Author: Marty Dodson

There's an art to a songwriter's pitch to a publisher. You can avoid many of the mistakes I made early on if you do these things when you get a chance to pitch to a publisher. Before you even agree to the meeting, ask yourself – ...

I can’t count the times that I’ve heard a songwriter blame their lack of success on the radio, publishers, a “closed circle in the music business”, A&R people who “can’t hear a hit”, bad co-writers, just plain bad luck and the list goes on and on and on. While any...

  About two years after I started trying to write professionally, a friend of mine staged an intervention of sorts. He approached me very kindly and asked me how my writing was going.  I told him my frustrations and I told him the truth - I didn't have much of...

  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...

  WAY too often, I run into people that have been taken advantage of in regard to paying for a song demo. So, I wanted to give you all the info you need to answer the question of what should a song demo cost. Here are several demo scenarios you might...

One of the things I love most about being a songwriter is that it is one of the few things in life that you can never totally "figure out".  You can always write a better song than you wrote today.  There's always some new melodic trick or turn of a...

Most songwriters find themselves in a complacent "comfort zone" from time to time.  Personally, I find myself at times resting on a little plateau of my own making.  I work really hard for a stretch and then I coast for a bit.  When I find myself coasting, here are some...

Networking seems to be a common struggle for songwriters.  Many creative types are just not very social and we tend to be introverted.  That can make it hard to really build the team you need to help you get your songs heard and placed.  So, here are 4 ways...

  There are many misconceptions of what it means to be a "staff songwriter." So, I thought I'd make an attempt at clearing that up.  In layman's terms, a staff writer has signed an exclusive agreement assigning a publisher some portion of every song they write during the term of the...

These are 5 songwriting tips that you might not have thought of. Over the course of my pro songwriting career I have picked up many such tips but these are my top 5 to share with you today!   Your songwriting rhyme scheme helps the listener keep up with where they are...