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    86 Songwriting Tips: Useful Advice And Ideas For The Start-Up Songwriter!
    86 Songwriting Tips: Useful Advice And Ideas For The Start-Up Songwriter!
    86 Songwriting Tips: Useful Advice And Ideas For The Start-Up Songwriter!
    Ebook142 pages1 hour

    86 Songwriting Tips: Useful Advice And Ideas For The Start-Up Songwriter!

    By Matt King

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    About this ebook

    Are you new to the world of songwriting and lacking inspiration? Struggling with writers' block or just don't know where to start?

    In this exclusive eBook you'll discover a compilation of 86 tips, advice and exercises to get you writing more often than you ever have before. With ten sections each dedicated to a specific part of songwriting, every potential area is touched upon in a way that allows you to think creatively and expand on your own personal songwriting style.

    In this eBook the sections you will delve into include:

    Section One: Getting started!
    Section Two: Getting stuck?
    Section Three: Lyric troubleshooting!
    Section Four: Creating the melody!
    Section Five: Analysing!
    Section Six: Writing hit songs!
    Section Seven: Production tips!
    Section Eight: Finding inspiration!
    Section Nine: Random ideas!
    Section Ten: General tips and advice!
    Useful Links

    Not only that but scores, tablature and exercises are offered along the way to assist and help you get practical with relevant tips. This eBook is for the aspiring musician who is new to the world of songwriting and looking to discover their true artistic potential. From teaching you how to write every day to advising you on how to keep your work safe, 86 songwriting tips: Useful advice and ideas for the start-up songwriter! is an accessible, well-rounded approach to the world of songwriting.

    "A truly admirable job that puts together a wide variety of motivational tips for songwriters of all levels" - professional songwriter Cliff Goldmacher

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMatt King
    Release dateJul 9, 2015
    ISBN9781311881038
    86 Songwriting Tips: Useful Advice And Ideas For The Start-Up Songwriter!
    Author

    Matt King

    Matt King is currently in his final year of a BA honours degree in musical performance whilst writing and performing regularly in his spare time. He has written and recorded songs for local radio stations and co-written, produced and collaborated with pop-dance act Feryl who has toured all over Europe performing their songs. His music has over 800,000 views on YouTube and is always interested in working with new artists of any style.

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    • 5/5
      Useful tips. Good complement to a good book on songwriting.

    Book preview

    86 Songwriting Tips - Matt King

    86 SONGWRITING TIPS:

    Useful advice and ideas for the start-up songwriter!

    Matt King

    Copyright 2015 Matt King

    Published by Matt King at Smashwords

    Smashwords Edition, License Notes

    This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favourite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

    Table of Contents

    Acknowledgements

    Preface

    Section One: Getting started!

    Section Two: Getting stuck?

    Section Three: Lyric troubleshooting!

    Section Four: Creating the melody!

    Section Five: Analysing!

    Section Six: Writing hit songs!

    Section Seven: Production tips!

    Section Eight: Finding inspiration!

    Section Nine: Random ideas!

    Section Ten: General tips and advice!

    Useful Links

    About Matt King

    Other work by Matt King

    How to get in contact

    References

    Acknowledgements

    I’d like to thank Valerie Kiln-Barfoot for tolerating me talking endlessly about songwriting ideas.

    Thank you to the late Nathan Goodridge who was the greatest drummer and musician I ever had the privilege to write and perform music with.

    Thanks to Cliff Goldmacher, Benjamin Poulter and everybody who’s given feedback and contributed to the creation of this eBook.

    Thank you to Smashwords for their incredible service whom none of this would have been possible without.

    Thanks to the websites www.1001fonts.com and www.pixabay.com for providing fonts and images that are free for commercial use.

    And thank you to you for buying this e-book. I wish you all the success on your songwriting journey.

    Preface

    Art (noun): The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.

    When I first told people I was in the process of creating this eBook I received two queries. Most of them were how on earth are you going to come up with so many tips about writing songs? and the others were Can you really write enough?!. The latter was from some of the most innovative and creative minds I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with or meet. That attitude right there, in my opinion is what can make a great artist. Somebody who doesn’t see the boundaries many others might and don’t limit themselves to be creative inside the box.

    The problem is, as musicians we can get caught up on what the correct thing or way to write is. We often become scared of making mistakes or being perceived as bad, stupid or even absurd, so we stay in our safe little boxes, becoming ever more critical of what we produce and even discourage ourselves from writing completely. This can often be the cause of what creates ruts and creative blocks. Does this sound like you? It isn’t your fault; you were taught to do this as a child.

    Studies have shown that between the ages of 5 to 14 you are at your most optimal learning and creative peak. Everything is new, exciting and you aren’t so afraid of making mistakes, until you get taught that making them is a bad thing. Of course, if this wasn’t the case you wouldn’t look both ways before crossing the road or you’d run with scissors. Once we hit our mid-teens we gradually become more analytical, opinionated and accept our ideas of the world from what we understand it to be. This in turn makes us less flexible and less open-minded in the way we think as we become adults as we start to use the left side of our brain more. (For a more in-depth discussion of this, check out Sir Ken Robinsons’ brilliant TED Talk on creativity and education: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY)

    So how does any of this relate to writing music? Well as an artist you probably consider yourself to be a fairly open-minded person, or at least when it comes to music. Well imagine the most extreme example of a close minded musician. Somebody who thinks you should only ever play in the key of A natural minor, no other key and no other scale because they like the sound of it. Seems a bit ridiculous doesn’t it? Well you get many artists with this perspective about many things, just maybe not so specific. They may consider certain artists, instruments or styles to not be worthy of their attention or don’t see a place for them in their music.

    You may think Well the other end of the creative spectrum is a wacky, nonsensical lunatic playing a solo on a toothbrush…how would that make me a good songwriter?. True as that may be, why would somebody of that level of eccentricity necessarily be wrong with what they’re expressing? It’s different and unique; I doubt there are many other toothbrush players out there. However, that person would arguably be much more open to out of the box ideas and styles of thinking than the person reluctant to play anything that isn’t in the key of A minor.

    Music is constantly evolving and that evolution happens because people try new things. Without those people, things would get pretty boring and stagnant. Producers and songwriters who have the expectation of writing before a deadline may write to the theme of something that’s current and relative but they still have to make something about it stand out. If you want to be somebody who writes for mainstream artists (or want to be a famous artist yourself) then you’ll be trying to write something that’s seems familiar to the general public, however, it stills needs to have something about it unique for it to last. Some of the most annoyingly catchy, novelty pop songs were conceived from thinking uniquely and not from a place of criticism.

    So what can you expect from this book and how should you use it?

    This is simply a compilation of 86 tips and advice for the practical songwriter who may need some ideas/advice to get them writing. Many tips may have just as easily fit into more than one section but they will be found in the section that most relates to the point being made. Read through it from front to finish at your own leisure, find a relevant tip to help your specific problem (maybe try the "Getting stuck? to overcome writers block) or simply try out a random tip for fun. Some of them may solely be advice whilst others might just be a short little exercise to try out or maybe a combination of the two. You might find some of them contradict each other because nothing here is clear-cut or absolute. It’s all open for interpretation and if you want to get in contact to challenge or criticize some of them then please do! Just visit the How to get in contact" section and get debating.

    Throughout, you’ll find relevant URL links to articles or videos for more in-depth information, scores/tabs, fun exercises to try out, random music facts and the odd drawing or image for some edutainment.

    SPOILER ALERT: This E-book isn’t going to give you all the answers. I don’t believe any book or person can, which is the beauty

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