Your primary skill as a songwriter is to pick the right notes and right chords to go with the right words and right song title and write them into a song.

You write a song for whom?

Firstly, for the end listener. The person who will actually emotionally and financially buy the song, either through buying a CD or record or buying a live performance of the song.

Secondly, for the record company, who will turn a song into a product (like a record or CD) that can be delivered to the end user through radio or retail stores.

Thirdly, for radio programmers, who decide what their listeners will listen to.

Fourthly, for the performer of the song who has to provide a performance that the record company will want to capture and the radio station will want to play.

Now you could argue for more people to be added to this list or for this list to be reordered. But essentially these are the people for whom a recording songwriter writes.

So, now you know who to write for, how to become a songwriter for these listeners is the key question.

What key skills do you need to become a songwriter?

As a songwriter you must know how to write lyrics, how to write melody, how to write chords and how to write your song as a lead sheet. As a song owner and seller you must also know how to select the song to demo and how to record a compelling demo.

Put another way, as a songwriter, you are a lyric writer, a melody writer, a chord writer and a lead sheet writer. That is, to be considered a songwriter, you must write in these four dimensions.

You could be a solo songwriter like Billy Joel and Bob Dylan do all four things yourself. Or you could be part of a partnership like Lennon-McCartney or Holland-Dozier-Holland and specialise in either a lyric or music role or move between the roles, depending on the song.

Writing lyrics

So, how to become a lyric writer is one of the sub questions of the big question: how to become a songwriter.

The key skill is the ability to be able to tell a story rather than just throw words or rhymes together. One of your key lyric skills is to be able to create song titles and then write your lyric around that.

There are various conventions about loading your chorus up with your title lines and using your verse and bridge to support that line. In addition you need to learn to write your story within conventional forms.

Fortunately, there are loads of resources both on and offline that can teach you how to write lyrics. Naturally, to become a lyric writer you need to write habitually and exercise your skills daily.

The challenge of melody

Unfortunately there is not as much resource around that can support you in becoming a melody writer. Whereas there is a sound lyric writing literature available to songwriters, no comparable literature exists for melody writing skills.

Much of what passes for melody writing advice lives is often the twins of superstition and obscure theory in drag, neither of which actually tells the melody writer how to choose the best notes for their melody. Nor teach them how to become a songwriter.

The two main melodic skills you need are the concepts of contour and span. Contour means melodic direction and shape and whether any given note is at a higher, lower or same pitch as the previous one.

Jack Perricone identifies four contour shapes in his book entitled Melody in Songwriting: Tools and Techniques for Writing Hit Songs (Berklee Guide).

There are in fact hundreds of contours, depending on how many notes there are in your melodic phrase. These contours can effectively show you how to become a songwriter. At the moment there is only one melodywriting site online that educates songwriters about these melodic goldmines.

Span is also important to your melodies and ensures that you write for ordinary people who will sing and hum your melodies as they wash their car or vacuum their house or console themselves. Attention to span means you will write for your fans, not for virtuoso singers who never buy or sing pop music generally, let alone yours.

Anyone seriously wanting to know how to become a songwriter will not neglect melodic span.

Chords and harmony

Fortunately one area where songwriters are relatively well served is in the chord writing area. There is no shortage of stuff that teaches you scales, chords and chord progressions. Compared to learning lyric writing and melody writing, learning scales and chords is straight ahead, like learning a yellow pages directory.

The more songs you write, the more you realise how secondary chords and voicings are when you are dealing with the absolute core of songwriting: deciding which notes go best with which words.

Scales and chords are not useful at this time. They are very important however after you have selected the notes and words for your song and it’s time for an arranger and a producer to arrange your notes and words into voices and sounds that your fans will love.

Nevertheless, choosing the right chord for your melody is an important part of how to become a songwriter.

So in becoming a songwriter you are becoming a lyric writer, a melody writer and a chord writer. But as important as these skills are, the most important skill has not been mentioned yet.

Rhythm to song is like oxygen to life

A key part of how to become a songwriter is how to become a talker, reader, writer and player of rhythm.

While we can think of rhythm as being a separate concept (and there are good reasons for this view) it is so embedded in lyric, melody and harmony, that you need to understand how rhythm integrates each aspect as well as how it separates from each too.

Words consist of meaning and rhythm. Melody consists of pitch and rhythm. Harmony consists of simultaneous sound and rhythm. Rhythm consists of rhythm and timbre. There is no escaping the importance of rhythm and understanding, talking, reading, writing and playing rhythm is a key part of how to become a songwriter.

Again, like melody, the news is not so hot here.

