There is a lot of music out there that is not as melody-based, one extreme being rap, where elements such as rhythm, lyrics and production are relied upon to attract the listener. But in my case, I’ve always been attracted to a song with a powerful melody. Classical music was always playing in the house when I was growing up, and I believe that exposure to this kind of music gave me an ear and a preference for melodic songs.
So what makes a great melody? I think it’s a relative thing, but for me a great melody is either one that can exist beautifully without any accompaniment, or dances in a unique way over top of a great chord progression.
Although it’s difficult to actually teach how to write a great melody, there are some things you can keep in mind in order to improve them.
One very common problem I find with melodies is that they stay very close to the “root” note of the chord. Let’s take a little theory lesson…if you’ve already studied theory, you don’t need this next section…but read through it anyway!
Chords are made up of three or more notes…I won’t go into much depth here, but let’s take a look at the “C” chord as an example:
A major “C” chord has three notes…C (called the ‘root’), E (called the ‘3rd’ because it’s three notes up from ‘C’ in the C major scale), and G (called the ‘5th’ because it’s five notes up from ‘C’). So we have three notes…C (root), E (3rd), G (5th). Here’s a simple graphic:
Underneath are the notes of each string (the 6th or E string is not played, hence the “x”). You’ll notice that the only notes contained in the chord of C are as I described above…C, E, G.
Play each of those strings alone and hum each note as you pluck it..you’ll find that you are probably “attracted” to one of those notes more than the others…the root note of “C” may be the one that draws your ear. Chances are that you will almost unconsciously create your melody with that note in it more than any others. If your melodies feel hum-drum, this may be the reason. Now try strumming it and at the same time focus on singing notes that are not within that chord. Play with it a bit, until you get a sense of just how interesting your melody can get…every time you write your melodies, no matter if you write lyrics first or whether you already have the chord progressions, just being conscious of not repeating the same note too often can help your writing.
Another common problem I hear in melodies is that they move all over the place, almost the opposite to the problem above. This is where simplicity is the order of the day. Here is an exercise that might help you overcome the temptation to write complicated melodies…try coming up with a chord progression of three or four chords and then continue playing those three or four chords in repetition. As an example, try playing D, Bm, A, and G. Over top of that progression, sing one note that sounds like it fits pretty much all of those chords. Just one note. You can hum it continuously, or you can break it up by humming it in a rhythmic fashion, but only one note. Notice how the chord changes actually change the feeling of that note…it’s a subtle thing but very effective.
Very often, the rhythm of the melody is as important as the notes in it. As a guitar teacher, I’ve noticed that one of the hardest things for some of my students to do is to maintain a rhythm on the guitar while singing a melody that is syncopated. Syncopation is a rhythm that exists just before or just after the meter count. The dictionary defines syncopate as: “…change a regular rhythm by beginning a note on an unaccented beat and holding it into an accented one or beginning it midway through a beat and continuing it midway into the next one.” Phew! Does this feel like math? Rarely are melodies sung continuously on the beat…songs would sound awfully funny if every note was sung on the beat. As an example of syncopation, take for example, Paul Simon‘s song “Me & Julio”. I’ve placed the words underneath the meter of the music to show you how it would look:
Notice how many of the words fall in between the beats. The word ‘Me’, ‘school’ and ‘yard’ are the only words that actually fall on the beat, on one of the numbers. Melodies are usually a combination of both. How do your melodies measure up? Get a metronome and just sing one of your melodies over top of it…notice where you place the notes. Do they sit too much on the beat, or do they always fall in between?
Melody and rhythm, are the simplest elements when it comes to writing a song, but a song is only as strong as it’s weakest part. Of course, listening to strong melody-based music, anything written by the Beatles, for example, will give you a new respect for the magic of melody.
I will occasionally respond to emails I receive by posting them here for you to read. Here is one I received today:
“I’m an 18 year old college student who makes music as a rapper. I hear alot of music, but I connect to songs that actually have meaning in it. I’ve been writing for about 2 years consistently but I want my songs and verses to have meaning and impact the listener in a positive way.
Any tips on things to read or songs to listen to or writing tips would be appreciated..thank you in advance.”
