Songwriting

A lot of folks email Marty and me asking if we can tell them whether a song idea is worth pursuing. Though I’d love to give an answer, I generally believe it’s better to teach a man to fish, than hand him a fish. This is what my mentors did for me and I’m lucky they didn’t…

By Marty Dodson – SongTown Co-Founder After I’d been writing for several years, there came a point when songwriting started to feel like… a job. And not the fun kind. I’d look at my calendar and actually dread some of the co-writes I had scheduled. Not because the people weren’t great, but because I just…

By Marty Dodson, SongTown Co-Founder Years ago, when I first started songwriting, I constantly found myself comparing my abilities to the writers around me. I mean, some of these writers could do it ALL—write killer melodies, craft emotional lyrics, and even produce fully finished tracks from their laptops. Meanwhile, I was just a lyricist. I…

By Marty Dodson, SongTown Co-Founder There have been seasons in my songwriting journey when I honestly couldn’t tell if I was improving or just spinning my wheels. It wasn’t that I wasn’t writing — I was. It wasn’t that I didn’t care — I cared deeply. But the growth wasn’t obvious. I didn’t always hear…

So, what does it take to be a world-class writer? Early in my career, a Hall of Fame songwriter offered me an invaluable piece of insight. He said many people make it 95 percent of the way to greatness, but very few finish the last 5% of the journey. That statement has fascinated me, and…

As a professional songwriter, I am asked often how I walk into a co-write with superstars like Darius Rucker, Little Big Town, or Lady A and create songs “on-demand?” Well, I didn’t start out doing this, but I’ve learned a few tricks over the years that’ve allow me to train my creativity and tap into…

by Marty Dodson, SongTown Co-Founder Sometimes, I find myself staring at a blank page, not because I don’t have ideas, but because of the voice in my head that whispers, “You’re not good enough.” Maybe you’ve heard that voice too. Am I any good as a songwriter?Do I even belong in this writing room?Will people think my…

By Marty Dodson, SongTown Co-founder Years ago, I found myself in a place I think many songwriters reach at some point — standing at the crossroads of doubt and desire. I had poured countless hours into writing, co-writing, editing, and pitching songs… and still, I wasn’t seeing the results I hoped for. No cuts. No…

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”…

By Clay Mills, SongTown Co-founder Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of sitting down with my longtime friend and hit songwriter Reggie Hamm in the SongTown studio. If you know Reggie’s story, you know it’s filled with twists, turns, near misses—and moments of undeniable magic. But during our conversation, one story in particular stuck…