Ethnomusicologists report on many cultures around the world who have rich, verbal languages for counting and talking rhythm. Musicians of South India are rich in this regard. Musicians of the west are not so blessed. Which slows our rhythm education down a bit. And hamstrings us as songwriters if we do not overcome this handicap.

Fortunately with the emergence of rhythmeggio–which is like the solfeggio for rhythm—songwriters now have a simple to learn language that allows them to talk, read and write rhythm like their first language.

And speed up their understanding of how to become a songwriter and their ability to write an acceptable number of songs to acceptable levels a lot quicker than they otherwise would.

How to become a songwriter in summary

So the keys aspects of successfully knowing how to become a songwriters lie in becoming proficient at writing lyric, at writing melody, at writing chords which in turn is accelerated by your ability to talk, read and write rhythm.

These are the skills that allow you to pick the right notes and right chords to go with your words and song title and so earn you the right to call yourself a songwriter.

Taura Eruera is an author of several books on guitar, harmony, rhythm and melody. He is also an APRA member who receives regular cheques for songs he has long forgotten writing. he lives in Auckland, New Zealand. You can learn more about how to become a songwriter, how to know rhythmeggio and melodic contour

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There are many things you can do with just one song in a fake book. In this piano lesson we will focus on the chords of a song and how we can use them in a piano practice session.

You can learn to play piano chords in many different ways. Here are just a few examples:

1. You can focus on just one chord memorizing it in twelve keys and then learning another chord the same way. This way of learning chords can be effective if you concentrate long enough on the chords committing them to your long term memory. Some people find this way of learning to mechanical and boring.

2. You can work on learning chord progressions by heart an then applying them in all twelve keys. You can find such chord voicings in piano method books or you can “invent” you own progressions and voicings. Maybe this approach is a little bit more interesting than the before mentioned method.

3. You can learn chords in a more creative way by just deciding to work on finding out variations of a chord as you sit down playing. For example, figure out as many nice sounding variations of the chord Cmaj7 as you can.

4. You can learn progressions and voicings in a more creative way too. For example, play the chord sequence C, A7, Dm7, G7 over and over again trying to create smooth chord changes in an improvised manner.

5. Compose your own chord progressions and write them down with sheet music notation. In the process of writing them down you will probably trigger your creative mind to come up with interesting piano chord voicings that you never have thought of before and that you also can share with others that can read sheet music.

6. Focus on a melody you like and use is as a basis for your piano chord practicing sessions. One melody can be the source of many chord exercises and at the same time you will have a melody at your disposal to play to others.

In this piano lesson we will focus on the sixth suggestion on piano chord practicing. Now we will delve a bit into the art of playing from a fake book.

Actually, what is a fake book?

It is a book with songs and melodies written with sheet music notation. It is produced in a concise format with only melody, lyrics and chord names. The songs have the lyrics beneath the notes and above the notes you will find the names of the appropriate chords to play. In other words, the notes of the chords are not written out. This way of notating gives you the choice to interpret the performance your own way.

Let us take a look at the previous suggestions on how to practice piano chord playing by using a fake book. Here are some ways you can play the chord suggestions above the melody:

1. The first step is to play the melody with your right hand and the chord voicings with your left hand. Practice to play the chords in different ways and practice to move smoothly between chords as you practice playing the chord changes.

2. The next step is to play the bass notes with your left hand and the melody and chords in your right hand. This means that some of the melody notes will be embellished with notes from the chord suggestions. You do not have to include the left hand bass note.

3. The third level is to use both your left and right hand to play chord notes. This can give the song a professional touch if handled with elegance. There are so many ways to play a song this way that it has to be covered in a separate article. You can listen to solo piano recordings to find inspiration. You can also play written out arrangements in sheet music notation of melodies to build up your ability and taste in this area.

Peter Edvinsson is a pianist, composer and music teacher. He invites you to download your free piano sheet music at http://www.capotastomusic.com

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This handset supports tri-band GSM mobile network apart from 3G (UMTS) networks. In absence of 3G, the handset uses its embedded GPRS technology to provide you with mobile internet at a decent speed. An Opera 8.0 web browser for hassle free surfing of WAP 2.0, xHTML and HTML web pages is available with this model. Its huge flash memory pool of 4GB makes you sure that none of your favourite tracks or videos is left out due to insufficient memory. The phone also comes with good quality video clip record feature.

