Gary Ewer – Controlling the Emotional Impact of Lyric s

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Gary Ewer

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How do songwriters make a strong emotional connection to the listener? One way they do it is by carefully controlling the emotional content of the lyric. From verse to pre-chorus to chorus, the way the lyric is written has everything to do with how connected the audience feels. It’s vital to a song’s success.

In this video, Gary shows how lyrics change over the length of a song by referring to John Newman’s song “Losing Sleep.”

Check out Gary’s “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” eBook Bundle at bit.ly/SongbooksEwer

 

GARY EWER – Getting the Most Out of a Bridge Lyric

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GARY EWER   –   Getting the Most Out of a Bridge Lyric

http://www.secretsofsongwriting.com/2016/06/15/getting-the-most-out-of-a-bridge-lyric/

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 If you’ve been writing songs for a while, you’ll know that lyrics change in character as a song progresses. To generalize, you’ll notice the following:

VERSE LYRICS:

Verse lyrics set the stage, recount details of a story, describe characters, etc. It lays out the narrative, the storyline or general song topic.

CHORUS LYRICS:

Chorus lyrics describe an emotional reaction to the story. Chorus lyrics usually don’t add much in terms of the details of the story, but they certainly make it clear what the singer’s reaction to the story might be.

BRIDGE LYRICS:

And then we get to the bridge. As you likely know, a bridge section will take a song a bit further afield by bringing in new melodies built upon new chords (and generally, chords that take the song in a new direction). As an audience hears the bridge, they are usually aware that this new section is temporary; they expect to hear a return to the chorus, or a third verse (particularly for songs in verse-bridge format).

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Gary Ewer – Circle of Fifths Progressions

Gary Ewer

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Published on Mar 26, 2016

This is a re-editing of an old video I did back in 2011. Back in those days, I wasn’t overly comfortable with doing video, and that’s why I look a little like I’m reading my tax return. The info is all good, but… well, we get better with age. 😉 (Um, don’t we??)

The main problem with that earlier version of this video is that the background music was too loud. This version takes that background music out entirely. It’s taken me this long to do that because I lost the original source video…

These days, I try to make my videos more concise than this one, so in the next few weeks I’ll be creating a newer video to describe this very important concept, and this video (and the older version) will be deleted.

Gary Ewer – What Are Strong and Fragile Chord Progressions, and How Do I Use Them?

Gary Ewer

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There are many ways to categorize chord progressions, but one very useful way is to think of them as being either strong or fragile. Strong progressions clearly point to one chord as being the tonic (key) chord, while fragile ones are a little more ambiguous.

In this video, Gary Ewer describes the basic differences, and then shows how they work in the various sections of a typical pop song.

To see Gary’s songwriting manuals, visit http://www.secretsofsongwriting.com/p…

Gary Ewer – 5 Reasons To Include a Bridge In a Song’s Design

Gary Ewer

Gary Ewer – Getting Attention Using Your Vocal Range – 4-29-16

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Posted on April 29, 2016 by Gary Ewer

It’s interesting that music in pop genres has mainly favoured the tenor male voice. Most songs will sit in either the high baritone or tenor range. I say interesting, because I was reading recently about a recently-completed study that has examined how much we like or are drawn to high or low-pitched speaking voices.

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Controlling the Emotional Impact of Lyrics

Gary Ewer

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Published on Sep 23, 2015

How do songwriters make a strong emotional connection to the listener? One way they do it is by carefully controlling the emotional content of the lyric. From verse to pre-chorus to chorus, the way the lyric is written has everything to do with how connected the audience feels. It’s vital to a song’s success.

In this video, Gary shows how lyrics change over the length of a song by referring to John Newman’s song “Losing Sleep.”

Check out Gary’s “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” eBook Bundle at bit.ly/SongbooksEwer

Gary Ewer – When You Can’t Tell If You’re Hearing a Verse, a Chorus, or Something Else – 3-14-16

Posted on March 14, 2016 by Gary Ewer

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Constructing songs so that we hear verses, choruses, bridges, and so on, is a good and easy way to ensure that your music incorporates contrast. Even before hearing a particular song, we know that the chorus is likely to be higher in pitch, that the chorus chords will probably be stronger and shorter than the verse, that we can anticipate that the bridge melody and chords will wander into new key areas, and so on.

But then there are the songs where the declaring of specific sections of songs to be verses and choruses is not clear. A good example of this is McCartney’s “Martha My Dear“, from The Beatles’ White Album. It’s interesting to make note of how many times we hear this song move into what appears to be a new section, but those sections don’t seem to take on the traditional verse-chorus relationship:

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Gary Ewer – The Circle of Fifths Progression

Gary Ewer

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Gary Ewer – What Are Strong and Fragile Chord Progressions, and How Do I Use Them?

