Hi, I'm Alex Von Soos. I love sharing what I've learned in decades as a professional (and often successful) songwriter. I've co-written with some of the best in the business, and what they all have in common is a relentless pursuit of excellence which is what I'm about-and what my $ongwondo training method is all about. Do I come up with excellent work every minute of every day? No—but when you keep at it the rewards will come and those moments when everything falls into place will become more frequent-without losing their magic!
Click on the videos below to hear two of my major releases:
And here are some of the highlights of my long songwriting career—the rejection letters and punishing hours? All forgotten now...
- signed to a major record deal with Warner Records in the UK
- signed to a major publishing deal with Universal Publishing
- received a platinum disc for the UK No.1 hit single "Black Coffee" by All Saints
- achieved No.1 status in South Korea with the track "Reach" by XIA
- achieved No.1 album success with UK girl bands Atomic Kitten and All Saints
- over 6 million records sold and many more streamed
- co-wrote with some the superstars of the songwriting world like Wayne Hector(One Direction) and Cathy Dennis(Katy Perry)
- went on paid writing trips to Nashville, New York, LA, Berlin and Stockholm
- recorded an album with the guitarists from Sting's and Paul McCartney's bands
- made a successful living from songwriting and production alone for 25 years
- worked with many exciting indie artists as well as on chart pop music—see this page for some music examples
I believe that this background probably makes me one of the most commercially successful songwriting teachers out there—obviously not the most successful songwriter ever but in this business things can always happen very quickly—if you've done your homework of course!
Speaking of homework, here's a bit of background info on what this site is all about:
$ongwondo was conceived as complete songwriting training system to combat all the difficulties that songwriters of all levels face when they go about their work.
Like the martial art it was named after, a mixture of discipline and flair is needed to be successful, and just like you would never expect to beat an experienced black belt as a novice or intermediate, you have to be patient and dedicated in your quest to write commercially viable songs.
But I'm doing my best to deliver as many shortcuts and silver bullets as I can find to speed up your journey a bit—and mine as I discover these concepts and principles and use them for my own writing!
Curious about how you can improve your writing?
I've prepared a free sample lesson for you so you can get to know me and my training method-and, even more importantly, make progress with your songwriting straight away!
Cost of this lesson: $0.00—and not even an email address required!