Posts Tagged ‘Articles’

  Often songwriters in our SongTown classes ask, “How do I write commercial songs without selling out?” They are writers who would like to have commercial success and hear one of their songs on the radio or an album. But they want to know how to accomplish this and still be true to themselves. They…

Karma and song critiques… I occasionally have people come to me and say “I don’t put my songs up in the SongTown forum for critiques by my peers because it seems like so many people there are so ‘green’ and the advice I get is not usually helpful.” What they are actually saying, in a…

My very first publisher used to read me this quote. Over the years it has always served as a constant reminder to keep my songwriting muscle in shape…. “Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers,…

As co-founders of SongTown, Clay Mills and I have had a lot of success as writers in the country genre. But we pride ourselves on using techniques that work in songwriting in all styles. Many people assume that we are “country songwriters” and that what we teach only applies to country music.  This is a false assumption.…

When I first started writing songs I was obsessed with listening to records. Songs and sound just turned me on. I was thoroughly engrossed with my favorite artist. I read books about Bob Dylan, I read liner notes and interviews with the Eagles. Deep down, I felt I was part of their world through their…

Most of us songwriters are happy-go-lucky types… We waltz into a co-write with lofty dreams and aspirations and then we boogie our way home with smiles on our faces because we just wrote another “hit” that could change our lives. That’s a fun way to approach life for sure. But, we often forget some CRUCIAL…

Writers often overlook the importance of a great first verse. A first verse can make or break your song. Here’s why: 1) Industry people don’t have a lot of time to spend on each song. If your first verse doesn’t grab them, they will turn off your song and not even listen to the rest,…

I’m a firm believer that inspiration can fall down upon us like a gift from heaven. But I’m also a big believer in the ideas that hard work and preparation can create inspiration. The best songs I’ve ever written were born from some combination of those 3 factors. I can’t control inspiration that comes down…

“I want more than anything to get one of my songs recorded by a major artist on the radio.” “Today’s music sucks. The stuff artist are putting out is bad music and it all sounds the same!!” (Two sentences spoken by an aspiring songwriter during a coffee conversation.) The other day at Bongo Java Coffee…