Brent is a hit songwriter with cuts by Alan Jackson, Randy Travis, Lady Antebellum, Joe Nichols, Gord Bamford, Ray Stevens, and more.  He’s written a top 5 hit in the US and a #1 in Canada… so far.

FREE GIFT

Hey, ya’ll! At the bottom of today’s post, I’m going to let you know about some free stuff I’m giving away to all of you great Man vs. Row subscribers.  Now, on to today’s post…

The line right before the chorus is one of the most important lines in your song- it sets up the chorus and helps determine the impact the top of the chorus has on the listener. (In basketball terms, you could say the last line of the verse or pre-chorus throws up the alley-oop so the chorus can dunk it.)

But sometimes that line, instead of serving the song or chorus, is trapped into serving the rhyme that comes before it. For example, a writer can get too focused on, “The line above ends in ‘blue’ so I have to write the next line so it ends with an ‘oo’ sound.” This can result in a line that’s weaker than it should be.

To avoid this trap, I’ll often figure out the IDEA of the set-up line, but intentionally leave it unrhymed before moving on to the last line of the chorus. I’d rather have the more important line dictate the rhyme of the less important line. This frees me up to focus on finding the strongest idea for the last line of the verse- on finding the best idea and figuring out the best way to say it. After I have that figured out, I can go back to the set-up line and figure that one out. Hope that helps!

God Bless,

Brent

MAN VS. ROW… LIVE!

I’m excited to be speaking on song idea discovery and development at the 2014 Songwriting And Music Business Conference in Nashville, TN! Click the image below to find out more. I’d love to see you there!

FREE GIFT

As a way to say “thank you” to all of you who subscribe to Man vs. Row by email, I’m going to give away some cool stuff in July (2014).  If you subscribe to MvR, I’ll send you a free report, “10 Things The Pro Knows.”  I’ll also send you the guitar/vocal of “Crickets,” which is the title track of Joe Nichols’ current album.  You’ll get to hear the song as Joe heard it when he decided to record it.  You’ll also receive the lyric file of the song- and this lyric file includes “Baxter’s Boneyard” – all the lines that DIDN’T make it into the song (see if you agree with our choices).  It’s something nobody else has seen, and I think it’s pretty cool.  But, again, this gift is only for those who subscribe to Man vs. Row by E-MAIL.  These gifts will be sent by email, so if I don’t have your email address, I can’t send it to you.  God Bless!

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