Posts by Clay Mills
Transform Your Songwriting: Our Best 5 Tips
Clay and Marty share their best 5 tips for raising your songwriting skills to that next level. 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 It…
Read MoreSongwriting Hack! “Short-Short-Long Verse”
Recognizing Patterns Today, a friend of mine posted on Facebook, a song by Bruce Springsteen. It’s an old song called “My Hometown”, and it kind of struck me. I often encourage people, when they listen to melodies, to try to recognize patterns. I hadn’t heard this song in a long time, and the first thing…
Read MoreThe Music Lab: Verses Are The New Chorus
One of the most noticeable style shifts in songwriting over the last few years is the emergence of chorus-like hooks in verses. For the longest time, if you had a memorable and “hit” sing-a-long chorus you were golden. Your chances of finding an audience for your songs were pretty good. Even if you were the…
Read More4 Keys to Co-Writing Songs With A Band
Someone asked me the other day, “What is your secret to co-writing with a band?” Over the years I’ve been blessed to co-write songs with great bands like Lady A and Little Big Town. As a songwriter, it can be tricky to sit down with three or four other people in one room and make…
Read MoreSongwriters: Do You really need that expensive song demo?
One of the top questions Marty and I get in the SongTown Mailbox is “what is a reasonable song demo price?” It seems a common myth exists that says in order to have a record company or artist pick up your songs, you have to produce a song demo that sounds like a finished record. Fortunately…
Read MoreWhat To Do If You Don’t Know Anyone In The Music Business
Hit Songwriters Clay Mills and Marty Dodson share their stories of how they made it in the music business as songwriters. They also share encouragement and strategies that you can use to navigate the music business even if you don’t know anyone in the business. Hit Songwriter Clay Mills has six #1 Hit Singles, 2…
Read MoreAre You Falling Into The Arrogant Songwriter Trap?
As a songwriter, I am a “lifer.” I’ve spent many hours everyday writing with, teaching to, and in online forums conversing with songwriters. It’s not uncommon to hear songwriters say things like, “You can’t learn songwriting. You either have it, or you don’t.” Or, “This song came from my inner soul, so it’s perfect just like it…
Read MoreWhy Talent Is Overrated
Marty Dodson and Clay Mills discuss why talent is overrated. And why hard work and the willingness to learn gets you closer to success as a songwriter. Adding More Heart To Your Songs : Online CrashCourse Change the way the world hears your songs! 🔥 In this 3-week immersive songwriting course you will learn how…
Read MoreDoes Your Songwriting Focus Need Tweaking?
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned over my songwriting career is that my songwriting focus constantly needs tweaking. It’s easy to lose sight of the important foundational things and veer off into the worlds of negativity or procrastination. So I have a short checklist of things I remind myself of daily… No matter what…
Read More5 Simple Ways To Unleash Your Own Creative Songwriting Power
As a professional songwriter, I am asked often how I walk into a co-write with superstars like Darius Rucker, Little Big Town, or Lady A and create songs “on-demand?” Well, I didn’t start out doing this, but I’ve learned a few tricks over the years that’ve allow me to train my creativity and tap into…
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