Gary Ewer

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There are many ways to categorize chord progressions, but one very useful way is to think of them as being either strong or fragile. Strong progressions clearly point to one chord as being the tonic (key) chord, while fragile ones are a little more ambiguous.

In this video, Gary Ewer describes the basic differences, and then shows how they work in the various sections of a typical pop song.

To see Gary’s songwriting manuals, visit http://www.secretsofsongwriting.com/p…

Gary Ewer – Contouring a Song’s Melodies

Gary Ewer

Adding Pedal Point To Your Chord Progressions

Gary Ewer

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Published on Oct 23, 2015

What do you do when you’ve lost interest in the chord progression you’ve been using for your new song? One option, of course, would be to toss it and go for something more innovative. But you may be overlooking better options.

The best progressions tend to be strong, basic ones. Be more creative with song melodies, lyrics and rhythms, and let that all sit atop a progression that will form a solid foundation.

In this video, you’ll learn three ways to add bass pedal point to your chord progressions. Pedal point is a technique that can make a standard progression you’ve heard in hundreds of songs suddenly sound fresh and new.

The ideas in this video are presented using block piano chords, but of course will work with any instruments, and in any style of music.

Check out “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” eBook Bundle, and discover the secrets that pro songwriters have known for decades:

http://www.secretsofsongwriting.com/p…

Gary Ewer – Contouring a Song’s Melodies – Secrest of Songwriting .com

Gary Ewer

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You can purchase Gary’s songwriting manuals here: http://bit.ly/SongbooksEwer

From Gary Ewer, of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting”: It’s an important songwriting principle to have energy build as a song progresses. One of the ways to do that is to ensure that melodies move upward. Sia’s “Soon We’ll Be Found” demonstrates this perfectly.

Gary Ewer – Are You Boring Your Audience? – 5 Likely Reasons That’s Happening – Essential Secrets Of Songwriting Blog – 11-2-15

Gary Ewer   –   Are You Boring Your Audience?    –   5 Likely Reasons That’s Happening   –  

Essential Secrets Of Songwriting Blog   –   11-2-15

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You may have just as many people who hate your music as love it, but that shouldn’t bother you too much. Hoping that everyone loves what you do is unrealistic. Any time you express your thoughts, opinions and feelings in musical form, people will react; sometimes in favour of your art, and sometimes against.

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GARY EWER – How Ballads Today Compare to a Sinatra-Style Ballad – 10-9-15

GARY EWER   –   How Ballads Today Compare to a Sinatra-Style Ballad   –   10-9-15

You may not know the song “Comme d’habitude“, written by French songwriters Claude François and Jacques Revaux, but you’ll no doubt know “My Way,” a big hit for Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and others. Paul Anka acquired the rights to the melody (for $1), and then penned a new English lyric that brought the song to a much larger audience.

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GARY EWER – Using Melodic Range Effectively in Your Songwriting – 10-5-15

Woman’s Beautiful Hands hold Pencil on Digital Piano Keys

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Gary Ewer

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If you spend any time at all comparing verse and chorus melodies, you’ll notice right away that verses often centre in on one or two pitches. And it may not be that they sing those one or two constantly, but you’ll hear everything coming back, over and over again, to those couple of notes.

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Gary Ewer, Songwriting Advisor – Speak So Softly that Everyone Can Hear You

Quietness in music can be a powerful tool. Use it wisely.

https://garyewer.wordpress.com/2015/09/07/speak-so-softly-that-everyone-can-hear-you/

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Struggling to build an audience base? “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” shows you every aspect of what makes a great song great. Read more..

Gary Ewer – Secrets Of Songwriting – LESSON 1: Focusing Your Lyrics

Gary Ewer   –   Secrets Of Songwriting   –   LESSON 1: Focusing Your Lyrics

Gary Ewer – Contouring a Song’s Melodies

Gary Ewer

From Gary Ewer, of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting”: It’s an important songwriting principle to have energy build as a song progresses. One of the ways to do that is to ensure that melodies move upward. Sia’s “Soon We’ll Be Found” demonstrates this perfectly.

Gary Ewer – Contouring a Song’s Melodies

Gary Ewer·4 videos

From Gary Ewer, of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting”: It’s an important songwriting principle to have energy build as a song progresses. One of the ways to do that is to ensure that melodies move upward. Sia’s “Soon We’ll Be Found” demonstrates this perfectly.