5 Ways Songwriters Shoot Themselves In The Foot And Sabotage Songs

In a 20+ year music career as a songwriter, I’ve shot myself in the foot so many times that it’s amazing I can walk.  I thought I’d share some of them to help YOU avoid doing the same thing.  Here are some of the worst “shots” I’ve taken in the foot. Getting too excited over…

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How KISS will Transform your Songwriting

Hit songwriter Tom Douglas once said, “You can’t write a great song trying to write a great song.” Over the years, we’ve listened to many songs that fail because they try too hard to be brilliant, either lyrically or melodically. Douglas and co-writer Allen Shamblin wrote Miranda Lambert’s “The House That Built Me” – a…

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5 Things I Wish My Amateur Songwriting Self Had Known

If I could go back and mentor my younger songwriting self, I could help him avoid a lot of the disappointments he experienced and help him succeed much faster. So, I thought I’d share some of the wisdom I would give to him with you. Here we go: It takes a LONG time to become…

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Songwriting Jumpstarts

Are you in a songwriting rut? In this episode of the SongTown On Songwriting podcast, Marty and Clay share their top songwriting tips for jumpstarting your writing and taking it to the 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! …

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How We Raise The Tide As Songwriters

In SongTown, we try to remind everyone often that we rise by lifting each other up. As some of us improve, the bar gets raised and others improve trying to reach for that bar. In some ways, the music business is a cut-throat competition, with some similarities to the hunger games. Some people look at it…

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5 Ways To Stay Motivated As A Songwriter

Sometimes, it can be hard to stay motivated as a songwriter… Whether you write books, songs, poetry, plays or any other kind of “word” work. When the progress seems slow (or non-existent) and the rewards seem small, here are things I try to do to keep my head in the game. Write what I like.…

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Writing A Song For An Audience of One

It’s fun writing for others… Much of my time is spent writing songs with mass appeal. I enjoy that. It’s fun to have people record your songs, to hear them on the radio, and to watch audiences singing along. But, at times, the pursuit of commercial success can take away some of the pure joy…

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The Little Victories

I couldn’t possibly count the number of beginning songwriters when asked, “Who would you pitch this to?”, give answers like: Keith Urban, Katie Perry, Blake Shelton, Garth Brooks, Rhianna, etc. I’ve been writing professionally for 20+ years, I have had multiple #1 songs and over 125 songs recorded, yet I have never had a song…

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The 10,000 Hour Theory And Songwriting

The 10,000 hour theory… I was reading a magazine on an airplane the other day and ran across an article about Dan McLaughlin, an Oregon man who quit his job and decided to try to become a golf pro by testing out the 10,000 hour theory made popular by Malcolm Gladwell in his book “Outliers”…

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Songwriters: Where Is The Bar?

How High Is The Bar For Songwriters? When you mention the word “bar” to songwriters, most of them start craving a beer.  But that’s not the bar I’m talking about here.  I’m talking about the “How good does my song have to be to get it recorded by an artist?” bar.  Not every songwriter wants…

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