Reddit reviews The Billboard Guide to Writing and Producing Songs that Sell: How to Create Hits in Today's Music Industry

First off, I think you have the start of some good material. The feel you have in your vocal delivery and guitar sound is interesting to listen to and has the potential of capturing the listener's attention.


To start, I think the introduction is too long, considering the little amount of development that occurs. There's nearly 45 seconds into the vocals come in. Ask yourself - what is happening in the music in these 45 seconds? What is being accomplished with this introduction? What is its purpose? Does the listener need 20 seconds of just the guitar, and 20 seconds of just guitar and drums to accomplish what's needed in the introduction? If the purpose of your intro is to set the feel/tone of the piece, perhaps just the first 20 seconds of guitar is enough. Can you get more variation in your sound by not even having drums come in until the chorus or after the chorus?


Individually, each section / stanza isn't terrible on its own. However, transitions between each section are a bit rough -- there is little flow between each section and even sometimes each line.

Some basic transitional questions to ask yourself: What note am I ending each phrase, line, verse, and section with? How does that prepare me for the next note, chord, section, etc? How can I increase interest moving from the verse to the chorus?


There's the start of some great ideas in here - you have decent large-scale structure (intro, verse, chorus, etc, instrumental section, outro). Now start to think more on the minuscule level - each note, each transition, each chord, interplay between melody/harmony.


If you haven't checked out any songwriting books, one of the best places to start in your case is The Billboard Guide to Writing and Producing Songs that Sell