Songwriting

Can songs really sound good AND make sense? A couple of years ago, I was scheduled to co-write with a pretty well known rock band. Little did I know it would prove to be a case of sound and sense…. They wanted to write at 9 PM at a remote house they had rented for a…

Eight years ago, fellow pro songwriter Marty Dodson and I made a pact to do all we could to keep the craft of songwriting alive. We were chatting at a local coffee shop in Nashville, Tennessee. We discussed how we’d learned early on in our careers from master songwriters who passed their knowledge and torches…

There are many ways that a song can start to go wrong in the second verse. Don’t let these “song-killers” crop up in YOUR second verses!  Here are 5 second verse lyric mistakes than can destroy your songs. 1) Say the same thing as the first verse in different words. You have to give the…

As you set your goals, be sure that each one is something that you can measure. Goals like these can be measured: One of the most important components to reaching any songwriting goal is to know exactly what you’d like to achieve. Here is my How To Get Artists To Record Your Songs goal-setting worksheet…

One of the frequent questions we get in SongTown is “How do I write song lyrics?” Many people confuse song lyrics with poetry, but there are some subtle yet important differences. Let’s discuss lyrics vs. poems… So, how are lyrics to a song different from poems? Poems are typically visual pieces and song lyrics are…

I had a conversation this week with one of my song pluggers. I have worked with this guy for more than 20 years. I consider him my best friend in the music business. Why? He tells me the truth. Always. At one time, I turned in a song I wrote with a young artist. His…

One of the top questions I get asked as a pro songwriter is “how do I beat writer’s block. The worst part of the whole writing experience for many writers is just getting started. It’s those times when we sit down to write and nothing comes out that is most frustrating. We feel like we…

Communication vs. rules… I had a mentoring session with someone recently who was very frustrated.  He had read a book by a leading songwriting teacher and had tried to apply all of the songwriting “rules” that the book taught.  The end result was that he felt he was writing worse and worse songs the more he…

“Who can stop you from writing songs?” I think that’s a valid question for every songwriter to ask themselves from time to time. On occasion, I hear songwriters say things like… “It’s not really worth writing a song if I can’t get a publisher to listen.” Or “Why bother writing another song no one will…

Early in my songwriting career, I knew nothing about how the business works or how to actually become a full-time songwriter and sustain a career as one.  This is a list of things I wish I knew when I was starting out.  Knowing these ten things could have saved me years of trial and error. …