Epic Winning: Ballads, Structure and Title Lessons from John Braheny
Brooke Trout: Something wasn’t working for Burnout, a song that I had shelved for my last two albums. My drummer explained his point of view regarding the meter of the song and this challenged me to research my chord progressions, scales and finally “The Craft and Business of Songwriting.” The book was recommended to me nationwide, from Doak Turner in Nashville to David Knight in New York City - and here I am out in Los Angeles recommending it to you!
Once I got to the chapter on song structure my awareness of what I’m doing as a writer expanded to not just my own work but the work of other writers! Thanks to John’s exercises I’ve been breaking down all of Madonna’s Greatest Hits to learn that many of her songs are very gospel inspired. I suppose “Like A Prayer” goes without saying! So after that I thought I would take a crack at some epic ballads for a Q&A that will blow your mind! (I think I blew a fuse on the second one!)
