I believe that one of the most overlooked, yet most important lines in a song is the very first line. Yes, your title is super important and a great setup line before your title lands is crucial. But, the opening line of your song often determines whether or not...
Hi, are you a songwriter? I’ve had people come up to me and introduce themselves in a setting where I suspected that they were also songwriters. When I ask if they are songwriters they say, “Not a real songwriter – I’ve never had anything recorded”. That...
My biggest hits have been romantic ballads or mid-tempo songs. So, I’m not the stereotypical writer who writes all of the time. I’m not afraid to write a ballad! And, I don’t think you should be either. Some of the biggest songs in music history have been love ballads and...
Last month was a busy month of mentoring. I believe I mentored 6 people in just one week. One theme that kept coming up is that people are really stressed out over getting their songs to "the right people". So my message today is to relax and create. To begin...
Something that has changed my songwriting in a radical way is a technique I call blueprinting your song. With this technique, I've developed into a much better communicator with my lyrics and it has cut my writing time in half (writing fast is not a goal, but it doesn’t hurt...
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...