Real, no-nonsense songwriting info.

Robin Frederick: songwriter, author

I’VE BEEN STUDYING TODAY’S TOP RADIO HITS AND SUCCESSFUL FILM & TV SONGS TO BRING YOU THE LATEST SONGWRITING TRENDS AND TOOLS.

My students and clients have had song placements in movies, prime -time TV, artist cuts, and hundreds of thousands of streams on Spotify. Get started on your songwriting journey and find out how far it will take you!

On this site, you’ll find over 125 HOW-TO TIPS and SONG STARTERS! Each one will help you  write songs that express your thoughts and feelings while giving your style a contemporary, commercial edge.

And be sure to check out my Hit Song Guides where I reverse-engineer 50+ hit songs to show you how they did it. To get a free songwriting tip or song guide every month, sign up for my Songwriting Tips email.


Songwriting tools you can use…


Check out my online Songwriting Courses

You’ll love my affordable, self-paced ONLINE COURSES!

  • Learn the secrets of hit songwriting.
  • Use the songwriting exercises to launch or finish songs. 
  • Get access to workshops and private feedback.
  • Write expressive songs listeners will love and the music industry needs.

More on this site…

Your Songwriting Coach

I’ve been studying hit songs for over 20 years. You can read 50+ of my Hit Song Guides on my Songwriting Tips & Inspiration website. In addition, I’ve been a record label executive, Film & TV songwriter with hundreds of credits, a music producer, and a working songwriter for my entire career.

My books—Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting and Shortcuts to Songwriting for Film & TV— have been used to teach the craft of songwriting at Musician’s Institute, Belmont University, and many more schools around the world.

Through TAXI.com, an Independent A&R company, I trained hit songwriters and music industry professionals to give feedback to thousands of aspiring and successful songwriters. Over the years, I learned that many hit songwriters can’t really explain how they do it. So, I dug down to see if I could find some answers. I’ve gathered tons of information and poured it into my books and websites. Have a look around and then get started on your hit songs!

Featured post

The Power of the Kick-Off Line

Annnnnd there’s the kick-off! The ball is in motion. The players explode into action. The fans are on their feet. It’s the moment they’ve all been waiting for! That’s the power of the kick off.

Now think about launching a verse or chorus with that kind of energy!

A kick-off line can add a big shot of excitement to any section of your song. It can be the attention-grabbing opening of Verse 1. It can be the boost that gives your chorus a chance to really soar.

An effective kick-off line is a combination of strong melody and lyric writing. So, let’s check out some examples from a few big, contemporary hit songs to see how it’s done.

Should I Write Or Should I Listen?

Probably every songwriter reading this would answer: WRITE! We all want to spend as much time as we can writing our songs: moving lyrics and melody forward, getting them finished, and starting new ones. Writing feels productive. It feels like you’re accomplishing something.

But listening to songs is just… well, it’s just something you enjoy, something you do when you’re driving, or studying. In other words, something you do while you’re actually doing something else.

But what if I said that listening to songs is as important to your success as writing songs? What if I told you that you should spend as much time listening as you do writing?

30-Minute Sessions: Solve a Songwriting Problem


We all run into songwriting problems from time to time. Solving that problem quickly and moving on is the key to growing you song catalogue, saving time, and getting your work out there to listeners. You can use the 30-Minute Songwriting session technique to quickly get the solutions you need and get your songs moving again.

Read Part 1 and Part 2 in this series on 30-Minute Songwriting sessions to get familiar with this incredibly useful technique.

Note that in these sessions I suggest that you use hit songs as reference songs to help you find the answers. Don’t copy the hit song. Instead, use the techniques you find and adapt them to your own style and song.