Posts by Marty Dodson

As co-founders of SongTown, Clay Mills and I have had a lot of success as writers in the country genre. But we pride ourselves on using techniques that work in songwriting in all styles. Many people assume that we are “country songwriters” and that what we teach only applies to country music.  This is a false assumption.…

Music has the power to move us, to stir our emotions, and to compel us to take action. Yet, many songwriters struggle with a common challenge: creating songs that are technically sound but fail to resonate emotionally with listeners. In today’s digital age, where streaming platforms dominate and 100,000+ songs a day are uploaded, 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 in the song. You…

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. No matter how successful you get, it requires you still be a lifetime songwriting student.…

Most of us songwriters are happy-go-lucky types… We waltz into a co-write with lofty dreams and aspirations and then we boogie our way home with smiles on our faces because we just wrote another “hit” that could change our lives. That’s a fun way to approach life for sure. But, we often forget some CRUCIAL…

Writers often overlook the importance of a great first verse. A first verse can make or break your song. Here’s why: 1) Industry people don’t have a lot of time to spend on each song. If your first verse doesn’t grab them, they will turn off your song and not even listen to the rest,…

I’m a firm believer that inspiration can fall down upon us like a gift from heaven. But I’m also a big believer in the ideas that hard work and preparation can create inspiration. The best songs I’ve ever written were born from some combination of those 3 factors. I can’t control inspiration that comes down…