Songwriting

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…

Money-the big green elephant in the music business living room. There are many reasons we don’t like to talk about it. Some of us feel that putting a price on our art cheapens its value, or implies that we’re in this for the wrong reasons. Some of us attend the school of Faking It Til…

Finding the perfect co-writer can turn Elton John into a superstar. It can turn Burt Bacharach into Bacharach/David. But, how do you find the perfect person to collaborate with and make musical magic. For most of us, it involves kissing a lot of frogs before we find the prince. But, that’s not a bad thing.…

I started writing songs when I was 11 years old.  They were predictably bad, but heartfelt.  Many were dedicated to girls in the neighborhood that I wished would notice me.  If I could go back and talk to that little 11 year old guy, here are 5 things I’d tell him about songwriting. Being a…

If you are trying to write songs to pitch to artists, then you MUST learn to think like an artist. Here are questions that artists ask when they choose songs. They are also questions I ask myself as I’m writing to make sure I’m writing something an artist would want to say. 1) How does…