songwriter pondering the future

Setting Targets Will Make Songwriting More Fulfilling, More Exciting

If you’re looking to become a better songwriter and wondering why that’s not happening for you yet, you only need to look at the kinds of goals and targets you set for yourself. Songwriters who struggle are usually guilty of one of the following: The goals they set are unrealistic. (“I want to be writing […]

Songwriter - editing music

The Confidence to be Honest as a Songwriter

You’ve got little to no hope of achieving your goals in songwriting, or any of the creative arts, if you don’t have the confidence to be honest about your songs. Confidence refers to your ability to stand behind and believe in your songs even though others might dislike them. Honesty refers to your ability to hear […]

Songwriting guitarist

Songwriting: Moving Beyond Random Excellence

What role does chance play in the writing of a good song? Since good songwriting is guided by principles and not rules, there’s undoubtedly going to be a certain amount of random good luck. On that particular day, at that particular moment, your imagination created that melodic idea. There’s no way to get around it: good songwriting involves […]

Guitar, Pencil & Paper

Who Do You Ask?

If you visit any of the many online songwriting forums, you’ll know that the most common comment/question you’ll find is some variation on “What do you think of my new song?” Who do you ask when you need help with a song? The songwriters asking for online opinions tend to be newbies who are genuinely wondering […]

Rock Concert audience

Becoming More Noticeable in the Songwriting World

There are many reasons why people write songs, but almost all writers of music get into it for the same reason: as a means of personal expression. Some eventually enter the professional world, while others remain happily amateur, writing mainly for themselves, family and friends. Regardless of the eventual direction, composing songs requires the songwriter […]

Songwriting - Producer

Technology and the Songwriting Playing Field: Avoiding the Pitfalls

Not that long ago, most of the music you were likely going to hear was good music. I’m talking about before the internet made streaming easy and everywhere. If you were a child of any time before the later 90s, the music you heard was probably the music on the radio, and then the albums […]