Articles:

• Adding Sparkle to Your Song: Why Does He Have to Live in Detroit? - You work hard to make your lyrics clear, and rich with images.  They convey a message or story that is universal and heard in many other songs.  Yet somehow, they still don’t measure up to other songs that are considered great.  What's missing?  Great lyrics not only are clear and relevant, they also tickle the ear, the way bubbles in champagne tickle the palate.  In this article by Grammy-Nominee Bill Pere, you'll learn the secrets of Sonic Activity.  This article also includes a Level 3 Analysis of a classic hit song.
• What Did We Know and When Did We Know It? - "What did he know and when did he know it?" This key question from the Watergate era brought down a President. It can also bring down – or elevate – a song. The presentation of a song by a writer to a listener is a social interaction – a conversation of sorts. Like any communication, if the songwriter cares about his/her message, the goal of the interaction is to forge a connection between singer and listener, so that both are on the same wavelength with common understanding. This article gives you some do's and dont's.
• Plaster, Mortar, and Cement - A key element for making lyrics communicate effectively is the use of concrete references. Why are they important?  They make your lyric focused, clear and real, instead of vague and subject to misinterpretation.  And most importantly, seven out of every ten people in a general population prefer to give and receive information using concrete references.  So it's important to make sure you know what is and is not a concrete reference.
• How to Lead People to Your Music in a Digital Age - Getting music online is the easy part. Once it's there, how do you get people to find it? With the maturity of digital delivery and a proliferation of websites that allow easy uploading and legal downloading of music, the old models of making and marketing CDs are gone. The shift from an album-based economy to a track-based economy spawns many new considerations for the Indie artist when the time comes to go into the studio and record. This article gives you some tips.
• Playing the Field - Ever notice how many songs address the same subject, but some have focus and impact, while others seem diffuse and wandering? The answer may lie in the use (or non-use) of the important element of Semantic Field. This article will show you what you need to consider when trying to bring focus and impact to your lyrics.
• Role Call: You Are Bartholemew Cubbins - In the traditional music business model, you, the songwriter or artist would be under contract to a large record company and publisher, who would then call all the shots.  In today’s world of Independent artists, YOU are the one who puts others under contract to you.  The key is to know: (a) what types of roles/tasks need to be done, (b) which ones you can do yourself, (c) which ones you need to engage others for, (d) how to find the right person(s) to do the tasks you want to contract out.
• Taking the Labor Out of Collaboration From Creation to Realization - Look at the credits for a song and you most likely see more than one name. Having multiple writers, artists, producers, and engineers is not unusual in navigating the path from creation to realization..The music business, like any entertainment industry, is a business based on people interacting to shape and market the products of a creative process. Some collaborative partnerships are very fruitful and rewarding, and some are emotionally draining with no tangible result. This article lays out all the factors involved in seeking out effective collaborators, and what roles need top be filled in creating songs and giving them a life.
• May I Have Your Attention Please? -- Branding Your Songs - In today's very crowded music marketplace, you are competing at any given time with tens of thousands of artists and hundreds of thousands of songs – and you're competing for two specific things:  Awareness, and Attention.   Awareness is getting a listener to notice that you (or your song) exist, and Attention is sparking enough interest in that listener so that they willingly hold you in their awareness (and ideally, make others aware of you as well). Awareness is usually achieved through promotion and marketing --  but once you've achieved Awareness, what does it take to turn it into Attention?
• Yclept Writing and Swinging Bats: Build Up Those Songwriting Muscles - One of the greatest tools you can use to help build up your songwriting skills is yclept writing – funny name, but very powerful.   You see examples of yclept writing in many books of poetry, literature or wordplay, especially from author Dave Morice.  Learn about this great way to flex your songwriting muscles, and in the process, maybe create something unique and memorable.
• COURTING APPEAL: Getting Fan #1001, or The Secret of Ullage - The little-known concept of "Ullage" can be a powerful tool for overcoming one of the biggest obstacles in expanding a fan base -- Complacency.  Once you've gotten 100,or 1000 fans, how do you get fan #101 or 1001?   In the Four Fader paradigm discussed in a previous article,  Faders # 3 and 4 deal with the parameter of appeal.  A "hit" is essentially a song with mass appeal.  That does not necessarily mean it’s a well-crafted song, or an effective song (Faders #1 and 2).  If you take away all the hit-making reasons that are not part of the song itself (artist popularity, advertising budget, industry connections,  great production, etc),  then you start to find a greater relationship between well written, effective songs, and mass appeal.  This article shows you how to use the concept of ullage to keep the Four Faders optimized for your success.
• The Four Faders of Songwriting Success - A well written song may never gain mass appeal, and a song with mass appeal might not be a well written song.   The factors affecting a song's popularity and the degree of craft it exhibits are separate, like different channels on a mixing board.  This article shows how these factors interact, like faders on a mixing board, to yield an overall blend of craft, effectiveness, and appeal.
• Sonic Activity: Making Your Songs Radio-Active - A song with a great story or message but "flat" sounding lyrics is like champagne without any fizz.  Sonic Activity is the aspect of a lyric that creates "ping-points" which are the little tingling phonetic bubbles that tickle your ear.   This article will help you master that important part of song crafting.
• Twists on Lists - This article looks at the differences between list songs and story songs, and how you can make each format most effective. There are specific do's and dont's to be aware of when using either of these two primary song formats.
  
• Interpreting Interpretation - What does it really mean to leave a song "open to interpretation"?  When is it desirable and when is it not?  Many artists misunderstand what is meant by leaving a song "open to interpretation".  Your job as a songwriter is not to have every listener come away with their own truth, but to have them come away with a personalized version of your truth.  This article helps you clearly understand what is involved in the complex interaction between you and a listener through a song.
• Writing in the Key of W - A key ingredient for bringing listeners quickly into your song is the establishment of a sense of time, place, people, and situation. The 6 W's, and examples of how they are used by different writers, will help you to address these elements in your own songs.
• Sale: The Seven C's - Guiding a song from its birth to maturity is like guiding a child through life or navigating a ship along a tricky course. This article looks at the key elements in the process of taking a song from initial idea to a well-crafted endpoint.
• Expression vs Communication - The Heart of Songwriting - Perhaps the most fundamental part of songwriting is deciding between expression and communication. The choice is always yours, but it's important to know exactly what that choice means for your song. Misunderstandings about these concepts are often at the center of debates about "artistic integrity" and "creative freedom". This article will help you spend less time debating and more time creating.

• What would make a song on a specific topic work? - Quynh Le asks: I was wondering if you could write a little about what can make a "longing for home" song work. By 'longing for home', I mean a song written from the view of someone who is away from his country and cannot yet come back. The principles that would work for this topic are the same across any topic and any style.  These are explored in more detail below, with a complete explanation in several chapters of "Songcrafters' Coloring Book"
  
• For a bridge, I would like to know if there are any rules regarding which keys you should utilize... - A look at at that elusive piece of song structure known as a bridge, and how to make it effective without taking too much of a toll.