How to Write Blog House Songs

Want a song that bloggers rave about and friends play on repeat at late nights? Blog house occupies that sweet spot between indie heart and club energy. It is the sound of a bedroom producer who learned pop songwriting, a club DJ who reads music blogs, and a vocalist who can cry on the mic then smile for a coffee shop session. This guide gives you the framework, the dirty little production tricks, the lyric moves, and the promotion hacks to make blog editors and playlist curators pick your track.

Everything here assumes you want real results fast. We will cover feel and tempo, chord palettes that sound modern, drum programming that breathes, vocal choices that carry emotion, mixing moves that make your track sound expensive, and outreach steps so people who write about music actually notice you. Acronyms will be explained in plain language. Expect practical exercises you can do the same day you read this.

What Is Blog House

Blog house is not a strict genre like deep house or tech house. It is a vibe. Think emotional songwriting plus danceable rhythms. It was born when indie playlists and music blogs started loving club ready tracks with personality. Blog house often features human sounding vocals, bright chords, nostalgic textures, and production choices that sound both polished and lived in.

Real life scenario

• You are in your kitchen at midnight. Your vocal demo was recorded on a phone. You chop the vocal, add a warm piano, and suddenly a popular music blog writes about how sincere and danceable your song feels. That is blog house.

Core Elements of a Blog House Song

• Tempo. Usually between 110 and 128 BPM. Slow enough for groove and fast enough to move a dancefloor.
• Emotional topline. Vocals often sit in the middle register and tell a story you can text to a friend.
• Chord warmth. Big chords with tasteful extensions like 7 or 9 to add color.
• Organic textures. Field recordings, lo fi samples, or a muted acoustic guitar to make the track feel human.
• Shimmering production. Reverb and delay used like punctuation, not wallpaper.
• Mix clarity. Space for the vocal and the kick. Sidechain compression is common. Sidechain means the kick pumps the bass and pads to create movement.
• Short form hospitality. Blog listeners expect the hook early. Land a memorable moment within the first 45 seconds.

How to Start a Blog House Track

Start with one clear idea. If you pick two, both will fight for attention. Pick one of these three seeds and commit.

• Topline seed. Record a vocal melody with a phrase. Build chords under it.
• Chord seed. Pick a chord progression with a color and write a vocal on top.
• Groove seed. Program a drum loop with a unique percussion sound. Add bass and then a melody.

Exercise

1. Choose one seed and set a timer for 20 minutes.
2. Create a 16 bar loop. Do not overthink instruments. Use piano, bass, kick, and one pad.
3. Record a rough vocal or hum a melody for four passes. Pick the best pass and refine it for another 20 minutes.

Tempo and Groove Choices

Pick your tempo based on mood.

• 110 to 116 BPM for warm, late night, almost soul pop energy.
• 116 to 122 BPM for classic blog house energy that still breathes.
• 122 to 128 BPM for a lean toward club readiness and peak energy.

Groove tips

• Program the kick on downbeats and add shuffled hi hats for sway. Shuffle means shifting the timing of every other hi hat to create a human feel.
• Use ghost snares on weak beats to push rhythm, not to dominate it.
• Humanize by nudging percussion by a few milliseconds and slightly varying velocity levels.

Chord Palettes That Sound Like Blog House

Blog house loves lush chords. You do not need heavy theory to use them. Here are playable recipes in the key of C major. Transpose to your vocal range later.

Warm progression

Cmaj7 | Amin7 | Fmaj7 | G

This progression gives a bittersweet warm feel. Major seventh and minor seventh chords add color without sounding jazzy in a show off way.

Anthemic progression

Amin | F | C | G

Classic and effective. Swap Amin for Amin7 to soften the edges.

Minor nocturne

Em | C | G | D

Great for more melancholic vocals. Use sparse piano behind verses and a wider pad in the chorus.

