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For the past 7-8 years, I've been making music only for "commercial" purposes - production libraries, film scoring, trailers, promos, corporate, etc. During this time, I haven’t written a single "personal" song, simply because I got into a mode of channeling all my musical energy into projects...

I stumbled onto yet another interesting YT video related to songwriting and chord progressions. This time it has a name: The Royal Road progression - or in Japanese: Odo Shinko. Apparently, it's overwhelmingly popular in Japan, not only for pop songs, but also in anime and video game...

I stumbled onto this video the other day, and thought I’d share with the group. The video presents some of the most common 4-chord progressions in every mode. Don’t worry if you’re unfamiliar with modes - you don’t need to know theory to make use of these progressions. I love this kind of...

I wrote this song about 15 years ago, primarily to add to our jam night repertoire with my guitar-playing buddies. It was nothing more than a typical singer-songwriter tune with no particular genre affiliation - just a plain old singing and strumming song. But several years later, when I...

One of last year's biggest pop songs was Golden from the K-Pop Demon Hunters movie. It topped the Billboard charts for multiple weeks, won the Golden Globe for best song, was nominated for a best song Grammy, is up for an Oscar, and is undeniably one of the key contributors to K-Pop's...

There was a healthy surge of activity around here during the last quarter of 2025. But once the end-of-year holidays hit, folks pretty much disappeared, including myself. Hopefully, there are good reasons for everyone's absences... the best reason of all being you're all consumed with frenzied...

Here’s a fun holiday song written and performed by my wife. And it just so happens the story behind the song serves up a useful songwriting lesson for us all. In the 1990s, my wife was signed to a publisher that licensed music to soap operas. Consequently, throughout most of the decade, my...

About 20 years ago, I went back east to help pack up my wife’s parents home and facilitate their transition to an assisted living facility. The process of going through their all their stuff was like opening a giant time capsule filled with vestiges of their younger lives. My father-in-law was...

Posted this over on VI-C, but thought I'd throw it over here, too. This is such a classic hip-hop thing that's been around forever, I feel like an idiot for not knowing how to do this. It's the first 4 beats in this clip that go: kick-suck kick-suck kick-suck kick-suck... I'm guessing...

For the past couple of weeks, I've been configuring my new studio PC - it's been a surprisingly time-consuming ordeal. Last night, I finally got to a point where I could successfully load old projects into my DAW with all dependencies on plugins and libraries fully intact :dancer: One of the...

Hey @Mike Greene, I was about to post some short audio clips of my first attempts with SoundID VoiceAI, but much to my chagrin, discovered we're only allowd to upload image files :( Over on VI-C, I've always been able to upload MP3s. Any chance that same capability can be enabled here? 🙏 Many...

This is a special song for me because of its association with Dan Hicks. Allow me to explain... For those who don't know, Dan Hicks was a uniquely gifted songwriter who forged his own quirky musical style that blended Western swing, folk, bluegrass, and jazz, with lyrics that were often laced...

I know I'm really late to the party, but I only just recently became aware of the phenomenal pop songs that emerged from the "KPop Demon Hunters" movie. I haven't actually watched the movie, but was exposed to the songs on Rick Beato's latest Spotify Top 10 survey video, and was INSTANTLY...

I've got work to do today that I really don't want to do, so I came here for some work avoidance distraction. Below are 10 quotes related to songwriting, and the names of the 10 people who uttered them. If you feel so inclined, try to correctly match them up. I'll post the answers in a few...

I recently stumbled onto this great little mini-documentary (30 mins long) about Tin Pan Alley and the rise of American popular song. It turns out, it was made by Lucasfilm in 2007 as part of a collection of 96 historical mini-docs for the Young Indiana Jones DVD set. They're solidly produced...

I'm sure many of you are aware that ASCAP (and I'm sure BMI too) sponsors a variety of songwriting workshops throughout the year. There are several happening in October and November, plus more coming in 2026. Here's the current lineup: You can get detailed descriptions and registration info...

In 2021, my wife and I scored a feature documentary, but due to COVID’s impact on the entertainment biz, the producers decided to delay the film’s release. So it wasn’t until late 2022 that it first hit the festival circuit, where it did very well, earning awards and receiving critical praise...

It's time again for the big West Coast Songwriters annual conference... 2025 SONGWRITERS CONFERENCE TICKETS ON SALE NOW! This year’s West Coast Songwriters Conference is shaping up to be one of the most impactful gatherings yet—bringing together industry leaders, songwriters, and innovators...

I once had a friend who was a nice enough guy, but he could also be annoyingly judgmental, frequently ridiculing people for their flaws, and acting like he was always the smartest person in the room. His behavior often irritated me and, over the years, caused several rifts between us. One...

I’m a bit of a personal archivist. By that I mean, I’ve always been pretty diligent about documenting or keeping records related to my life. For example, I’m one of those guys who has scanned and digitized all my family’s photos and home movies, dating back beyond when I was alive, carefully...