In Nashville, co-writing is not only a time-honored
tradition, but a publishing mandated necessity. Pairing strong writers together
creates amazing songs with strong verses, choruses, ideas, and structure. And
it makes each writer better for the experience.
“When you go to
Nashville and start co-writing, you start doing it as a job and the more you do
it the better you get. You know if you build houses for 30 years you're better
than you were the day you started. You know the ins and outs, you know all the
nuances.” - Lee Brice
A big plus for co-writing is that it can take an artist who is not a writer at at all and has never written a note or word, and
pair them with a seasoned pro who can “pull” a song out of them. We've done
this a lot through the years. There's a song (or many songs) in everyone,
because we have all lived a life (see “The Reason For Your Life Story”.)
By working with another more experienced writer, you can learn
to craft your own songs from these experiences. Sometimes it flows easy and
fast, like a raging river. Sometimes, it’s like pulling blood from a turnip,
with words eking out one by one. But the process is sometimes necessary and
finally rewarding.
“Co-creation is much
more work than writing somewhere in a hidden corner and then publishing your
content. However, the benefits outweigh the costs.” - Alexander
Osterwalder
Play To Your Strengths
As I mentioned before, it could be that lyrics are easy for
you, but putting music to them? Not so much. For instance, though I can do both
sides, I really prefer the music part. Chords, melody, and arrangement are much
more fun to me than lyrics. So working with a lyricist is easy for me.
Also, many times co-writing doesn’t have to involve sitting
in a room staring at each other with the pressure on to write a “hit”. In most
cases when I have written with someone who already has lyrics, they’ve sent me
the words to write to. That’s much easier than sitting face to face trying to
put music to lyrics.
“I have yet to have a
successful outcome of sitting in a room with someone and trying to write a
song. The way that I generally co-write is that someone else writes the music
or part of the music.” - Shawn Colvin
If you’re starting to see there are no set rules, then you
are getting it. But collaborating with someone who is better than you, or just
different than you, can be vital to your growth as a songwriter.
“What I love about
collaborating is that you're working with other minds that work differently to
yours.” - Lauren Beukes
Have a great week!
EC
--
Eric Copeland is a songwriter, publisher, producer, and
arranger. If you’d like to get going with one of your songs, let us
know. We’d be happy to help you move forward. Also check out our full services
site at http://www.CreativeSoulOnline.com
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