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[RHYTHM] Visualizing Relative Beat Strength

March 2, 2009 By Graham English

Relative Beat Strength

I was taught to organize rhythms into increments of two measures at a time. Some beats/pulses get a natural emphasis in relation to their placement in the measure. I put together this illustration of the most natural points of relative emphasis in a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Music Education, Prose Tagged With: beat strength, illustration, meter, music beats, Music Education, music fundamentals, music lessons, music notation, music perception, Music Theory, pulse, relative beat strength, rhythm, visualizing

The Perfect Song Title – 5 Things To Remember

November 26, 2006 By Graham English

Place Your Song Title At Key Points In The Chorus Your song title is more likely to be remembered if it is placed in the first or last line of the chorus. Place Emphasis On Your Song Title In The Chorus Support your song title by giving it a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Music Education, Prose Tagged With: chorus, contrast, harmony, lyric writing, lyrics, melody, rhyme, rhythm, song titles, Songwriting, songwriting techniques, songwriting tips, spotlights, writing lyrics

Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast 08-22-06

August 22, 2006 By Graham English

Topics covered: Chord progressions, I-IV-V, The blues, classical music, mashups, melody, modal progressions, music software, rhythm... Download: Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast 08-22-06 … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Audio, Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast, Music Education Tagged With: blues, chord changes, chord progressions, classical music, Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast, mashups, melody, modal, modes, music software, podcasts, rhythm, Songwriting, SongwritingHacks

How To Master Musical Textures

August 10, 2006 By Graham English

How To Master Musical Textures

If you need more compositional choices or your music needs more depth, you might want to play with the textural qualities of music. This won't be difficult because I've prepared a textural dictionary for you. Polyphonic, while literally meaning … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Music Education, Prose Tagged With: Arnold Schoenberg, bass, composing, composition, contrast, counterpoint, dictionary, harmony, Music Theory, musical textures, polyphonic, polyphony, reference, rhythm

Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast 08-09-06

August 9, 2006 By Graham English

Topics covered: Top 10 Lyric Writing Insights, line length, contrasting ideas, melody, metaphor, prosody, rhyme schemes, rhythm, song forms, spotlights... Download: Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast 08-09-06 … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Audio, Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast, Music Education Tagged With: contrast, contrasting ideas, development, hit songwriting tips, Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast, line length, lyric writing, lyrics, melody, metaphor, perspective, podcasts, point of view, prosody, rhyme, rhyme schemes, rhythm, setting, song forms, Songwriting, songwriting tips, SongwritingHacks, spotlights, stress, verb tense

Get Your Creative Juices Flowing

March 21, 2006 By Graham English

Give me 5 minutes and I'll show you how to instantly find unique and interesting details to put into your lyrics. The technique is called Object Writing and it's so ridiculously easy that you'll be pissed you didn't know about it sooner. I learned … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Music Education, Prose Tagged With: abstract, chorus, creativity, CreativityHacks, details, don't tell, emotions, heart, lyric writing, meaning, Object Writing, Pat Pattison, perspective, rhyme, rhythm, senses, show, Songwriting, SongwritingHacks, verses, writing, writing lyrics

Don’t Forget Square One…

March 8, 2006 By Graham English

I've noticed a lot of resistance to "songwriting rules". Most of the criticism falls in the Craft vs. Inspiration camp. And my defense is always that it isn't an either-or argument. From Don't forget square one...: Horse trainer Linda Parelli … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Music Education, Prose Tagged With: athletes, craft, fundamentals, inspiration, Language, lyric setting, lyrics, mastery, meter, morphogenetic grooves, note length, rhythm, rules, Songwriting, stress

Songwriting For Busy People

February 10, 2006 By Graham English

Mind Hacks posted how choice is demotivating when there are too many options. "Offer students a choice of 6 essays, rather than 30 essays, for extra-credit and more will take up the opportunity if there is less choice of essay titles - and, what … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Music Education, Prose Tagged With: GarageBand, GTD, harmony, iPod, iTunes, Logic Pro, lyrics, melody, MindHacks, mood markings, music notation, recorded audio, rhythm, song titles, Songwriting, tags, tempo, writing lyrics, Writing Music

How Do You Develop New And Interesting Chord Changes?

February 8, 2006 By Graham English

Here's a handful of my top techniques that I use to develop new and interesting chord changes. 1. Stick with I-IV-V I know, it's not new, but I-IV-V doesn't have to be uninteresting. There's a reason why these chords are so fundamental to our … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Music Education, Prose Tagged With: blues, chord changes, chord progressions, classical music, contrast, mashups, melody, modal, modes, music software, rhythm, Songwriting, songwriting techniques, SongwritingHacks

Top 10 Lyric Writing Insights

February 6, 2006 By Graham English

*Before I continue, and I'll say this many times, I operate under the assumption that the opposite of everything I say is equally true. Including the opposite of what I just said. :) Here's my top 10 lyric writing insights: 1. The rhythm of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Music Education, Prose Tagged With: consonance, contrast, contrasting ideas, details, development, don't tell, line length, lyric writing, lyrics, melody, metaphor, perspective, point of view, prosody, rhyme, rhyme schemes, rhythm, rules, setting, show, song forms, Songwriting, SongwritingHacks, spotlights, stress, verb tense, writing lyrics

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Graham is a singer/songwriter and jazz-trained keyboard player, music producer and studio musician, best-selling author of Logic Pro X For Dummies, and serial entrepreneur.

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