Writing songs that are meaningful, not only to the writer but also to the listener is what we are all aiming for, isn’t it? How do I get deeper, how do I say more and still keep the listener totally engaged in what I’m saying? And if you’re writing rap songs, lyrics are the focal point so learning to write great lyrics is a must. Reading a lot is certainly one way of stimulating your creative writing skills. There are a gazillion wonderful novels out there. Fortunately, they’re not all “War and Peace” length (meaning hundreds of pages long!), but you would benefit greatly from taking the time to read good novels from cover to cover. A well-written novel can open up the top of your head and give you all kinds of ideas about how to approach your own songwriting.
Song lyrics don’t have the luxury of pages and pages of words to get their meaning across, however, in which case, EVERY word is critical. What I see more often than not in song lyrics that are sent to me are what I call “throw away” lines or words, as if they were put there just to fill the space. But instead of revisiting them and rewriting them, the songwriter just leaves them there. The other thing I see in lyrics is tired old phrases, just the same old, same old way of describing something. The bore factor. If this is a problem you suffer from as a lyric writer, I highly recommend reading anything by Pat Pattison. He even gives a few free lyric writing tips from one of his books on his web page, just so you can get an idea of how he teaches.
So powerful lyrics are critical, but here is another mistake that songwriter’s often make: they write songs that are TOO PERSONAL. Now, of course, the most powerful songs are those that are “true” on some level because listeners can always spot something real, but that’s not the kind of personal that I’m talking about. When you insert details that only have significance to you, you’re going to lose your listeners…they don’t really care if you had a dog named Spike when you were ten. I imagine it like watching home movies…who wants to visit someone and just sit there and watch home movies of them when they were kids? It might be funny for a minute, but then it gets boring! Don’t write your songs like home movies.
On the other hand, we all have universal experiences, meaning experiences that are common to most people, and when you can find a way to write about your own experiences in a way that everyone can relate to, you’ll find success.
The last thing that I want to emphasize is the “show me, don’t tell me” part. Here’s a quick, off-the-top-of-my-head example:
It’s been a long time since I loved someone
And then you came around
You gave me just one kiss
And now I’m found
Boring!! Here’s something that says the same thing, but in a more interesting way:
My love is an engine
It ain’t run in years
Just took one kiss from you
To loosen up the gears
I grabbed that as an example that was given on Pat Pattison‘s website, the song is written by Kurt Thompson. Now these aren’t the most profound lyrics in the universe, and it certainly isn’t rap, but you can “see” the second set of lyrics, can’t you? The first set of lyrics puts you right to sleep. This is an example of “show me, don’t tell me.”
The last thing I’d like to emphasize is write, write, write. Write a journal, don’t just write lyrics. Make yourself write things you don’t normally do, so you can avoid getting into writing ruts.
Hopefully there will be some ideas here to keep you on the right track!
I spend a lot of time perusing the internet for other songwriting news, tips, ideas, etc., in part for my own curiosity, and also because of the articles I write for Muse’s Muse and those I post here.
American country musician Taylor Swift performing live. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
One phrase that always makes me laugh is “songwriting secrets”…whether they are pitching a book or some kind of one-on-one session with you as a songwriter, or maybe they’re just trying to get you to sign up to their website so that they have your email address so they can spam with you with stuff later on; the idea that there are secrets to songwriting that no one else knows is FALSE!
Why? Because the songs that are successful are not secrets at all! They are out there on the radio, on iTunes, on videos and CDs for you to listen to, analyze, reverse engineer and learn from. If your ambition is to write a hit song, you have literally hundreds of thousands of hit songs out there at your disposal to teach you, they are not secret at all.
So how do you learn from them? This is the the real “secret”. What is it about a song that makes it successful? Studying different hit songs, what they are comprised of and how every part works together, you will get a better sense of what makes it successful.
So let’s get to the songwriting first. Some will tell you that there’s a secret “formula” to hit songwriting…for instance, always have a particular number of verses, always keep the intro short, always write in the first person, come up with a title first…etc., etc. Don’t “always” do anything; each song has its own personality and if you’ve already written a few of them, you know what I mean. Do you use the same chords every time? The same form or subject matter? Of course not. The only formula you need is to make it good, and “good” is a very subjective thing. If you listen to the top ten pop hits right now on Billboard, (or country, or any other chart for that matter) you’ll discover a few things.
