Guitarist - Songwriter

Songwriting and Healthy Self-Criticism

One piece of advice songwriters hear over and over (and I think it’s usually good advice) is to “silence your inner critic.” The belief is that songwriting can grind to a halt when you spend all your time finding fault with what you’re writing, before it’s even finished. Being critical, though, need not always be […]

songwriting frustration

Be Careful With Sadness in Sad Songs

There’s something about reliving bad moments in our lives that we find good, in a weird sort of way. Sad songs work for that reason, and in fact, a recent study shows that we love to be reminded of sadness in our lives, if those reminders happen in song. If you’re trying to make your […]

5 tips for Silencing, then Awakening, Your Inner Critic

Being critical of what you’re writing is an essential step in perfecting your craft. Anyone who wants to improve at anything needs to be able to objectively critique what they do. To not have this kind of honest reckoning with yourself as an artist means limiting how much you can improve. The problem with being […]

Do Your Own Lyrics Speak To You?

When you write lyrics, do you hope that they speak loudly enough to someone else that they sit up and listen — that they can get something positive from your song’s message? There is an interview online with singer-songwriter Jason Mraz, and he was asked this: TT: You seem like a very positive person. What […]

Genesis

Becoming Positively Critical of Your Own Music

No one likes negative reviews. You put your heart and soul into the music you write, and then someone says that the lyric doesn’t work, or the instrumentation feels wrong, or they simply… don’t like it. If there’s a way to put your emotional reaction to a bad review aside, you’ll find that you will […]

Frustrated songwriter

Why Your Good Songs Start Sounding Bad

Get “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 10-eBook Deluxe Bundle. Every aspect of songwriting, and will take your writing to a new level of excellence. READ MORE.. Does this ever happen to you: you write a song, you love it, you find yourself listening to it for hours on end. And then a few days later, […]