You probably have an amazing album inside you, just waiting to burst out. The funny thing is, you might not even realize it yet… Sure, you know you have a lot of great musical ideas and a whole lot of untapped creativity swirling around inside your head. But a whole album might seem like something that you won’t be able to tackle until you have 12 fully realized songs ready to go. But the fact that you only have a… [Read More]
Technology can be a great tool. It can help you come up with your next masterpiece, and it can give you the means of recording your latest creation. And I don’t know about you, but it sure does make me feel warm and fuzzy inside when I buy a shiny new piece of gear for my home studio. That is, until I plug it in. You see, technology is something of a double-edged sword. Even though buying new gear is… [Read More]
A successful song usually has great lyrics that stick to a central theme or idea. “Layla” by Derek and the Dominos has a theme of an unrequited love, while “Fix You” by Coldplay is full of sympathy and comforting words. Great lyrics tell a story or create a mood, sucking the listener in with every successive word. But writing great lyrics can be easier said than done. If you don’t try to contain your thoughts to a particular theme, you… [Read More]
We used to think that the best thing about Studio Pros was our roster of world-class session musicians. In fact, I recently wrote a post about how to get the most out of our players and explained why they are such an amazing resource to musicians and songwriters all over the world. But they’re not actually the thing that musicians like best about our service. When we asked some of our artists why they love Studio Pros, most of them… [Read More]
A music bridge is a new section of a song that differs from the verses and choruses. A great bridge can really take your song to the next level, but sometimes we’re so focused on the verses and the choruses that we forget how powerful an amazing bridge can be. A memorable song bridge can break up the monotony of simply switching back and forth between verses and choruses. It can be a great place to bring the dynamic level… [Read More]
If you’re hoping for success in this industry, you might want to take part in a little musical espionage: If you want to pitch one of your songs to a TV commercial, study the music in every commercial on TV right now and learn it all by heart. If you want to pitch a song to films, buy the soundtracks for ten films in the genre you’re interested in. If you want to be at the top of the charts,… [Read More]
Sometimes an awesome guitar solo can add a new level of energy and fun to a song. In some cases, particularly in songs from guitar-focused bands like The Black Crowes and Van Halen, the guitar solo can be the defining moment of a song. On the opposite end of the spectrum, a bad solo can really bring a song down with it. Imagine that just when you are really getting into a song, suddenly a lame solo completely takes you… [Read More]
So many talented songwriters and composers love melodies and harmonies so much that they layer as many into their song as they possibly can. They want the best music productions for their songs, but think that adding more and more instruments and parts will make their production sound great. Unfortunately, it won’t! Less is more Have you ever noticed that some of the biggest hits of all time only have three or four instruments on them? Lots of classic Beatles… [Read More]
Who doesn’t love a good rhyme? There’s really no way around it: if you’re going to be writing songs with lyrics, you’re going to end up coming up with rhymes. Rhymes help a song sound cohesive and consistent, poetic and memorable. Rhymes are usually part of the art of a song–it’s really just a poem set to music, and most poems rhyme. It’s true that your song doesn’t have to rhyme (I’ll touch on that below), but since most of… [Read More]
At Studio Pros, we give you the best tools possible to record a hit song. When I say that, I mean that the members of the Studio Pros team have major label credits. The big advantage to using Studio Pros’ musicians for your own songs is the experience and professionalism they bring–and the inspiration they draw from the top-level artists they’ve worked with. To get the results the results you’re after you need to be specific with your instructions. The special… [Read More]