They don’t necessarily conform to any one key or song form (although as far as subject matter, when I checked Billboard for the most recent top 10 pop hits they were pretty much all about love/lust or breakups/relationships!), but they do use certain techniques to keep the listener hanging on. Sometimes those elements are simply the recording and production itself, sometimes they are the way the verses and chorus (and/or pre-chorus) relate to each other, sometimes the lyrics and/or music are really catchy. And often it’s simply the artist or band that has such a huge following, almost anything they do will become a hit. If your ambition is to write a hit song, then your job is to study what’s out there and come up with something better! Easier said than done, I know.
But lets back off the actually writing for a bit and consider what else makes a song a hit. First of all, many songs that you hear are not necessarily “great”, but they make it to the charts because of the artist or band, as I mentioned earlier. If these artists and bands don’t write their own material, who does? A lot of them get their songs from their record label, who may have their own writers or have a publishing branch. Quite often, the same circle of songwriters write a lot of the songs you hear…particularly in country and pop. You can find out yourself by checking out the BMI or ASCAP records (or whichever performing rights organization exists in your country). These P.R.O.’s have search able records online, so there’s no secret there either.
So, okay, a lot of it is who you know, in which case, part of your job as a potential hit songwriter, after you’ve come up with some great songs, is getting to know people. Go to music centres like Nashville or Los Angeles or New York, research publishers who might be interested in your style of writing. Join organizations that can help you like N.S.A.I. or songwriting associations that give workshops in all areas of the craft and business. Be prepared to keep learning, learning, learning. Hang on to your day job and save money for these ventures. When you meet people who can help you, be polite, don’t shove your CD in their pocket, ASK first.
You also need to be patient. I met a guy once who wrote his first ten songs and immediately went to Nashville to pitch them. He was so sure that’s all he had to do…but when he got there he learned pretty quickly that he had spent nowhere near enough time on the writing part before he did the pitching part. It was a huge reality check. That’s a true story. So remember to use your head and do everything in the right order!
The recent stories about Taylor Swift’s success are interesting because on her earlier releases she co-wrote a lot of material, but on her most recent release “Speak Now” she wrote every single song herself. She’s young and she’s smart, getting the experience she needed under her belt first by co-writing. Co-writing is a “given” in the pro songwriting community…a lot of the songs you hear are written by more than one person, so you should consider doing that yourself too. Chances are that if you get anywhere near working for a record label, you’ll be thrown into situations where you’ll have to write with someone you don’t know. And if you’re a singer/songwriter and hoping to make it as an artist, you might take a cue from Taylor. Don’t assume you know everything…you don’t!
There are no secrets to hit songwriting any more than there are secrets to any kind of success. It comes down to the same things, whether you want to be a great chef, a successful financier or a best-selling author: hard work, determination, patience, some talent and a little luck. Shhhh…don’t tell anybody! 🙂
I was recently contacted by a songwriter who had himself contacted an online Nashville-based company after he saw an ad for them on a music website. When I checked it out, I saw that this company’s website was pretty straight-forward: “We find songs for…” and then it proceeded to list a whole bunch of big name country artists. So they were either a song publisher or song plugging company. Below the long list of artists, there were three buttons. The first button was supposed to be a FAQ, but the questions represented weren’t anything like “who we are and what we do”. No, instead they included questions like “Do my words need to be perfect when I send them to you?” , “How long should my song be?” and “Do I need to copyright my songs before I send them to you?”. All of their answers to these questions raised red flags for me.
The first question was “Do my words need to be perfect when I send them to you?”…any legitimate song publisher or songplugger WANTS A “PERFECT” SONG to pitch. They don’t want to listen through a bunch of mediocre songs…which is why it is so hard to get that publishing deal in the first place. Most song publishers listen to about the first :10 or :15 seconds of a song before they decide to turn it off or not. But what did this company’s website say? “No. All songs start with a good idea and that’s all we need.” Right away, this should tell you that they are taking anything that gets sent their way. Why? I’ll get to that in a minute.
Second question: “How long should my song be?” Now, that’s a rather odd question to put in a FAQ, but nevertheless, they have an answer for that one too! Their answer is: “A commercial song…usually has about 24 lines, but may vary.” This reminds me of an old scam artist/self-proclaimed “hit” writer that I came across a number of years ago on the web. He actually had it calculated down to the number of syllables in a line! If you have this many syllables, your song could be a hit! But all you have to do is check out a bunch of hit songs from anywhere, anytime, to see that numbers of lines and syllables is NOT the most important aspect of being a “hit”, nor is a certain number of them a prerequisite. Another red flag.
