I was recently asked how the tools and techniques I teach today differ from those I have taught in the past. Have I noticed any recent changes in successful songs and in the processes of writing them? I looked back over the thirty years that I have been teaching songwriting,… Read more...
During a recent workshop I was asked if I could identify the most important trait or skill for songwriters to possess. Was it an innate talent to craft a fresh, memorable melody? Was it the ability to craft a lyric that touched millions of hearts? Or was it something else?… Read more...
At my BMI Nashville Songwriters’ Workshops, I screen and critique songs from each attendee. When I find songs that I believe are competitive with those being written by today’s top hitmakers, I forward them to ten music publishers who have agreed to listen. After the last BMI Workshop, I forwarded… Read more...
I taught my first songwriting class at Los Angeles’ Pierce College in 1991. Back then, if my car radio were tuned to a pop station, it was likely I would hear chart-topping artists such as Michael Jackson, Wilson Phillips, Janet Jackson, Michael Bolton, Poison, and Roxette. During that same era,… Read more...
Although it was more than sixteen years ago, I still recall chatting with a twenty-something guy who stood in front of me in line as we waited to attend the taping of the David Letterman Show. The guy was excited because his brother Adam would be performing on the show,… Read more...
BMI is deeply saddened to learn of the death of trailblazing music legend, Aretha Franklin, who passed away today at the age of 76. A BMI affiliate for five decades, Franklin was hailed as the Queen of Soul, in the 1960s, for her unquantifiable contributions to the canon of contemporary… Read more...
BMI is proud to be presenting the Know Them Now Experience on Thursday, May 31, at Buckhead Theater (3110 Roswell Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30305). Hosted by Atlanta’s own 11Alive newscaster Neima Abdulahi and multi-faceted entertainer DC Young Fly, the concert is a platform for some of today’s hottest emerging… Read more...
At a songwriting conference I attended, GRAMMY winning singer/songwriter Colbie Caillat shared some comments that her father, record producer and engineer Ken Caillat (Fleetwood Mac, Frank Sinatra, the Beach Boys) had made regarding bridges in songs. He had stated that bridges are crucial elements because they are typically the final… Read more...
Prolific Broadcast Music, Inc. songwriter Gerry Goffin passed away yesterday at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 75. Goffin, alongside frequent collaborator BMI songwriter Carole King, penned some of the biggest and most enduring hits of the 1960s, including “The Loco-Motion,” “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?,” “One… Read more...
