Posts Tagged ‘Video Lessons’

Often when we talk about key elements of a song, you’ll hear people talk opening song lines. They’ll say things like, that’s where you grab the listener’s attention, and that’s where you set the scene of the song. Or maybe if you don’t do it right, you’re going to lose the listener at the very…

Want the best set up for your big hooky chorus? Work on your conversation skills — your conversational verse melody skills, that is. Publishers, artists and producers will tell you they are either looking for or trying to create that next hit chorus — or, at the very least, a chorus that resonates with their…

Want to make your songs contemporary but also not lose that classic feel of great songs? Follow along as Hit Songwriter Clay Mills shares his secret weapon –the songwriter chord. This two-fingered major and minor 10th chord voicing has  been used on many mega hits throughout the history of recorded music. So, Grab an instrument,…

The Melancholy Chord Substitution. I’ve been blessed to get away with some interesting chord changes over the course of my songwriting career. Those songs found their way onto pop and country mainstream radio—two formats that, right or wrong, have a rap for simple chords.   Whether it was sneaking in a 2 Major Sus chord…

If you’re like me, you’ve probably noticed over the last year that there have been quite a few songs popular in both pop and country music that have the same chords in the verse and the chorus. Yet, they still manage to keep the songs interesting. So today I wanted to talk about a technique…

Recognizing Patterns Today, a friend of mine posted on Facebook, a song by Bruce Springsteen. It’s an old song called “My Hometown”, and it kind of struck me. I often encourage people, when they listen to melodies, to try to recognize patterns. I hadn’t heard this song in a long time, and the first thing…