Songwriting

Act Like You Know! In the music business, your best bet is to try and ACT like you know what you are doing, even if you don’t. You want to come across to people like you know how things work in the big leagues even if you are just trying out for the farm team…

Someone recently asked me what I wish I had known when I first started trying to be a professional songwriter. There’s a lot of advice I WISH someone had given me back then, but here are a few things I would share with my younger songwriter self based on what I know now. Don’t put…

A home that’s unique for songwriters… In a world where there are an increasing number of options for songwriters to gather and to get education, Clay and I feel it is important from time to time to remind everyone of the things that make SongTown different from any other songwriting community you might be a…

The Basics Of Lyric Writing… For those who are new to songwriting or for those who just want to remind themselves of the fundamentals, here are some of the basics of songwriting. Intro The instrumental piece that starts the song and sets the musical tone for the song. This piece establishes the groove or feel…

Last week, I posted ten things I learned from my mentor and friend, songwriter Kim Williams, who passed away. Most of that list was about songwriting. I was thinking about all of the LIFE lessons I learned from him as well. Some of them overlap, but I thought I’d share some of those life lessons…

If you get a chance to co-write with an artist, there are some key questions you can ask that will give you a better shot at getting a cut on their record. Those opportunities are valuable, so be sure to ask these questions before you start writing! What’s been going on with you? I always…

Do you feel like your melodies are dated? Are you in a creative rut? It happens to us all. We start rolling and write a bunch of songs we really love, and then one day we wake up and everything starts sounding the same. Every new idea we create seems familiar. And worse, those ideas…

This past weekend, I was going through some old files. I found the document pictured here in a folder of papers that I took from my dad’s house after he passed away. My grandmother “Irene” was the first person to ever really encourage me to pursue writing. She would send me blank notebooks that I…

People ask me all the time how they can get the most “bang for their buck” when they visit a music center. So, I thought I would write a post about what I recommend when people are planning a trip to Nashville. The principles apply if you are visiting any other music center. Here is…