When I make art, I am in a state of free fall. Whirlwind, head over feet, air whooshing past my face and popping my ears. The sounds are purple and blue and green and my voice comes out like a tidal wave that washes over all of the things I think and feel, all of the loss and hurt. It carries me to shore.

Getting goosebumps when listening to music isn’t a sensation that everyone experiences, in fact it seems to be somewhere between 55 and 86% of people. This sensation is called “frisson” (free-sawn) and is a French word meaning “aesthetic chills”. Studies suggest that frisson is connected to activity in the brain’s reward centers and is most commonly found in people who connect to music emotionally.

At it’s very core, the phrase “show don’t tell” means that when you’re writing, it is best to use language that paints a picture and allows your listener to imagine the story. I think this is really good advice, especially for people who are just getting started with writing or for people who tend to write in a stream-of-consciousness way. Having said that, I don’t think you should “show” all the time. I think there needs to be a balance in order for your listener to both understand and enjoy your lyrics.

What to write a song about when nothing ever happens to you. If your life is boring, I promise, you can still write amazing songs.

In this post, I'm giving you a step by step walkthrough of my songwriting process without any instruments or vocals. At this point, I’ve made a couple of videos about how to write songs without playing an instrument, but what if you don’t sing either? WELP, this time, we’re going to explore some fun ways to get started with songwriting without any musical background or “talent” whatsoever.

It's easy to look back on our old songs and cringe. We knew so much less about the songwriting process then. So much of our writing was over-sentimental or under-developed. The temptation to burn these songs in the fireplace is much stronger than the urge to share them with the Internet, but that's exactly what I'm doing today. So, come with me on a walk down memory lane and let's re-visit seventeen-year-old April's song... and see if we can improve it.

Are you a music teacher who wants to add songwriting education to your skillset? In this post, we're going to dive into some of my favorite ways to teach the craft of songwriting. The ideas here are written with kids in mind, but they will work for any student you come across.

From October 10th - 24th of 2020, I took on The Songwriter Coach's 14-Day Lyric Writing Challenge and had a great time writing a song every single day. On this page, you'll find all of the songs I wrote during my challenge, along with my takeaways. I hope you enjoy them and best of luck with your own writing!

The arts are important and writing protest music is a great way to make your voice heard. Let's do our best to channel all of our rage and frustration into storytelling, writing music, and of course, voting.

Top-lining is the process of writing a song over a pre-made beat. Writing a top-line is a great way to create new relationships with producers and other musicians, and improve your songwriting.

Hello, dear perfectionist. It's nice to meet you. Though we're just getting to know each other, I can see that we already have a lot in common. We both make art. We both have excellent taste. And we're both attacked by that little bit of self loathing when we're nearing the end of a project. Uh oh, it's not turning out right. Should I just scrap the whole thing?

I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about what to do if all of your songs sound the same. Since there are a ton of ways to answer this question, we’re going to look at the songwriting process piece by piece and look at some ways to make your chords, melody, lyrics, and song structure more unique and interesting. If your songs all sound the same or you want to write something a little different from what you've been hearing on the radio lately, this one's for you.