by Harriet Schock There’s a lot to say about “wrong notes” but I’m going to concentrate here on the good ones—the ones that you wait for in a song. They’re not really wrong, but they’re unexpected and give a color to the music that is rather magical. Some occur from...
A long-time student of mine, Michelle Krell, brought me a quote from Julianne Moore, Oscar winner for best actress: “I’m looking for the truth. The audience doesn’t come to see you, they come to see themselves.” This is certainly true of acting, but it’s also true of...
by Harriet Schock Songwriters can’t escape writing a love song at one time or another. But there’s one problem I see over and over in this type of song. In life, as in songwriting, it’s better to be interested than interesting. If you’re interested in someone, that...
by Harriet Schock Whether it’s a song, a speech, a story or a novel, you have to use pictures. This is what we’re taught, this is what we observe, this is what we know to be true. When you hear a speech, you remember the examples the speaker gives to make his point....
by Harriet Schock In my opinion, bad song critiquing has gotten more writers in trouble than bad songwriting. A bad song is simply a bad song. But bad song critiquing can hurt a good song. It’s frequently done by publishers, A&R people, music supervisors,...
by Harriet Schock An oyster makes a pearl when some foreign piece of matter, like a grain of sand, has entered the oyster and he covers it with layers of nacre (mother of pearl). Basically, he’s sort of spitting at it because it’s an annoyance. I think songwriters are...
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