Third question: “Do I need to copyright my songs before I send them to you?” Their answer? No. That was the biggest red flag for me. Now, practically speaking, a lot of pro writers do not copyright their songs until they get picked up by an artist. But they know who they’re dealing with, and they already have a name for themselves. They are not you, the first time songwriter trying to get your songs to a publisher. Technically, a copyright ‘exists’ when you finish writing a song. You always put the copyright symbol on anything you send out. And if you are really hot on that song, you register a legal copyright first before sending it anywhere. No question.
Okay, let’s get back to that Nashville company website. Remember I told you that I’d explain why they would take anything that is sent to them? Well, this will tell you. The next button says “Read what songwriters are saying about [us].” I read all of the quotes and every one of them was about the recording of the songwriter’s song. For example: “Thank you for making a great recording of my song. You are special people who make a difference.” None of the quotes had anything to do with getting a song placed, pitching it to artists or getting on the radio, or anything else. All they want is for you to pay them money to record your song.
When the songwriter who contacted me sent me a copy of the contract, my suspicions were confirmed. This was all about paying money to get a song recorded. And not only that, but you get a bonus of $30,000 when you get a number 1 hit! Wow, so now, let me see…somehow getting a recording of your song done by them, which you pay them for, could be a number 1 hit?? How might that happen? That’s the other ‘service’ they provide…they’ll send your song to a bunch of radio stations on a compilation CD! That’s how it will become a hit. It’s just that you have to pay for being on the compilation CD too. Oh well, chump change compared to that $30,000 you’re going to make, right? They’re going to send it out to hundreds of radio stations! But here’s the twist: most radio stations pay absolutely no attention to these compilation CDs. The only CDs they will listen to come from legitimate and big name record labels. I know…I worked at a radio station. The CD your song is on gets filed under “G” for garbage.
The ‘contract’ that was sent to this songwriter was, in fact, a glorified invoice. Please pay us $500+ dollars. Oh, and your song could be a hit.
Don’t feel stupid if this has happened to you or if it does in the future. It has happened to many, many songwriters over the years. Heck, I still get an annual post card from a “big time” producer, gushing about my song (and he always gets the title wrong) and how he can make it a big hit for me down in Nashville. I’ve received a post card every year for about ten years, and that’s not exaggerating. I probably sent the song out there to a few places years ago and that’s how he got my address. I laugh, but then I wonder how many others he does this to every year, and how many of them fall for it just because they really believe in their songs and want it to be true.
These guys are nothing but scam artists pulling at your heartstrings.
If you have any questions about any publishers or song pluggers, send them to me. I am not a lawyer so if you get a big, long contract with a bunch of legalize in it, I won’t be able to decipher it much more than you will. However, if it’s anything like the contract this songwriter sent me to look at, I can tell you right away if it’s a scam or not!
In the meantime, be careful out there.
IJ
PS…I occasionally receive emails from so-called song pluggers or people who want to collaborate and who claim they have written hits for certain artists, etc. I usually research them first to see if they are legitimate by simply searching for their names in the ASCAP and BMI databases (or check with the PRO from whatever country they reside in). If I can’t find their names registered anywhere, I’ll simply reply to their email and ask them what name they register their songs under. If they are legitimate, they’ll tell you, if they don’t answer back, you’ve learned that either they are scammers or that they are not willing to share their info, which makes them highly suspicious. As I always say, arm yourself with knowledge! ~ IJ
I know…who cares what my favourite all time songs are? Well, to tell you the truth, I saw somebody else do a similar list so I decided why not me? The interesting thing about going through my lists and lists of songs was in realizing how each one represented a different time in my life, but they also reflect how my tastes changed. As a songwriter, you realize the value of writing something that will stick with your listeners, and I decided to evaluate each one for that special something that made me shiver.
1.
The first in my list had to be the very first song I fell in love with, “Dizzy” by Tommy Roe. Go ahead, laugh :-). Dizzy became a huge hit for Tommy in 1969, so that means I was 12 years old when I first heard it. It so happened that I picked up a guitar for the first time at the same age, and I was exposed to this new and crazy thing called radio around about then too! You can listen to the song first, if you like, and then I’ll tell you what that special something was in this song for me:
The chorus modulating in the second line was the little musical bit that was, at that time, magic to my ears. And the idea of being dizzy with infatuation was also pretty appealing. What can I say? I was 12.
