Everyone has their own motivation for becoming a songwriter. For most, and likely for you, it’s a variation on the need for self-expression. With every song, you have a thought, a feeling or an opinion that you want to express.
Who knows how many possible problems or errors that can be committed when writing a song? Of the hundreds of possible pitfalls, here are the seven most common ones, with solutions you can try: Fix Your Songwriting Problems – NOW!
The biggest task you have as a songwriter is making others care. If you can’t make them care, then you are truly writing only for yourself.
Maybe building a larger fan base isn’t what you’re really trying to do. Maybe, in the final analysis, you are mostly interested in appealing to your own emotions.
But most songwriters want others to like what they’re doing. And that’s probably you as well. So the question is: how do you make others care about your songs.
If that’s how you measure songwriting success, here are some ideas to consider:
- Choose categories and topics for your songs that are universal in nature. Be certain that you’re singing about something that most people can relate to.
- Innovate within your genre. If you’re always giving people exactly what they expect, they’re going to feel that they’ve heard it all before, even before you get to the first chorus. Creativity is an important part of enticing your listeners to keep listening. Keep changing your instrumentation, your sound and your approach to songwriting.
- Write and record regularly. Making your fans care is tricky if your output is sporadic, with long time periods where you’re not offering anything new. Create a daily writing schedule, and work to constantly offer something new to your followers.
- Be interesting. This obviously applies to your songs, but can also apply to other aspects of your songwriting persona, especially regarding your social media interactions. Remember that everything you say and do online, even if it doesn’t apply directly to your life as a songwriter, will be scrutinized and assessed by the public. A good social media strategy can make or break you.
- Write about situations, not about feelings. A good song is about feelings, it’s true, but if all you’re doing in your songs is telling people how you feel, you haven’t given your audience anything to relate to. Write about situations, people and circumstances, and then about how you feel.
If you write songs that only bemoan whatever life situation you find yourself in, you’ll find audiences will quickly get bored.
So focus on point #1 above – look for creative topics that ultimately speak to most of the people who are likely to hear your songs.
Written by Gary Ewer. Follow Gary on Twitter.
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