Practical tip

• Play the chord progression with a simple piano sound first. If the chords feel precious, add a soft electric piano or a warm pad. Keep the rhythm simple. Let the vocal carry complexity.

Sound Design and Instrument Choices

Blog house wants character not glossy perfection. Pick sounds that feel lived in. Here is a shortlist you can steal the same day.

• Warm electric piano. Try sounds similar to classic Rhodes or Wurlitzer but slightly detuned or with tape saturation. Saturation means adding gentle distortion to mimic analog tape or hardware warmth.
• Gated piano hits for impact. Gate means chopping the tail to create a punchy sound.
• Soft pads with slow attack and long release to glue sections together. Use a lowpass filter to keep them from clashing with the vocal.
• Bass that is round and simple. A sine sub and a slight midrange for character work well. Avoid complex basslines that steal human attention from the topline.
• Percussion using found sounds. Record a mug, a door, or a chair creak. Load into a sampler and place it in the groove. That human element is irresistible to blog readers.

Drum Programming That Breathes

Program the kick with clarity. The kick must be felt. The rest of the rhythm should dance around it.

• Kick in the low end. Roll off unnecessary mids to make space for vocals and chords.
• Snare or clap on two and four. Layer a tight clap with a room clap to add depth.
• Hi hats in 16th patterns with occasional open hat accents for groove. Use small velocity changes for human feel.
• Shaker loops or organic percussion layered low in the mix for movement.

Sidechain basics

Sidechain compression makes instrument levels duck when the kick hits. This creates rhythmic pumping. It is common in blog house because it clarifies the low end without heavy EQ surgery. If your DAW does automatic sidechain routing, route a compressor on your bass and pads and trigger it from the kick. If you do not have sidechain, you can emulate it with volume automation. Sidechain explained simply: the compressor reduces volume when the kick plays so the kick breathes through the mix.

Writing the Vocal Topline

The topline is the melody and lyrics sung over your production. For blog house, the topline must be conversational and singable. Think of the vocal as a human in a club. They are telling a story but still need room to groove.

Lyric approach

• Write one emotional sentence that sums the song. This is your core line. Example: I will meet you where the city still allows us to be honest.
• Make the chorus short and repeatable. One to three lines is perfect.
• Use concrete images. A second hand on a watch is better than vague grief.
• Use colloquial language. Blog readers like lines they could imagine seen as a tweet or a text.

Melody approach

• Keep verses mostly stepwise and in a lower range.
• Raise the chorus by a third or a fourth for lift.
• Use small melodic motifs that repeat. A two or three note pattern can become your hook.
• Record the vocal rough early so you can test melody against groove.

Real life scenario

You are writing a chorus that needs an earworm. You hum on a loop of four chords and find a three note hook that feels famous. You build a line that fits that hook. You repeat it twice in the chorus. Now you have a chorus a blog writer can describe in one sentence.

Vocal Production Tricks That Sound Like a Pro

Vocals in blog house are intimate but polished. Here are the processing steps that give emotion and clarity.

1. Clean the recording. Remove noise and tighten timing with small edits. Keep breaths that sound human unless they are distracting.
2. EQ. Remove mud under 120 Hz if it competes with the kick and add a gentle presence boost around 2 to 5 kHz to help clarity. If your vocal is nasal, notch out the problem frequency instead of adding more presence.
3. Compression. Use a gentle compressor for control and an aggressive one on a parallel track to bring up room and texture. Parallel compression means duplicating the vocal track, compressing the duplicate heavily, and blending it back under the original for thickness.
4. Reverb and delay. Use short plate reverb for intimacy and a slap or quarter note delay for rhythmic movement. Automate send levels so the verse is dry and the chorus gets wider.
5. Tuning. Correct big pitch issues with a tuning tool. Preserve small pitch fluctuations for personality. If you tune too much the vocal will sound robotic.
6. Vocal chops. Duplicate a small slice of a vocal line and pitch it up or down. Use it as a hook in the intro or a tag in the post chorus.

