Pensive songwriter

What Are You Doing to Improve?

What are you doing to improve as a songwriter? You’d probably answer that question by saying, “Well, I’m trying to write more“, or “I’m trying to become more consistent…” That’s one way of saying that you don’t really have a plan. No one improves without change. You want to get better at baseball? You change the […]

Singer-Songwriter

Making Others Care About Your Songs

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 […]

songwriter at synthesizer

Moving Beyond Imagination: Creating a Powerful Song

This is a common situation in the creative arts. You get some good ideas that get the ball rolling, and then everything seems to fizzle, and you’re left with an incomplete song. At those times, it seems easier to start a new song than finish an old one. So that means you’ve got a box-full […]

Singer-Songwriter

Identifying Your Songwriting Achilles’ Heel

In typical usage, an Achilles’ heel is a weakness. But it’s a little more than that. To have an Achilles’ heel means that, in the midst of what seems to be many obvious strengths, you’ve got one weakness that threatens to bring you down. That term may be on its way to becoming antiquated. I […]

Guitarist - Songwriter

5 Common Songwriting Problems, and How to Deal With Them

If you spend any time on YouTube, you can get a pretty clear idea of what songwriters find difficult. It’s there for all to see and hear. It’s the double-edged of social media: it can get your music out there to a large audience right away, but also displays any weaknesses or issues right away. […]

Ten of the Most Important Things a Songwriter Should Remember

There are things a songwriter should remember because they’ll result in better songs. There are other things that will result in a happier you. From time to time, you need to sit back and bring those things to mind. I write music almost every day. Sometimes they’re arrangements of already-existing songs (folk songs, for example). […]