As a leader of Walkman phones, the Sony Ericsson W950i exhibits great media playback skills. This handset is loaded with an advanced digital music player to satisfy your senses. You can enjoy all your favourite songs by using the dedicated music keys. These keys are built-in to make things easier for a music lover. You can keep all your favourite tracks and transfer music from your PC by using an USB cable or from the inherent music management software. Music features have also been improved as it comes with an album art support.

You can have this model and hassle free telephony for 12 to 18 months with the contract mobile phone deals. Here, you have to pay a security for period of time and then you are free from the monthly bills. All the leading mobile connectivity service providers are now offering such contracts. You can choose one of them.

Anastasia is an expert author and webmaster of Mobile Phones website. The website having details tariff of Mobile Phone Deals with Sony Ericsson W950i in UK mobile market.

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The trick is you don’t need a lot of material to begin with. JUST TWO BARS IS ENOUGH to start you on your way. I usually work within 8-bar phrases so I know that the melody will usually end or repeat itself after 8-bars. I say usually because sometimes, the melody does not want to fit nice and neat into a predefined 8-bar phrase. But more times than not, the 8-bar phrase will serve you well

Now, to be able to grow the initial 2-bars of inspired melody into 8, you can either harmonize the melody with a few chords or just write out the rest of the melody as it comes. Once I have the first 2-bars, I usually have already identified what Key the piece will be in. It then becomes a matter of choosing a few chords from the Key and the rest of the material is easily flushed out into 8-bars. In the piece “Rainforest,” I use 2 chords for an entire 8-bar phrase ( 4-bars for G Maj. and 4 for E-minor) and improvise the melody on top.

Music is characterized by certain qualities like, pitch, melody, rhythm, and frequency. And each type of music is again characteristic by certain degrees of these above mentioned qualities. A rhythmic music characterizes joy while a melody expresses romance. Again, a melody also expresses sorrows. For instance, Latin music is mostly featured by rhythm and certain genre of tune. Latin music is an expression of Bohemian lifestyle which very much complements Latin culture. Variation in melodies and rhythm leads to expression of varieties of emotions. If we look back to Western Classical, It connects us to something universal about human emotions. It makes us reach a transcendental stage of mind. However some composers opine that emotions conveyed through music is something quite abstract and varies according to the different perception of different individuals. One of the notable composers of Western Classical music was, Ludwig Van Beethoven, who gifted the world with musical masterpieces despite of being paralyzed with deafness at very young age (twenty eight). He can be regarded as the profounder of Romantic era of Western classical. Eastern Classical or specifically Indian Classical music has a number of sections and categories. However the two major sections are Hindustani Music from North India and the Carnatic Music from South India.

Each of the songs are known as “Ragas”. The melodies contained in each of these “ragas” reflects various moods according to different times during the day. The Indian Classical music is mainly monophonic, that is, it is based on a single line of melody and has to be sung at a specific rhythm. Any deviation from the above rule is considered as a mistake. Even Folk music conveys something about the culture and lifestyle of a particular region. To be more specific, it generally narrates some popular folk tales of that region. When lyrics are put in a tune, it becomes a song. However, music can also be purely instrumental where one derives pleasure from the tune only. Beautiful notes of pianos, violin, guitars, expresses emotions without any words. Music can express most of human emotions. It expresses joy, ecstasy, romance, and also sorrows, pathos, and agony. In the words of P.B Shelly “Our sweetest songs are those which tells us our saddest thoughts”. Surprisingly, a simple song which is sung from the heart gives us more pleasure than a complex one which is often influenced by human artifacts. Maybe this is a reason why pop songs and rocks are also quite popular today. It is also quite true that likings for particular kind of music largely depends upon the temperaments of individuals. This is the reason why some prefer soft melodies while some like hard rocks. It can be reasonably argued that music is not only an expression of emotions, it is emotion itself. Music without an emotional message is like vacuum. It is like a flower without essence.

The impression of music in human mind is beautifully depicted by William Wordsworth in his poetry “The Solitary Reaper”. The poet is mesmerized by the touching song sung by a lass while the latter was reaping in a field. Though the language of the song was completely unknown to him, he was deeply moved by the emotions conveyed through the notes of her song. The music had left an indelible impression in his mind and in the later years of his life, he sadly reminisces “The music in my heart I bore, long after it was heard no more”. There are lots of sites on the net from where you can send Music Ecards to your friends, colleagues and loved ones like 123greetings.com

Sean Carter writes on holidays, music emotions, Music. He also writes on family, relationships, women’s issues birthdays, inspiration, religion, love and friendship. He is a writer with special interest in ecard industry. He writes for 123greetings.com

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The country-western fan may not like jazz, but he or she sure loves the sound of pickin’ & grinnin’.

