Songwriter Advisor Blog

In case you’re wondering, yes – you’re in the right place.  This is the SongwriterAdvisor.com Blog.  Stick with me, I promise you won’t be disappointed; I’m going to change this up a bit, and I’m hoping this will benefit many of you.

What if I said you could have a great time on the weekends without spending a dime, you could listen to great music spun by a well-known DJ, and you could interact with that DJ and his on air partner via an online chat room with friendly members, all from the comfort of your own home; would you be interested? 

DJ Jorge Ojeda, a legendary Miami, FL DJ with the help of partner J Cool Suave has been running a live internet radio show out of Miami called “Master Mix Sessions” and it has exploded worldwide.  The key to their success has been first and foremost, great club music mixed by an industry veteran on Friday and Saturday nights, their lively and warm personalities, and the support from faithful members (including me) who interact with them and each other at the free internet radio station chat room of 1CLUB.FM! 

Ojeda and Suave have become so hot they’ve had to say goodbye to their original South Florida radio station in order to expand their horizons.  They’ve formed a partnership with a handful of other talented industry veterans (“El Chi Chi” Carlos Jose, Eddie Alexander, JonPito, Andres Vega, Luis Beyra, Angel Rodriguez) and they’re about to launch WEPA.FM on 1CLUB.FM radio! 

For WEPA.FM, in their own words, IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC.  WEPA.FM will feature Retro, Real 80’s, 90’s Dance, Rock, Salsa, Merengue, Latin Rock, Freestyle music, with a touch of today’s jams.  They’re aiming at bringing back DJ personalities heavily into the mix (something major music markets are straying away from) to gain faithful listeners and so you can interact with them and simply have a great time!      

The official launch date of WEPA.FM is this coming Saturday (11-22-08) at 8:00 Eastern.  Master Mix sessions will be featured on Fridays and Saturdays. 

To my friends at WEPA.FM, I wish you the best!  A special shout out to all my friends at 1Club.FM; I’m looking forward to this Saturday!

If you’re interested or at least curious, visit 1CLUB.FM,  sign up for a free membership, and join us in the chat room while listening to DJ Jorge and J Cool this Saturday.  Yours truly will be there hanging out and having a good time!

I can’t wait!   

In pop music, if you’re looking to create a good song, write it using simple, catchy, repetitive phrases in the lyrics as well as the music in many parts of your song. The whole idea is develop a strong “hook,” build your song around it, and let the song take you in different directions leading to other “mini-hooks” in the song.

When you’re trying to build a main song hook, keep in mind the initial ideas you come up with don’t necessarily have to end up in your chorus. Many hit songs have been written by creating a “hook” which eventually were placed in a verse or other song section instead of the chorus.

How To Use Simplicity To Your Advantage

The vast majority of the greatest songs in the history of respected pop music have used simplicity to create their hooks. I.e., from the early days of songs like “My Girl” (Temptations, written by Smokey Robinson, Ronald White,
Mick Jagger) to the present day, “Disturbia” (Rihanna, written by Robert Allen, Andre Merritt, Chris Brown).

Hit songs have historically used easy, sing-songy melodies with memorable, short lyric phrases with great success. The pop writing lesson here: to write a good song, write short melodies and lyrical lines (from one to three notes and words), then let this lead you wherever else you want to go with that particular song.

How To Use “Catchiness,” and “Repetitiveness” To Your Advantage

This one’s easy and enjoyable!  Study some of your favorite songs and try to figure out what it is that attracts you to the song, and invariably the answer will be:

1. The song has one main hook that really stands out.Nine times out of ten that hook will be in the chorus. Take a look at Neyo’s big hit “Closer” and you’ll see the hook is actually contained in the prechorus (not the chorus). Notice also how the majority of hit songs have very repetitive main hooks; this is what keeps the listener coming back for more!

2. The song has a few other repetitive, catchy hooks I like to refer to as “mini-hooks.” Many times these come in the form of an instrumental intro riff (at the beginning of the song) that continues throughout the song whether through chord structure or underlying melody line.

Hooks are the biggest key to creating hit songs!  It’s what you do with the song after you’ve created the great hook (i.e., strong verse writing, song makes sense, song is meaningful, etc.) that earns you either respectability or the dreaded “Cheese Award” and a nomination for one of the worst pop songs in history!   

To create a catchy repetitive hook, you need to play your instrument or sing, and concentrate on 2 to 3 notes at a time until you like a certain combination, then build from there using one to three more notes at a time.

When you’ve hit on a a few notes that contain that certain singable part that makes you go “Wow, that sounds good (or cool)” you’ll know you have something people are going to love!  Now you have the makings of a good song.  Write on!

Once you start writing the rest of the song,try to think of catchy instrumental or melodic phrases to bracket (fill in the gaps) the vocals in certain areas using the same two to three note-finding method as your starting point (described above).

Oftentimes the only thing you need to bring a song to life is to fill in empty spots in your song by inserting mini-hooks, and by slightly changing the melody or words of your hook.

Bottom line is: after you’re done writing the song, if it hits you in the chest with the “wow” factor, it’s going to be a darn good song.  Write away and keep churning out those hits!