Arrangement Maps You Can Steal

Blog house benefits from clarity. You want to land the hook early and keep momentum. Here are two maps that work.

Map A: The Emotional Club Track

• Intro 0:00 to 0:20. Signature motif and light percussion.
• Verse one 0:20 to 0:50. Sparse chords and intimate vocal.
• Pre chorus 0:50 to 1:05. Build percussion and pad filter opens.
• Chorus 1:05 to 1:35. Full drums, bass, vocal hook repeats.
• Verse two 1:35 to 2:05. Keep energy with percussion variations.
• Bridge 2:05 to 2:25. Strip back, emotional vocal moment.
• Final chorus 2:25 to 2:55. Add harmonies and a small countermelody.
• Outro 2:55 to 3:20. Filter out elements and end with the motif.

Map B: Blog Friendly Radio Edit

• Intro hook 0:00 to 0:10. Vocal chop or piano riff.
• Chorus preview 0:10 to 0:30. Early hook so streaming listeners get immediate payoff.
• Verse 0:30 to 0:55. Bring it down to make the return more satisfying.
• Chorus 0:55 to 1:25. Full impact.
• Bridge 1:25 to 1:45. New lyric angle and a drop in instrumentation.
• Final chorus 1:45 to 2:15. Stack vocals and small instrumental change so it feels new.
• Short outro 2:15 to 2:35. Keep it concise. Blogs love shareable short tracks.

Mixing Moves That Make Your Track Blog Ready

Mixing is about balance. Here are the must do moves without getting lost in gear talk.

• Low end first. Balance kick and bass. Use EQ to carve a space for each. If both fight, cut a little where they overlap instead of boosting one.
• Vocal center. Keep the lead vocal in the center and slightly in front of the other elements. Use a gentle compressor and a high pass filter to remove useless low rumble.
• Use reference tracks. Pick two songs you want your track to sit next to on a playlist. Compare levels, reverb, and brightness.
• Automation is your friend. Automate reverb sends, pad volume, and filter cutoff so the listener always has a movement to focus on.
• Leave headroom. Do not master yet. Keep your peak levels around 6 to 8 dB below clipping so the mastering engineer or your plugin can breathe.

Mastering Essentials Explained

Mastering makes the track ready for release. If you are DIY, here is what to check.

• Loudness. LUFS is a unit for perceived loudness. Streaming platforms target different LUFS levels. Aim for around 14 to 9 LUFS in your master if you want streaming friendly levels. LUFS stands for Loudness Units relative to Full Scale. It measures how loud your track feels to listeners not just how high the peak meter goes.
• EQ glue. A gentle high shelf can add air. A slight low shelf can tighten the sub region. Small moves only.
• Limiters. Use a brick wall limiter to raise apparent loudness while watching for distortion.
• Check on multiple systems. Cars, earbuds, laptop speakers, and club PA. If it translates it is ready.

Promotion and Pitching to Blogs

Even the best track needs a proper pitch. Blogs get pitched all day. Here is how to stand out without sounding like a try hard.

Build a one page press kit

• Short bio. Two sentences that tell who you are and why this song matters.
• Track link. Provide a private streaming link. Do not attach large files unless asked.
• Artwork. Small square that looks like it belongs on a playlist.
• Social links. Make it easy for a writer to check your vibe.

Pitching email template that does not suck

Subject line: New track for your list from [Artist name]

Body

Hi [Editor name],

I make intimate dance music and thought this would fit your recent features on late night club pop. Track is called [Title]. Private stream here [link].

Short note on why it matters in one sentence. Example: It is a midnight dance track about forgiving yourself and walking home after the last train.

Press kit link and socials. Thanks for listening. No attachments unless requested.

Real life scenario

You send the email and the editor listens in the morning. They like the hook and the vocal. They reply with a simple yes. You just made it to a playlist a week earlier than expected.

How to Get Blog Friendly Visuals

Blogs love shareable images. Keep it simple and consistent with the song mood.

