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WAYS TO KNOW IF A SONG IDEA IS WORTH PURSUING

11/22/2022

A lot of people DM me asking if I can tell them whether an idea is good and worth pursing. Though I’d love to give an answer, I generally believe it’s better to teach a man to fish, than hand him a fish. This is what my mentors did for me and I’m lucky they didn’t give me the answers for every time I asked the question and instead, they gave me questions! So, I’d like to share with you some questions I ask myself before spending too much time on an idea:

Does your song idea feel real or clever? Real always trumps intellectual or clever in my book! I like to find a lot of ideas that happen naturally in conversation. Like when I, or the person I’m talking to, says something with conviction. I’ve gotten some of my biggest songs this way. Especially with artist co-writes. Artists are great at expressing themselves. That’s their job! So, I like to take things they say and feel — and then write it! And that’s our job as the writer.

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WHERE DO YOU FIND SONG IDEAS?

11/15/2022

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I’m often asked where I find song ideas. More than most people, I do actually go out and try to “discover” great ideas for songs. Many people just keep their antennae up and listen for unique things that others say in daily life. I do that as well. I’m always ready to add an idea to my “Idea Note” in my phone if I overhear something cool. Sometimes I hear a quote which I can relate a lot, it goes to my list. Sometimes I hear some story of something that happened to someone, I might take it as is, or I might make some changes (for dramatic purposes) and add it to the list.

When I actually sit down to look for ideas, I tend to start with quotes. Notable quotes are notable because they say something in a unique way. So, I go to sites that feature movie quotes or I search for site that have quotes organized by topic.

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HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE SONGWRITERS

11/8/2022

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Here are some habits that I’ve noticed are common to highly effective and successful songwriters. The first step toward becoming a professional songwriter, or for this matter for becoming a successful person in any industry, is to learn to think and behave like one. Here are the common habits I see in my friends who are successful songwriters.

They are always on the lookout for great ideas. Their antennae are always up when they watch movies, read books, or just in everyday conversations. They are constantly looking for anything that is said in a unique and interesting way. The ideas they have for a song might not necessarily be their own real-life experience, but it is a unique idea for sure because they had already paid enough attention to what is going on around them and they had selected the best ones. Being sharp and trying to always be notified of what is going on is an important key here.

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DOES A SONGWRITER NEED A PUBLISHER?

11/1/2022

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This is a question that I get all the time. Like most things in life, there is not a one-size-fits-all answer to the question. In general, I explain it to people this way: It’s very similar to the way I would answer the question “Do I really need a mechanic to fix my car?”. The answer is, “It depends”. If you have all of the tools you need to fix your own car, you have access to the parts required for the job, and you have been trained in fixing cars like yours, then probably you don’t need a mechanic. You’ll invest your own time into fixing it, but there’s no need to pay a mechanic for something you know how to do yourself. The problem is that most of us don’t have all the tools required. Neither do we have access to parts. And, we don’t have training. Therefore, we take our car to a mechanic.

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WAYS TO KNOW IF A SONG IDEA IS WORTH PURSUING

WHERE DO YOU FIND SONG IDEAS?

HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE SONGWRITERS

DOES A SONGWRITER NEED A PUBLISHER?

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