Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange
Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [songwriting]

For questions about writing a song from end to start and the ideas and techniques behind it.

Songwriting can be thought of a more modern style of composing. There is a lot of overlap including determining form, determining the harmony, determining the instrumentation, and creating a melody. The unique feature that songwriting has is it is the lyrics which are typically at the heart of songwriting and drive it.

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What is the difference between 'chorus' and 'refrain'?

I'm trying to learn something about song structure. Reading the Wikipedia article about the subject I came across two terms that looked somewhat similar: chorus and refrain. There seemed to be a debate about the definitions for both words. The…
Charlie
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How do I get out of my song writing rut and compose something new and fresh for a change?

I have been writing melodies for my original lyrics since 2008 and have written quite a few songs in that time. But the more songs I write, the more difficult it becomes to write melodies that don't sound like one of my other songs. Sometimes I…
Rockin Cowboy
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Song Structure: What's up with Verse/Chorus/Verse 2/Chorus/Verse 3/Bridge/Chorus?

Doesn't matter if it's Rage Against The Machine or Britney Spears song structures are always the same. It always goes something like: Verse/Chorus/Verse 2/Chorus/Verse 3/Bridge/Chorus. Why? Why is this such an accepted structure? What's the draw…
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The Chords in this progression sound great but don't belong together - so why do they work?

I am a songwriter and compose my own music to go with my lyrics. Most of my chord progressions follow common patterns like using a I V IV or I IV V with an occasional ii or iii or vi chord thrown in for good measure. But I am always looking for…
Rockin Cowboy
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Which would benefit my band the most, learning covers or writing originals?

I've been playing the guitar for nearly four years, and I think I'm getting better at it.My brother plays the drums, and our two cousins play the guitar well. When we had all met last time, we wanted to do something fun. Two of us wanted to write a…
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Is writing lyrics similar to writing poetry?

I'm having trouble writing my first lyrics for a song. I think the main point I'm having difficulty with is how a lyric sentence is written? I know it's not written like a novel but similar to a poem but not exactly because lyrics are suppose to be…
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Lead guitar improvisation strategies for young intermediate guitarists

One of my 15 year old students is progressing quite nicely in her ability, including playing live and playing learned guitar parts including lead lines. She reads music and can play many classical and more recently rock and blues. One thing that is…
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Is it acceptable to change tempo in the middle of a song or is this a bad idea?

I wrote a song that could be classified as Pop or Country that starts out at a medium slow tempo in the first two verses and bridge. Then there is a section after the bridge that can best be described as an extended third verse followed by an outro…
Rockin Cowboy
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Does the starting note for a song have to be the starting note of its scale?

Does a scale always have to start off with the note it is named after? For example, the Dm scale is defgab♭cd`. If I wanted to sing a song in D minor, would I have to start with the note D? Or could it be any note as long as it's within the scale?…
skyfox009
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Is it necessary to use only notes and chords that belong in a specific scale?

I used to think it is necessary to at least follow the chords of a scale until I came across the Nirvana song "Lithium" and I realized the notes and chords he used in the song don't fit in any scale! so does that mean its OK to do that? chords he…
Ali Rocker
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What key could the progression Cm - G - Dm - Am be in?

I'm working on a song (my first ever actually) and I love the chord sequence: Cm - G - Dm - Am I started off working in C-Major, but borrowed Cm from the parallel minor key C-Minor. But really, in my mind, it's in A-Minor not C-Major... however is…
Mr. Boy
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Is making things over-complicated a common mistake for new songwriters?

I've never seriously tried writing a song until this week but I have tried putting interesting progressions together and I noticed I always end up doing something a bit different. Obviously, interesting music is great but should a brand new…
Mr. Boy
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Creating conga part in lilypond

I'd like to score a congas part in lilypond, but I can't figure out how. I've found the lilypond documentation on it here, but I can't understand it, especially this bit: There are also other layout possibilities. To use these, set the property…
theonlygusti
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How "hard" to read is this rhythm? A rhythmic comparison

I've recently heard a rhythm that sounded like this It seems slightly tricky to play it perfectly, so I wonder if I could somehow improve this writing to make it more natural and "readable". For example, what if I simply wrote and added some…
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Lyric writing - books or essays?

Musical friends, I'm a competent writer of all forms of prose, dialouge, screenplays, and so on. But I have a secret desire ... I've always wanted to be able to write songs, that is to say song lyrics - catchy pop songs! :) Now for example, people…
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