Pros Reveal Top Secrets To Songwriting Success
Pay no attention to the cheesy AI driven title đ. Clay and Marty have a little fun and drop real pro tips on creating songwriting Success. 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! SongTown Press Books: Mastering Melody Writing : Check It…
Read MoreWhat Do Publishers Look For In Songs?
For many songwriters and artists, trying to figure out what publishers look for in songs can often feel like stumbling through an endless maze. Often this search for what someone else is looking for leaves an artists or writer losing touch with their own talent and uniqueness. Throughout my career Iâve managed to navigate this…
Read MoreSongwriting: The Starting Is The Hardest Part
That first awkward creative step⊠Iâve always heard that the first step is the hardest. That is particularly true in creative endeavors such as songwriting. Getting over the hurdle of âI canât do this!â or âWhat if I fail?â is sometimes so daunting that we give up before we have tried. The paralysis brought on by our fears…
Read MoreThe âInstant Melancholyâ Chord Substitution
The Melancholy Chord Substitution. Iâve been blessed to get away with some interesting chord changes over the course of my songwriting career. Those songs found their way onto pop and country mainstream radioâtwo formats that, right or wrong, have a rap for simple chords. Whether it was sneaking in a 2 Major Sus chord…
Read MoreSongwriters: Say What You Want To Say
As a songwriting mentor, I find myself critiquing 1000âs of songs for other writers. In most of those sessions, I find myself asking âWhat were you trying to say?” and then, upon hearing the answer, responding âWhy donât you say that?” Iâm firmly convinced that many of us make songwriting harder than it has to…
Read More6 Keys To Writing Better Songs
Writing Better Songs Letâs face it, thereâs nothing sweeter than playing a song for an audience, a publisher, or a friend and having it move them. Excite them. Make them dance. Or leave them tearing up. As writers, we want to reach out and touch people with our songs. As a professional songwriter, I have…
Read MoreWrite A Song That Excites You – Always Write Inspired
Learning to write inspired⊠One ordinary Tuesday, I drove to a co-write with really low expectations. My co-writer, Jason Matthews, and I were going to try to finish a song that I wasnât really in love with. We werenât writing inspired, but we had decided we would finish it, so I drove to his house.…
Read MoreTop Songwriting Biz Tips: Avoid These Mistakes
Songwriters Marty Dodson and Clay Mills share music biz tips for writers and artist. Don’t make these mistakes! 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! SongTown Press Books: Mastering Melody Writing : Check It Out The Songwriterâs Guide To Mastering Co-Writing : Check…
Read MoreBetween The Rhymes & Songwriting
Songwriters & Rhymes Last week I wrote with a talented young songwriter who was obsessed with finding a fresh, new rhyme at every turn of the songwriting process. “Surely we can use a rhyme here that no oneâs thought of”, he said, several times. That got me thinking after the session about rhymes and my…
Read MoreSongwriters: Learning To See The Big Songwriting Picture
Often, I see songwriters who are caught up in the trees that they canât see the forest. They spend their time looking at the minutiae (Iâve always wanted to say that word) that they lose sight of the big picture. For instance, in my SongTown Lyric MasterClass, I spend six weeks teaching students a framework…
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