SongTown - A no "Guru" zone for songwriters... At SongTown, we've been pretty protective of our songwriting community. It's a private community of some of the best up and coming songwriters around. Marty Dodson and I started it 8 years ago to help grow aspiring writers into...
This is my Songwriter's Holiday Reflection This holiday season, I find myself looking back and remembering people that have been an important part of my life. The winter holidays are a wonderful time for cultivating gratitude. Looking back, there have been people who have been there for me since day...
I have received several emails this week asking about the best approach to recording song demos. There are many things that have changed over the last year since I first blogged about this. Here are a few questions to consider when demoing your songs. 1. Who will be listening?...
"I've got nothing to write a song about today." I remember standing outside Darius Rucker's tour bus saying these words over the phone to a friend. She had just asked me what I was going to write with Darius that day. Here I was outside Chicago, having flown there to...
After writing my first hit song I thought I had arrived but songwriter humble pie wasn't far behind... About 11 years ago, when my son was eight, I was fortunate enough to have a new single on radio. I had moved to Nashville at 32, and eight years later, it...
Want to make your songs contemporary but also not lose that classic feel of great songs? Follow along as Clay Mills shares his secret weapon –the songwriter chord. This two-fingered major and minor 10th chord voicing has been used on many mega hits throughout the history of recorded music. So, Grab an...
As a professional writer, learning to boost my creative songwriting power was crucial to my success. I am asked often how I walk into a co-write with superstars like Darius Rucker, Little Big Town, or Lady Antebellum and create songs “on-demand?” Well, I didn’t start out doing this, but...
How many times have you heard it said that one must "Fake it to make it" or "Act as if you've already achieved your goal." Nice comforting quotes but not a smart strategy for chasing your songwriting goals. I remember starting out years ago, landing my first publishing deal as...
Eight years ago, fellow pro songwriter Marty Dodson and I made a pact to do all we could to keep the craft of songwriting alive. We were chatting at a local coffee shop in Nashville, Tennessee. We discussed how we'd learned early on in our careers from master songwriters...
The number one question that fills our email inbox is “How do I get a song cut by a major artist if I'm an out-of-town songwriter?” "I don't live in a big music city" is the challenge. This strikes at the very core of why Marty Dodson and I created...