2.
The next song is probably on a lot of songwriter’s lists simply because it was written by songwriting guru Jimmy Webb. Glen Campbell had a hit with “Witchita Lineman” in 1968, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t hear it until later than that. Other artists have also covered this song, including one of my favourites, James Taylor. When I saw JT live here in Victoria a couple of years back, I nearly fell off my chair when he performed this song! Here is Glen Campbell’s version:
There are a gazillion things I love about this song. The Glen Campbell version was pretty 60’s-sounding with its string section prominently coming in at the beginning and throughout the recording. And of course, there was Glen’s little guitar riff at the beginning, and his solo half way through mirroring the melody is just magic. His voice was beautiful and plaintive, perfect for the subject of this song. An interesting thing about this song is that it has no chorus, but a repeated phrase or refrain “and the Witchita Lineman is still on the line.” The chord changes are gorgeous and unpredictable, especially in the 3rd line of the verses when, having come from a Gm7 in the previous, it changes to Dm7, Am7 and then comes back to a G major. That’s the part that gives me shivers.
Listening again to James Taylor’s version gives it a whole new feel. It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of James, and his voice, again, is just perfect for this song.
And speaking of James…
3.
I have to add a James Taylor song, and there are so many obvious ones, so rather than being predictable I’m going to introduce you to a song from his 1997 album called “Hourglass“. James’ brother Alex died in 1993 and this song is really about him. I read an interview with James about this song, and he said that he decided to change the character to a female “Alice” and give his personal connection to it a little distance. Here is “Enough To Be On Your Way“:
Here’s the first verse:
The sun shines on this funeral
The same as on a birth
The way it shines on everything
That happens here on earth
It rolls across the western sky
And back into the sea
And spends the day’s last rays
Upon this fucked up family
So long old gal
The 2nd to last line made me laugh out loud when I first heard it. Don’t we all have f***ed up families? The song itself is a kind of sentimental send off to a real character by the name of Alice.
The last time I saw Alice
She was leaving Santa Fe
With a bunch of round-eyed Buddhists
In a killer Chevrolet
Said they turned her out of Texas
Yeah she burned `em down back home
Now she`s wild with expectation
On the edge of the unknown
Nobody can write like James Taylor, and this whole song gave me shivers, but the chorus does it especially:
Oh it`s enough to be on your way
It`s enough just to cover ground
It`s enough to be moving on
Home, build it behind your eyes
Carry it in your heart
Safe among your own
The kicker is the phrase “so long old gal” . I want this song played at MY funeral!
My all time favourite Steely Dan song is Deacon Blues. All of their songs all have a sophisticated jazz style of music married with irreverent lyrics, but the lyrics in Deacon Blues somehow seem more personal. Maybe I’m wrong…who knows what Donald Fagen was thinking when he wrote it…I’m sure I don’t! For me personally, this is a perfect example of how I stamped my own meaning on a song lyric. Somewhere between the music and lyrics, I found something of myself, even though I know it has nothing at all to do with me. And that is the “shiver” quality that I get from Deacon Blues:
I can throw a CD (or iPod) full of Steely Dan songs in the car and drive for hours.
5.
I have to include a Joni Mitchell song and again, there are so many to choose from. “Court and Spark” was the first album of Joni’s that I purchased and I loved every track on it. And what I ended up picking here was a song of hers that was released commercially, “Help Me“. Joni was one of those rare writers who could put poetry to music and make it work wonderfully. There’s a simplicity to these lyrics, however:
Help me
I think I’m falling
In love again
When I get that crazy feeling
I know I’m in trouble again
I’m in trouble
‘Cause you’re a rambler and a gambler
And a sweet talking ladies man
And you love your lovin’
But not like you love your freedom
Of course, Joni’s guitar playing was something else again. Being a guitar player myself, I was fascinated to learn that she hated the “F” chord (I always tell my students that “F” has its name for a reason!), and that’s one reason why she started using open tunings. Opening tunings are more common now, but she made an art of them and at one point she had 50+ different tunings.
“Help Me” was a perfect falling in love song for me…I understood every second of it:
Again, I think I was most attracted to her chord progressions. “Help Me” modulates from one key to another effortlessly and naturally and just kind of floats musically. Once I figure out what tuning she used, I’ll tell you what the keys are :-).
