Posts by Clay Mills
Top Ways To Complicate Your Songs and Confuse Your Audience
There’s a number of common songwriting errors that complicate the lyric and confuse the listener. If you want to leave your audience scratching their heads (not recommended), try these techniques for songwriting confusion. Switch your pronouns around. Include several female characters in your song and then use the pronouns “she” or “her”. This gets them…
Read MoreTaking Lyrics from Good to Great: 4 Pro Tips
Multi #1 songwriters Clay Mills & Marty Dodson share their top 4 tips for taking your song lyrics from good to great. Whether you’re wanting to know how to write a song or you are a more experienced writer. The SongTown On SongTown Podcast will help you level up your songwriting skills. Write For Recording…
Read MoreSeparating The Song From Its Production
As a songwriter I have been blessed with both a career I never dreamed possible and a chance to help thousands of talented writers at SongTown level-up up their songwriting. I especially love delving into vocal melodies and different production techniques that will make a song stand the test of time. Every January I give…
Read MoreWhat Do Publishers Look For In Songs?
For many songwriters and artists, trying to figure out what publishers look for in songs can often feel like stumbling through an endless maze. Often this search for what someone else is looking for leaves an artists or writer losing touch with their own talent and uniqueness. Throughout my career I’ve managed to navigate this…
Read MoreThe “Instant Melancholy” Chord Substitution
The Melancholy Chord Substitution. I’ve been blessed to get away with some interesting chord changes over the course of my songwriting career. Those songs found their way onto pop and country mainstream radio—two formats that, right or wrong, have a rap for simple chords. Whether it was sneaking in a 2 Major Sus chord…
Read More6 Keys To Writing Better Songs
Writing Better Songs Let’s face it, there’s nothing sweeter than playing a song for an audience, a publisher, or a friend and having it move them. Excite them. Make them dance. Or leave them tearing up. As writers, we want to reach out and touch people with our songs. As a professional songwriter, I have…
Read MoreTop Songwriting Biz Tips: Avoid These Mistakes
Songwriters Marty Dodson and Clay Mills share music biz tips for writers and artist. Don’t make these mistakes! Clay & Marty’s 10-day video series: This video series will help you level-up your songs and finish them faster. CLICK HERE to begin! SongTown Press Books: Mastering Melody Writing : Check It Out The Songwriter’s Guide To Mastering Co-Writing : Check…
Read MoreBetween The Rhymes & Songwriting
Songwriters & Rhymes Last week I wrote with a talented young songwriter who was obsessed with finding a fresh, new rhyme at every turn of the songwriting process. “Surely we can use a rhyme here that no one’s thought of”, he said, several times. That got me thinking after the session about rhymes and my…
Read MoreOvercoming Writer’s Block: 5 Pro Techniques To Get You Writing Again
At least twice a week I get an email seeking advice on how to overcome writer’s block. For many songwriters the worst part of the whole writing experience is just getting started. Those times when we sit down to write and nothing comes out. We feel like we have nothing to say. Well here are…
Read MoreHit Producer Daniel Ross Shares His Track Building Philosophy
Daniel Ross is a Songwriter and Producer at Big Machine Music Publishing. His songs have been recorded by Morgan Wallen, Jake Owen, Chase Rice, Eli Young Band, Granger Smith, RaeLynn, Seaforth, Robert Counts, Troy Cartwright and more. Production credits for Joey Hendricks, Lauren Weintraub, Austin Burke and more. In this video Daniel shares his proven…
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