Best Articles:
15 Songwriting Articles That Might Just Change Your Life
I’ve been creating content for The Song Foundry since 2014, so there are tons of songwriting articles on the site. If you’re new around here, thinking “The site looks really cool Ed, but where the $%&! do I start?!”, it’s OK, I feel you.
I’ve put together a list of some of the most important content for the site — my most popular articles, the articles people tell me most inspired them, and the articles I think really capture the ethos of the site.
I’ve split these articles into four categories to help you know where to start depending on what you’re looking to improve in your songwriting.
Essential Songwriting Concepts
Five (Well, Eight) Ways to Write Better Lyrics
A lot of people tell me that lyric writing is a mystery to them. Well, let it be no more.
Verse-Chorus Structure 101
My one-stop guide to the most common song form – and the Internet’s favorite article on verse-chorus structure.
Idea, Style, Hook: The Holy Trinity of Songwriting
Probably the most important songwriting idea that we should all be talking about more often. (And that applies to all genres.)
Prosody in Songwriting 101
What is Prosody? Witchcraft? Voodoo? The way you make your lyrics and melody work seamlessly together? This article explains.
What It Means to Be an Artist
Why I Chose Art
It upsets me when people roll their eyes at people who decide they want to be artists. Not just because I am one. Because other people’s art has changed my life too.
Stop Trying to Be the Next Someone Else. Be the First You.
Your job as an artist is to be one of a kind. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Why I Object to People Who Call Me Talented
Talent, schmalent. People get good at songwriting because they do it a lot. No exceptions.
Embrace the Maybe
The single thing that stops a lot of people – songwriters included – from living their best life is needing to be 100% certain before they do anything. Don’t be one of them.
How to Get Started
How to Write a Song (Even If You’ve Never Written One Before and You Think You Suck)
My creative, reliable and completely beginner-proof process for writing great songs in any style.
107 Song Prompts for When You’re Really Stuck
107 of the best, most inspiring, most thought-provoking or just most hilarious song prompts I know about.
How to Come up with 100 New Song Ideas
If you need song prompts to get started, that’s fine. But there are also hundreds of new song ideas all around you, if you know where to look for them.
To Begin, Begin
Lots of songwriting sites give you rituals or formulas to begin your next song. My ritual is just to begin.
Motivation and Inspiration
Sure, Blank Pages are Frightening. But They Don’t Have to Be.
I’ve been writing songs for more than twenty years and starting a new song is still tough. But this one simple mindset shift always makes starting from nothing easier.
There’s No Such Thing as Writer’s Block
Part of being a writer is making up things that don’t exist. Mostly, that’s a good thing. In the case of whoever invented writer’s block, it wasn’t.
I Am an Idiot (and So Are You)
Fun fact: in songwriting and in life, nobody really knows what they’re doing. We’re all winging it. We all do dumb things on the regular. The more we embrace that, the freer we are to create.
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I also cover the fundamentals of most of the songwriting techniques you’ll ever need in our video series On Songwriting, which you can check out on the Videos page.