Posts by Marty Dodson

1) Show up drunk, hung over, unprepared or having had no sleep. I’ve had co-writers show up in all of those states.  If you find yourself in one of those states, do yourself and your co-writer a favor and just reschedule so you don’t waste anyone’s time. 2) Insist on your way all the time.…

I grew up in Nashville. So, I missed out on being able to say that I quit my job and sold everything I had to move here. My family moved to Nashville when I was 5 and I’ve been here ever since. Even though I don’t get to tell a story of moving here for…

On September 11th, 2001, I was in our publishing company office writing. I had brought my only quality guitar – a Taylor 310 that sounded AMAZING and that I cared for like one of my children. I was careful to wipe the strings after each use, to humidify when needed and to protect it from…

People often ask me what it feels like to hear your song on the radio for the first time. What’s the feeling you get when you experience a songwriter’s first cut? I remember precisely where I was the first time I heard one of my songs on the radio. I was driving up Granny White…

I am primarily a lyricist. I contribute to melody on my songs, but that’s not my strength. So, I try to stay with my strength and put most of my energy there. Often, I hear people say “I’m only a lyricist”. Some of those people tell me that they don’t write to any melody or feel in their…

I hear people all the time talking about “trusting their gut”.  While I am a big proponent of that in many ways, I have discovered that the “trust your gut” strategy has cost me thousands of wasted dollars when it comes to my songs. When I got my first writing deal, my gut had urged…

6,000 demos to get 100 artist cuts… Many of you have heard me tell that I have demoed over 6,000 songs and have just over 100 cuts. That’s not a great cut to demo ratio. I don’t even want to know what percentage that would be. But, I have discovered that one of the keys…

When I got my first songwriting deal, my publisher, Kim Williams and our other songwriter, Ron Harbin would write 2-3 times a day. Every day. The volume of out put from our office was crazy. We were cranking out between 30 and 45 songs per week between the three of us. I had nothing to compare it to,…

Write a one sentence summary of your song. Let’s say my hook is “Must Be Doin’ Somethin’ Right”. My statement of purpose would be “I must be doing something right because I don’t deserve a woman as amazing as you.” When you write the song, be sure that EVERY line in the song supports that…

Songwriting is all about connection. Whether you write for yourself, or you are writing for commercial purposes, the goal is still the same. It’s all about connection. Even people who aren’t trying to get their songs recorded are generally interested in playing their songs for people and moving those people with their music. I don’t know anyone…