How to Get Better as a Songwriter

I've been right where you are.

At some point in your life, it became apparent that you could put words and music together and make a song.

People know you as a songwriter.

But for some reason, no one has realized your genius (or least no one that MATTERS!) There has been no publishing contract with Word. There has been no calls from Toby Mac because he heard your music on Soundcloud. There has been no word from Hollywood, Nashville, or New York, even though you've sent a few demos that way.

So what is the deal?

5 Steps to Songwriting Success

As you can imagine, we hear a lot of songs on a week to week basis. People ask us daily for our thoughts on their songs and we work with artists trying to help them move to the next level with their songwriting. In all this work we see a lot of the same things happening in songs. So I thought it might be good just to lay out a few things that might help beginning songwriters as well as songwriters who have been at this for a while find more success.

Fighting Writer’s Block

You're trying to put together a new album, or haven't written any music in a while, but every time you sit down to write, the same thing happens. Either nothing comes to you, or you feel like everything you come up with is so stale and predictable you can't stand it.

Don't you hate when THAT happens?

Here's a few things you can do to fight this very common problem.

What Are You Writing For?

In working with Christian songwriters, we sometimes see some confusion about the kinds of songs they write, and the uses for them. We all hear about publishing, co-writing, royalties, commercial songs vs. artistic songs, etc.

It’s hard to know which way to write to please the powers that be in the music business. But the good news is we really don’t have to, and here’s why.

What if Nobody Ever Hears My Songs?

“Every man, and for stronger reasons, every artist, wants to be recognized. So do I.” - Albert Camus 

When I was a young songwriter, long before I became a full time producer, I used to really worry that if I died no one would have ever really heard my songs. Oh sure, my family and friends knew I was a songwriter, but I fretted hard about the world not knowing my work even existed!

At that point I had probably written 400 or so songs since I was in high school. I was raising a young family, and working full time at a corporate job. But as always in my life, I was writing songs like crazy.

Writing Real

"Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced.” - John Keats

Recently an artist told me they had written a song in order to really speak to someone about Jesus. They wanted to relate to this person on a deep level about exactly what the person was going through. So they had written a song just for that person.

Then they played me the song. It was a fairly generic song about the love of Jesus. Now, there was no problem with the song technically, but it certainly wasn't about the issues they said the person was going through. It was just a song with similar Christian diatribes as other general Christian pop songs.

Another time, an artist came to see us and I asked them what made them different with their music. They proceeded to tell me how they write really different Christian songs, with unusual chord patterns and lyrics that go deep. There was nothing wrong with what they showed me, but the songs were neither unusual in chords, nor deep in lyrical content.

So what is the problem here?

3 Real Steps for Christian Songwriters

“We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality.” – Iris Murdoch

So, you've written a Christian song, or many songs. You think they are pretty good. Others think they are good too. Now what do you do?

You've heard about songs getting published, how does that happen?

You've heard about people getting signed to publishing “deals”, and becoming a “staff writer”. What does this mean?

What are the real options to you, wherever you might be, to get something happening with your songs?