Hooks, hooks, hooks. Songwriters are obsessed about them, and rightfully so. Hooks serve like doors into the building that is your song. Hooks grab people’s attention and make them remember. Hooks are important. Creating hooks doesn’t have to be the most important goal of your songwriting. But it’s great …
A lot of songwriters have pet “theme” to their writing. Jon Bon Jovi, for example, writes about struggles of common folks. He is a rich rock star, so is he not authentic when he sings about people living paycheck to paycheck? I believe he is. He may now be a …
Teen years are important time. I was living in Brazil, attending a Japanese-speaking school and I got exposed to rock music in English, probably around 14-years old. I was always good at music, but until then I thought nothing of it. My mother made me take piano lessons starting at …
I’m doing vocals for the song I’m working on. Vocals are always a bit of struggle for me. I love to sing but what I hear in my head and what comes out are two different things. Vocal is one example of where the concept of “discovering who you are …
Here are 21 albums that shaped me as a music enthusiast and musician. It’s listed more or less in the chronological order of my discovering them. It’s fun to trace my journey and see my tastes evolved with time. Bon Jovi New Jersey Europe’s Final Countdown was perhaps the very first English-language album …