Songwriting

Today, I met with a songwriter friend who is very talented and very frustrated with her lack of music business success. She was describing to me how she had thought she would be so much farther along by the time she reached the birthday that had just passed. I told her my story. It took…

The opening line… Next to the title or hook of your song, probably the single most important line you need to write is your opening line. Think of your song like a date, and your opening line like a first date with a potential love. You want to say something about yourself. Let your date…

Here are 5 simple tips that I use to make my songs better every day. Get in the habit of doing these things and your songs will be better than they have been before. 1) Map your song out before you write. Write a simple, one sentence summary of what you want to say in…

In storytelling, there is a principle called “The Rule of Three.” This principle points to the tendency for plays, movies, and stories to have three repeating or related elements. Stories and plays usually have three acts. In fairy tales, the hero is often granted three wishes. In the story, “The Three Little Pigs,” the big…

Almost all of the people I write with are trying to get their songs recorded and make a living by doing so. It is easy to get so caught up in the pursuit of something commercial that I lose sight of the reasons one started writing songs in the first place. Those reasons, if lost…

1) I can write only 10 songs and have several hits in the bunch. Songwriting is a craft that takes years to develop. No painter paints a masterpiece within his first ten pieces of art. Most people have to write hundreds of songs before they write a hit. 2) I can move to Nashville (Or…

SongTown – A no “Guru” zone for songwriters… At SongTown, we’ve been pretty protective of our songwriting community. It’s a private community of some of the best up and coming songwriters around. Marty Dodson and I started it 10 years ago to help grow aspiring writers into world-class writers. A lot of folks in the…

Songwriting can be a wonderfully, beautifully frustrating pursuit.  But it can be especially maddening if your singular goal is something outside of your control like focus on the songwriting summit. So, let’s say your obsession and songwriting summit is a Bruno Mars cut… There are several reasons that you are going to likely spend the…

A different breed… Over the last 20 years of writing and working with artists, producers, and co-writers; I’ve noticed certain traits in myself and others in the creative community. We are wired differently than the other 95% of the population. We are the creative types. Is this you? 1. When inspiration strikes, they forget everything…