When I was a rookie songwriter, I don’t know how many times I had someone tell me “you have to write FROM your title”. Looking back, I think that advice contributed to some weak songs. At the time, I didn’t need any help writing a weak song. After gaining more...
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...
One of the most common questions I get is “How much furniture does my song need?” What the writer means, is “How many nouns and adjectives should my song have?” For instance, if I talk about my rusty blue Ford truck, I have painted you a picture. If I just mention...
One of the biggest things most people could do to improve their writing is to really master the art of rewriting lyrics. For my whole career, I’ve heard the saying, “Good songs are written but great songs are rewritten.” I have found that to be true in most cases....
One of the questions I get most often when I mentor songwriters is “Why does everyone tell me I need to write more conversational lyrics?” While there is no “one size fits all” answer to how your lyrics “should” be written, there is a reason that people give you...
There is a famous quote by Michelangelo that says “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” That is a beautiful description of what songwriters must learn to do. We get a song's big idea and we see the “angel” inside it. So...
There seems to be a lot of confusion out there over the question "As a songwriter, how do I submit songs to the music business?" The truth of the matter is that there is no one way to "submit" songs to the music business. When you simplify the "song submission"...
I don't know how many times each week I hear the words "It's impossible". The ridiculous part of it all is that the things they are saying are "impossible" are not impossible at all. Well, let's just do a little songwriting myth busting! "It's impossible to get a song cut...
Pitching songs (playing songs for publishers, artists or record label people in hopes of getting them to record or help you get a song recorded), is one of the areas where songwriters make the most mistakes. And, those mistakes can be costly. You don't get too many chances to...
Being grateful and giving thanks is a discipline that I try to practice daily. From a songwriting perspective, here are some things I believe all of us creative types need to be thankful for: The Believers My mom was a huge believer in me and my music. When everyone else was telling...