listen to what I mean. When the video is done playing, replay it to hear the exact same audio seem to continually rise in pitch.

All you have to do is take this quick and easy 2 minute survey below!

If you’re a writer, of course you know what the word metaphor means. But you might not know that the word was first introduced in the year 1447 with the book The Ordinal of Alchemy by Thomas Norton. Alchemists, because of the forbidden tradition of writing down spells and secrets of their art, had to be obscure when transmitting their esoteric knowledge to prime pupils. Thus, the term metaphor was born.