Yesterday during a mentoring session I was asked the question, “When did you decide to be a songwriter/musician?” I thought about it a couple moments and realized it was never a conscious decision. It was more like music made me. Music made me a musician by always being there. When everything else...
Stage Acting, Improv, and Songwriting... Recently I went to see my friend and talented actress Becky Wahlstrom doing improv night at Bongo Java's in Nashville. The group she performed with, the Nashville Improv Company, were amazingly witty, intelligent, and lightning quick in making stuff up. I was struck at how similar...
1.Believe: As creative people, we tend to be self-doubters. It's what drives us to look inward, to constantly question life around us, and, if channeled properly, will drive us to write great songs. It's perfectly natural to struggle with believing in ourselves and our art, but ultimately, we must...
Following your dreams... When I was 19 years old, I decided to leave my small Alabama hometown and strike out on a journey to the Big Apple: New York City. It took a combination of naivety and hard-headedness, I suppose. After all, I didn’t know anyone in New York City,...
Throughout my 20 years as a professional songwriter, I’ve noticed there isn't always a large difference in talent level among creative people. Why, then do some songwriters seem to have an over abundance of fans buying their music while others struggle to sell the first song? The answer is there is not a...
I remember sitting in my small, cramped writing studio in Nashville 10 years ago with my two best friends and co-writers, Sonny LeMaire and Shane Minor. We'd been writing together for two years, mostly because we loved hanging out with each other and creating music. No one was recording our...
The proper way to format your lyric sheet is one of the most overlooked details in the songwriting business! Since starting SongTown four years ago, Marty and I have had the chance to see many songs and/or song lyrics presented in our Pitch-to-Publisher events, song contests, and song feedback forums...
Often songwriters in our SongTown classes ask, "How do I write commercial music?" They are writers who would like to have commercial success and hear one of their songs on the radio or an album. But they want to know how to accomplish this and still be true to themselves....
"I've got nothing to write a song about." A few years ago, I was standing outside Darius Rucker's tour bus saying these words over the phone to my girlfriend. She had just asked me what I was going to write with Darius that day. Here I was outside Chicago, having flown...
Several SongTownian's have recently asked the question, "what's the best way to build a song catalog?" Here are a some key things I've learned over the years after writing for several major publishing companies and building a new catalog at each. Write, write, write! There is no substitute for this. A catalog is...