• Cover art. One strong image, minimal text. Think cinematic still not a band poster.
• Short video. A 15 to 30 second clip that features the hook and an arresting visual. Vertical formats work well for social stories.
• Behind the scenes. A single candid photo of your setup or a field recording. Bloggers like authenticity.

DIY Release Timeline

1. Six weeks before release. Finalize mix and send to mastering. Build a simple press list of blogs and curators.
2. Three to four weeks before release. Prepare press kit and visual assets. Start sending private links to a small group of trusted curators for early feedback.
3. Two weeks before release. Send pitches to blogs with the private stream. Give them at least one week to respond.
4. Release week. Promote with clips, shoutouts, and a focused ad spend if you can. Pitch playlists and reach out to DJs who might play the track in sets.

Common Mistakes and How to Fix Them

• Too many ideas. Fix by choosing one emotional thread and editing the rest out.
• Over compressed vocal. Fix by backing off and using parallel compression for thickness.
• Busy low end. Fix by carving frequencies with EQ and using sidechain to create space.
• Intro that takes forever. Fix by putting a hook or vocal chop in the first 20 seconds to hook blog scrollers.
• Pitch emails that are novels. Fix by keeping pitches short, factual, and easy to act on.

Exercises to Write a Blog House Song Today

The 60 minute song sprint

1. Set a 60 minute timer.
2. Create a four chord loop using one of the chord palettes above.
3. Program a simple kick, clap, and hat pattern and add a bassline that locks to the kick.
4. Record a topline in one take. Keep lyrics short. Record both a vocal and a whisper layer to use as texture.
5. Arrange to the Map A or Map B templates. Export a rough mix and send to a friend for feedback.

The vocal chop trick

1. Record a short vocal line or use an existing one.
2. Slice a few syllables and pitch them into a minor melody line.
3. Use the chop as intro material and as a hook under the chorus for continuity.

Terms and Acronyms Explained

• BPM stands for Beats Per Minute. It tells how fast the track is. Higher BPM generally feels more energetic.
• DAW stands for Digital Audio Workstation. It is the software where you write and produce music. Examples include Ableton Live, Logic Pro, and FL Studio.
• VST means Virtual Studio Technology plugin. These are software instruments and effects you load in your DAW.
• MIDI is the language that controls virtual instruments. It is not audio. MIDI tells instruments which notes to play.
• EQ stands for equalizer. It lets you remove or boost specific frequencies of a sound.
• FX means effects like reverb and delay. These add space and movement.
• ADSR stands for Attack Decay Sustain Release. It is an envelope that shapes how a sound evolves over time. Attack controls how quickly a sound starts. Release controls how long it fades after you stop playing it.
• LUFS stands for Loudness Units relative to Full Scale. It measures perceived loudness for streaming platforms.
• Stems are separate exported audio lines like vocals, drums, bass, and instruments. Blogs and DJs sometimes ask for stems for remixes.

Examples You Can Model

Example 1

Key C major. Tempo 118 BPM.

Chords: Cmaj7 | Amin7 | Fmaj7 | G

Drum pattern: Warm kick on one plus soft clap on two and four. Shuffled closed hats at 16th resolution. Organic shaker on the offbeat.

Vocal: Intimate verses with a chorus that lifts a third. Chorus repeats the main phrase twice and ends with a short vocal chop. Use a plate reverb on the second repeat for drama.

Example 2

Key A minor. Tempo 122 BPM.

Chords: Amin | F | C | G with a sustained Em over the bridge for tension.

Drum pattern: Thinner kick but heavy sub bass. Add a gated piano in the chorus and a field recording of rain as texture under the verse. Vocal doubles on the chorus and a whispered harmony in the outro.

What Blog Editors Actually Look For

Editors want songs that sound like someone who knows what they are doing but still feels human. They will notice the hook first and then the details. If your song has one memorable phrase, a little emotional honesty, and a sound that is not trying too hard, you have their attention.

