{ Lick That Riff! }

Songs have been around since the dawn of man, with old folk songs in many ancient civilizations. With a song comes a songwriter and with this comes the art and skill of songwriting. It is always hard to find a definition of songwriting with many varied opinions as to what it is. I would say that songwriting is the ability to construct lyrics that go together with music to construct a song. While a few other people believe that a songwriter can be someone who just writes lyrics, or someone who just composes music, I believe this is a wrong[...]

Christmas is near now, can't wait! Have you all been writing songs? Hope so. We  now move onto part four of the Beginners Guide to Songwriting. This one is mainly going to be about the lyrical side of things, so take note. Lets Crack on with it: Vocal Melody Good solos can reinforce and underline the vocal melody (Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit) or take the place of words altogether when the intensity is peaking, as heard in Eric Clapton's awesome Layla. And sometimes a solo can come in like a stranger and end up in the heart[...]

Wow! Nearly the weekend again! ;-) Good times! How are you all? Good? Anyway, now on to part three of the Beginners Guide to Songwriting, and we're now moving onto four topics; Arranging, Middle Eight, The Riff :-P, The Solo. So without further ado lets crack on with it. Arranging Now for a bit of arranging. Are you going to take the traditional verse, chorus, middle eight route? Or try for something a bit more modal? There's nothing wrong with the traditional route - it's and all-time design classic. But, you see, there's the rub.[...]

Hello everyone and back to another post in the Songwriting Guide. Hope you enjoyed my last one. I have had a few emails about the last post with some readers tips on songwriting. I will probably post these in the last issue so feel free to keep your own tips coming. Just email them to lickthatriff@googlemail.com So this weeks Guide is going to be on Key and Time Signature. Two of the biggest things when writing a song. Key This is another are where you can significantly change the feel of your song. Without being too muso - E is[...]

Soooo, a post about songwriting. Well, didn't think that I would do a post about songwriting but a friend convinced me to share some tips with you. Instead of putting it all in one big post I've decided to write a series of posts so that you all can take it step by step! Please bare in mind that a lot of this drab has been paraphrased and taken from a Total Guitar issue on songwriting. This week I am going to concentrate mainly on three aspects of songwriting. These will become clearer later on in the post. Firstly a[...]