6.
“Hello Goodbye” is a Beatles song I’ve always loved. It’s that one line especially where the bass descends…”hello, hello, I don’t know why you say goodbye I say hello” and then it repeats. The lyrics are just a play on opposites but work perfectly with the idea of a difficult or troubled relationship. “You say yes, I say no, you say why and I say I don’t know”. Perfect.
I can’t imagine that any band or musician will ever be as big or as influential as the Beatles, not because there aren’t any other great bands, but because of the timing. The Beatles simply hit the right note at the right time and it’s not possible to do that in the same way again. For those of you who don’t know this song (I can’t imagine you don’t!), here is “Hello, Goodbye”:
7.
A songwriter I very much respect is Mary Chapin Carpenter. At a music conference years ago, I heard John Braheny use Mary’s song “This Shirt” as an exemplary example of object songwriting and I couldn’t agree more. However, one of my all time favourite MCC songs is called “Come On, Come On“. If you’ve never heard it, here is a live performance of it:
I truly can’t decide if it’s Mary Chapin Carpenter’s delivery that packs the real punch or the song itself.
Some people remember the first time
Some can’t forget the last
Some just select what they want to from the past
It’s a song that you danced to in high school
It’s a moon you tried to bring down
On a four-in-the-morning drive through the streets of town
Mary came out with this gem smack in the middle of my songwriting frenzy in the 90’s. I couldn’t aspire to anyone more intelligent and insightful. The whole song was moving for me, but so was the idea that somebody could come up with a song so beautiful. I wish I wrote that! She has also collaborated with the next songwriter I’ve got on my list.
8.
I discovered Shawn Colvin in the 1990’s after a friend of mine suggested that, vocally, I sounded a lot like Shawn. So I bought her CD “Fat City” out of curiosity and ended up falling in love with her music. Again, her guitar playing and performance was a big sell for me since that’s what I was out there doing a lot of at the time. In 1998 she had a breakthrough hit with “Sunny Came Home“. I love the acoustic guitar and mandolin in this song…in fact,the whole production is fabulous:
The chord progressions are just wonderful in “Sunny”, the bass line on the guitar keeps changing, first down and up and then down again in the verses. Shawn and a few other songwriters started this very percussive way of strumming that I tried to emulate a few times in subsequent songwriting. The melody in the chorus of Sunny Came Home is beautiful and stands out…Shawn has a fabulous voice, much more versatile and controlled than mine ever could be. She has written some great songs on her own, and has also collaborated a lot in her songwriting career, which I’m sure has stretched her beyond her own songwriting boundaries, and which is something I never did enough of.
9.
Even though the 70’s were sometimes written off because of disco, I liked a lot of the songs that came out during that time. I was not a KC and the Sunshine Band fan, and there was plenty of music that I thought was fluff, but I did enjoy quite a bit of it, including the next song by the Commodores called “Brick House“. Why, I like it so much that my daughter has it as the ringtone on her cell when I call her :-). What is it about this song?
It’s just sexy. And funky. The odd thing about “Brick House” is that the verses have only one chord. Everything is about the lyrics and the funk, no fancy chord progressions involved. In fact, even the chorus is limited in terms of chords. But it doesn’t get boring, does it? So what does that teach you?
10.
Okay, my last choice is a reflection of the love and respect I have found for jazz, especially earlier jazz. I didn’t appreciate it at all until I was an adult, but I can’t for the life of me tell you why. I’m thinking that Woody Allen‘s movies are probably what brought me to jazz. He used to have jazz or dixie music in a lot of his movies. It’s not that I didn’t hear it or know of it before then, it’s just that I was too caught up in acoustic and singer/songwriter and old pop music to hear anything else. I am amazed that my 22-year-old daughter has already developed a taste for it.
When I listen to Louis Armstrong singing “A Kiss To Build A Dream On“, it just makes me swoon. It’s romantic, it’s happy, it’s simple and it’s not simple at all. I picked this song as a kind of representative of what I have learned to appreciate in my middle-aged years.
There is SO MUCH music out there and I know I’m missing about 99% of it these days. I plan to make a concerted effort to LISTEN MORE and hopefully find some gems out there that I never would have heard otherwise.
I’m also realizing that 10 songs is only the tip of the iceberg. Stay tuned for the next 10 :-). You can purchase some of the albums here:
