Posts by Marty Dodson
Do You HAVE To Write With Artists To Get Songs Recorded?
Do you HAVE to write with artists to get songs recorded? Listen in as Hit Songwriters Marty Dodson and Clay Mills discuss two different viewpoints on this topic! Marty and Clay also offer tips and advice on how to write with artists and how you can get one step closer to getting your songs cut!…
Read MoreSongwriter Write-Up-Itis: Do You Suffer From This Common Illness?
Clay and I continually run into people throughout SongTown territories that have songwriter “write-up-itis”. We can spot the affliction immediately because we have both battled this dreadful and potentially fatal disease in the past. The symptoms generally start after you write the first song that you think is really commercially viable. A slight fever starts…
Read MoreSongwriters: Are You Pitching Your Songs With A Shotgun Or A Rifle?
One of the most popular questions we get at SongTown is “how many songs should I send to a producer or publisher?” The prevailing myth for aspiring songwriters is that “more shots equals a better chance of something great happening”. I want to dispel that myth and to explain why pitching your songs with a…
Read MoreThe Songwriter’s Code
The Songwriter’s Code From the Brill Building in New York, to Music Row in Nashville, songwriters have been operating under this “code” for many years. If you hope to join the professional ranks, you MUST learn the code and go by it. If you are just wanting to co-write in general, it’s good to know…
Read MoreThe Songwriter Business Plan: 5 Steps To Success
One of the things I discovered when I started mentoring writers is that very few of us have a songwriter business plan. That may be the curse of the creative mind – we get so lost in making stuff up that we lose sight of the business side of things that must be tended to…
Read MoreDid I Wait Too Long To Start Writing Songs?
Many of our SongTown members put songwriting aside for years while they raised a family. The dreams from their 20’s only really started to get a chance in their 40’s or 50’s or beyond because life got in the way. So, they come to us and ask “Did I wait too long to start writing…
Read MoreWhy You Gotta Know How To Write To Tracks
Why is it so important to know how to write to music tracks?! Hit Songwriters Clay Mills and Marty Dodson discuss the way that songwriting rooms have changed dramatically over the last few years and what you need to know to create great songs in today’s market. Want to dive even deeper into writing to…
Read MoreSongwriters: Don’t Focus On The Songwriting Summit!
Songwriting can be a wonderfully, beautifully frustrating pursuit. But it can be especially maddening if your singular goal is something outside of your control like focus on the songwriting summit. So, let’s say your obsession and songwriting summit is a Bruno Mars cut… There are several reasons that you are going to likely spend the…
Read MoreThe Writing Better Songs Checklist
Here are some ways to judge whether you are writing “better” commercial songs. No one of these measures alone determines “writing better,” but putting all of them together gives you a pretty good sense of your progress: Are you writing more unique ideas? Look at the songs you wrote a year ago compared to the…
Read MoreMelody Hacks For Lyricist Songwriters
I have been primarily a lyricist for almost 25 years. To survive that long in the music business, I have had to stretch my boundaries to come up with ways to evolve my lyric writing along with changing music landscapes. Over those years, I’ve developed what I like to think of as melody hacks for…
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