And that’s as it should be. If we all liked the same kind of music, there just wouldn’t be the variety that is available to us now. We can choose from musical styles ranging from heavy classical and opera to rock to children’s songs to Broadway musicals to gospel music to the blues.

Each has its place, and each seems on the surface to be drastically different than another form of music. The key word is “on the surface.” But beneath the surface of all music is a commonality that is organic to all forms and styles of music.

So what does all music have in common? What makes music tick?

At least 3 things – sometimes more, but never less:

1. Melody

2. Rhythm

3. Harmony

The melody is the part of a song or composition that you whistle or hum – in other words, the tune of the song. In one sense, it is the most visible of the 3 elements, because melody is what identifies a song. Without melody, it would be difficult to even conceive of a song or piece.

In musical notation, the melody is almost always written in the treble clef – also known as the treble staff. It consists of a horizontal line of notes that move up and down on the clef as the tune moves higher or lower.

Rhythm is the beat – the swing – the throb of the music. It happens in repeating patterns, depending upon the type of music. It is like a horizontal line of beats which occur at regular or semi-regular intervals. A waltz, for example, basically consists of a heavy beat followed by two lighter beats. So we say that a waltz is in triple meter – one strong beat followed by two weak beats, then repeated.

A march, on the other hand, generally consists of a heavy beat followed by a light beat, then another heavy beat followed by another light beat. (I’m simplifying, of course – there are many varieties…) So a march is in duple meter – as you might expect since we have two feet and we march in left-right-left-right patterns.

All rhythms are some combination of triple meter and/or duple meter, and the possibilities are endless – from boogie to R&B to mambos and sambas and bossa novas and….on and on.

Harmony, the 3rd aspect of music, is the musical background of a song – the chords, or intervals “behind” the melody. Without harmony, a song sounds empty – like a vocalist singing without an accompanist – or accapella. Music doesn’t HAVE to have harmony to function, but in actual practice it almost always does, even if it is just the interplay of two melodies, as in counterpoint.

You could spend a lifetime learning all the nuances of music, but it its most basic form, it is these 3 elements combined together; melody, rhythm, and harmony that comprise music.

Duane Shinn is the author of over 500 music books and music educational materials such as DVD’s, CD’s, musical games for kids, chord charts, musical software, and piano lesson instructional courses for both children & adults. His book & DVD course titled “How To Dress Up ‘Naked Music’ On The Piano!” is used by adults around the world. He holds advanced degrees from Southern Oregon University and was the founder of Piano University in Southern Oregon. He is the author of the popular free 101-week online e-mail newsletter titled “Amazing Secrets Of Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Chord Progressions” with over 59,700 current subscribers.

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I want to talk about musical instruments. There are two kinds, rythmic: drums, congas, percussion, and more, and melody: piano, guitar, horns, and more. Music is the only art you can hear and see. Music has been around as long as humans have lived. It has lead tribes and built relationships. It has been a lasting relationship to human communication.

Music can strengthen the soul and help dreams come true. It has a power no other creative force has. It will make you think, make you dance and help your mind understand what it has not been able to until you hear it. From Norwegian Wood to You Really Got Me, music has a wide range of feelings. If you are bold enough pick up an instrument and begin to play it. That takes guts, do it it can heal or mend your soul.

Rythmic instruments are a way to set the core of music. Melody instruments tell the story, they decide the tone of what you want to say. You must understand the difference of the instruments to understand.

Pick up an instrument yourself and understand what you want to do. Then take lessons from someone that does understand, and see if it fits you. I believe everyone should do this whether you want to make it a success or just understand the meaning of music. Think for yourself about this. It is a wonderful world, the world of music.

If it does fit your mind, study, study, study, and you will become proficient. The world is yours. Then write words or find a partner that can. Elton John writes the music, while Barry Taupin writes the words. They have been very successful. This is a creative way that has no rules, they change with the times. Be an innovator…! We need you.

Please play an instrument and widen your horizon and your mind, be the best you can!

Play an instrument…!

Teddy 2008

About the Author
Teddy Mueller started his career as the drummer for classic rock band Axe, touring with Ozzy Osbourne, Kiss, Judas Priest, Motley Crue, Ted Nugent, Cheap Trick, ZZ Top, Iron Maiden, Joan Jett, Alice Cooper, and many, many more, Teddy has been around the world playing his drums and played for crowds of over 50,000 people! Since then, Teddy is a voting Grammy member as well as working in the retail business environment as manager and district manager for major retail companies. To learn more about Teddy Mueller, visit his website: http://TeddyMueller.com

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