by Carla Starrett Poets in the modern world do not enjoy the elevated social status they did a century or two ago. Wordsworth, Byron, Keats and Shelley were the rock stars of their time. Their poetic skills earned them adulation, celebrity and even the occasional touch of wealth. These days, poems and poetry are sadly …
Read more “Similar yet distinct art forms: Poetry & Song Lyrics”
by Harriet Schock As I said in “Words or Music, that is the Question,” writing lyrics without a melody to write them to is a risky business — because you’re setting the rhythm of the melody, rather than letting the melody do that. So, some people have asked me how you actually put words to …
by Harriet Schock People like to debate which is more important, music or lyrics. Lyricists love the story about Oscar Hammerstein’s wife, Dorothy, overhearing Jerome Kern’s wife insisting that Jerome Kern wrote “Ol’ Man River” and Dorothy said, “No, your husband wrote bom, bom, bom, bom, (5-5-6-1) . . . MY husband wrote ‘Ol’ Man …
by Pamela Phillips Oland Let me make myself crystal clear here: If you want your point of view to be heard, really heard, by your audience, there is no device like clarity. No cleverness or circularity can ever arrest your audience like nailing your idea. If you hit it just right, the results will make …
by Pamela Phillips Oland “It will be a sweet revelation to discover that your creative efforts are their own reward, and that always, you have nothing to fear but fear itself…” — Pamela Phillips Oland U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said at his 1933 inauguration, “There is nothing we have to fear but fear itself.” …
by Pamela Phillips Oland Do you know the difference between making honest mistakes in judgment that in some way hurt your chances or had the effect of holding you back; and making unconscious decisions or choices that have the effect of making you fail? Be honest now: Are you guilty of sabotaging your goals by …