August 24, 2006 – The International Songwriting Competition (ISC) is now accepting entries for 2006. One of the largest songwriting competitions in the world, ISC offers entrants a chance to share in over $150,000 in cash and prizes, including an Overall Grand Prize package of $25,000 (US) in cash and over $20,000 in merchandise, unmatched […]
Toby is a great songwriter. I remember sitting in the Bluebird in Nashville and him coming in to play a writers night, just like anyone else. No one knew who he was, had ever seen him, or even knew that in a few short weeks he’d release his first Major label record… before […]
For me writing lyrics has always been one of the hardest parts of putting a song together. When I played in a band we could bring in a chord progression or a riff we’d came up with or else jam something up in practice and work the music up to a full song from there […]
(This is the final article in the series “Songwriting For Beginners”. We are filing the series under the Songwriting Basics category.)
Last week we ran a series on Songwriting For Beginners that was remarkably successful. We hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for all the kind comments and thanks to Jeff Oxenford for contributing such a great […]
I have a ton of live photos from songwriting competitions and songwriter-in-the-round performances. As you may know, lighting for pictures can sometimes be tricky. If you turn on your camera flash, you wash out all the cool lighting. But if you turn OFF your camera flash, you run the risk of your picture being too […]
(This is an article in the series “Songwriting For Beginners”. We are filing the series under the Songwriting Basics category.)
Question: How do you stop a guitarist from playing?
Answer: Put music in front of him.
That’s me. I can’t read music and I doubt I ever will. However, over the last three years, I’ve learned just enough […]
(This is an article in the series “Songwriting For Beginners”. We are filing the series under the Songwriting Basics category.)
Great beginning and great ending
One of the first things I learned was the importance of focusing on the beginning and ending of the song. A great beginning will get folks wanting more; a great ending will […]
Jeff has been contributing some articles on the basics of songwriting.
Read on for a little bit about Jeff from the man himself …
“I’ve been writing songs for over 20 songs. I’m not a professional songwriter, I have never sold a song, or even tried to. I started writing music because I hated trying to […]
(This is an article in the series “Songwriting For Beginners”. We are filing the series under the Songwriting Basics category.)
The great thing about music is that there are so many different possibile structures. The structure I focus on is American folk music. Within this category, the possibilities are still endless, but hopefully I can give […]
(This is an article in the series “Songwriting For Beginners”. We are filing the series under the Songwriting Basics category.)
There are many approaches to getting ideas for songs. Below are some that I use and recommend. The basic idea, in almost all of these approaches, is the free capture of ideas rather than starting by […]
