Songwriting

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…

1) Write a better first line. Interesting first lines grab the listener and make them want to hear more. They can be the difference in an artist or A&R person listening all the way through or passing on your song right away. 2) Make your chorus bigger. A chorus that leaps out of the speakers…

When I saw this sign, it immediately struck a chord with me. Sometimes I’m very hard on myself. I expect myself to write a hit song every time out. I expect great blogs that move people every time I sit at the computer. I want to be the perfect husband, father and friend. The older…

One time, I was playing a songwriter show in Las Vegas and had one of the funniest, yet most profound experiences of my musical life. After the show, the hotel’s entertainment booking person wanted to have an “after party” with all of the writers who played and some of her special guests. So, after the…

Bad Cowriters Through the years, I have collected a list of qualities that make someone a bad co-writer. If you want to succeed as a co-writer, don’t be this guy (or girl). Comes to the writing session unprepared. I don’t know how many times I have heard a co-writer say “I’ve been writing a lot and I’ve got nothing…

I had a few minutes alone in the quiet the other morning and I started thinking about all of the different ways songwriting has changed my life. Some of those changes are the result of being successful as a songwriter, but the biggest, most profound changes are ones that were simply the result of writing…

I started playing guitar when I was 18 years old and instantly fell in love. For a few short spring and summer months I enjoyed the pure bliss of trying to fold and stretch my clumsy fingers into chord shapes and building calluses where none had ever been. I found I had a natural instinct…