• Originality with accessibility. A fresh twist inside a familiar structure.
• A clear story. The song does not have to be long but it should say something worth reading about.
• Good artwork and a presentable press kit. Yes photos matter.
• Easy streaming links and a private download for editorial use if asked.

How to Collaborate Without Losing the Vibe

Collabs can take your track further as long as everyone agrees on the core idea. Before you share stems, agree on one line that the song must keep. That line is the song spine. Protect it like a VIP pass.

Real life negotiation scenario

Your co writer wants to add three more lyrical ideas and your producer wants a new synth lead. Say yes to one idea each. Keep the rest for an extended remix or a B side. This keeps the original track focused and gives collaborators something to do later.

How to Turn a Blog Spinner Into a Crowd Favorite

Once a blog spins your track, the next goal is getting people to play it in playlists and local DJ sets. Make a DJ friendly edit with a longer intro and extra beat variation. Offer a stems pack to DJs for remixes. Build a simple live set with a vocal performance and one or two instrumental loops so clubs can book you for a short slot.

Monetization Paths for Blog House Producers

• Sync licensing. Short music placements in ads and shows. Blogs can lead to playlist traction that attracts sync interest.
• Remix requests. Sell stems and offer paid remix packages to fans who want to learn.
• Live shows and DJ sets. Local bar gigs can start small and grow once you have a track that people know.
• Patreon or direct fan support for early releases and behind the scenes content.

Keep Learning and Iterating

Write three songs a month and pick one to finish. The ratio of ideas to finished songs is where progress lives. Blog house is forgiving to rough demos that have heart. Keep your workflow practical. Ship more. The more you release the more likely a blog picks you up and that pick turns into a night at a venue that pays in cash and high fives.

Action Plan You Can Use Today

1. Pick a seed. Use the chord seed or the topline seed and set a 60 minute timer.
2. Build a four bar loop with piano, bass, kick, and a hat. Keep it simple.
3. Record a topline with one emotional sentence as your chorus. Repeat it twice.
4. Program a subtle sidechain on pads and bass so the kick breathes.
5. Arrange into Map A or Map B and export a rough mix. Send it to one trusted listener for feedback.
6. Prepare a one page press kit and send it to three blogs two weeks before your planned release.

Blog House FAQ

What tempo should my blog house song be

Most blog house sits between 110 and 128 BPM. Choose lower if you want intimacy and head nodding. Choose higher if you want dancefloor energy. Pitch your tempo to the mood of the topline not to trend chasing.

Do I need a fancy microphone to make blog quality vocals

No. You need a decent recording environment and good technique more than an expensive mic. A clean phone recording can work if you process it tastefully. Use noise reduction, mild EQ, and avoid tuning everything out of character. The emotional honesty matters more than the gear.

How do I get blog editors to listen to my track

Keep pitches short, provide a private streaming link, include a sharp one line about the song, and make your press kit easy to read. Target editors who cover similar artists. One personalized message is better than ten generic blasts.

What are common chord voicings used in blog house

Seventh chords like major seven and minor seven are common. Add a ninth or sus2 for extra color. Play voicings in the middle register to leave room for vocals. Avoid dense cluster chords that compete with your topline.

How much should I compress vocals

Compress enough to keep the vocal present but not squashed. Use a gentle compressor for tracking and a heavier parallel bus for thickness. The vocal should breathe and feel alive. If you hear pumping on every syllable that is too much.

What is the easiest way to make my song sound warm and analog

Add subtle tape or tube saturation, gentle chorus on pads, and small amounts of reverb. Layer a warm electric piano under the main chord to give a pleasing midrange. Small tasteful imperfections make the track feel human not mechanical.

Should I master before sending to blogs

Send a high quality mixed file or a lightly mastered reference. Some blogs prefer a mastered track while others can handle a good mix. Ask if they need a mastered version. Keep the master with neutral loudness so they can make adjustments for their platform if needed.

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