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5 KEYS TO BUILDING A BETTER SONG CATALOG

3/28/2023

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Write, write, write! There is no substitute for this. A catalog is a collection of songs. You need to write every day if possible. At least as often as you can! But the bottom line here is “the more the better”. This not only helps you become a better writer but also gives you more variety of material which increases the odds that you’ll have the right song for a particular project.
 
Don’t write just one type, style or genre of song. A great catalog has an array of subject matter, tempos, emotions, styles, and genres. The goal is to have a song ready for you or your publisher to pitch in every situation. If an artist is looking for an uptempo party song, you got it covered. If an artist is looking for a message song with a deeper lyric about the state of the world, you got it covered. You see where I’m going with this. It doesn’t happen overnight obviously, it takes time, but this is something you do by design.

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SUPPORTING YOUR SONG’S BIG IDEA

3/21/2023

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There is a famous quote by Michelangelo that says “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” That is a beautiful description of what songwriters must learn to do. We get a song’s big idea and we see the “angel” inside it. So we carve and carve until the whole world can see, or hear, what we saw from the beginning. This line of thought can be particularly helpful to aspiring songwriters who are just learning how to craft a masterpiece song.
 
The most common problem with young songwriters is that they include lots of information in their songs that don’t really support the big idea of the song. They are leaving lots of “non-angel” pieces of granite attached to the angel. The result is songs that aren’t clear and that obscure the view of the angel that the songwriter saw originally. Usually, when I see one of these lines, I ask the songwriter “How did you see this line supporting your big idea in this song?” Generally, the response is something along the lines of “I don’t know, but it rhymed.” Or “We thought it was a cool line.”

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HOW TO TURN EVERYDAY CONVERSATIONS INTO GREAT SONGS USING THE TALK-SING METHOD

3/14/2023

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Early in my songwriting career, I was driving to a co-writing session with a very big shot songwriter and I was supposed to meet him in a studio that his label has provided for us to write in. Traffic was extremely slow that day. I rushed into the writing room and frantically said, “I’m so sorry that I’m late.” Immediately, he sang what I had just said: “I’m so sorry… that I’m… late.” Having just met him and the young me being impressed by his presence, I wasn’t sure if he was serious, joking, or messing with me. I chuckled, but when he continued to repeat little things I said throughout the co-writing session and at lunch that day, I got a little annoyed. However, over the next few weeks, I found myself doing the same thing in everyday life. Without realizing it, I was turning everyday conversations into songs, and thus was born the Talk-Sing Method!
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TECHNIQUES TO GET YOU WRITING AGAIN

3/7/2023

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At least twice a week I get an email seeking advice on how to overcome writer’s block. For many songwriters the worst part of the whole writing experience is just getting started. Those times when we sit down to write, and nothing comes out. We feel like we have nothing to say. Well here are some techniques I’ve used to permanently eliminate writer’s block and free up creativity.
 
Writing a little every day. Songwriting has much to do with momentum and confidence. And we feel more confident when we do something every day. We get into a creative groove. I’ve often noticed that after I return from a vacation and sit down to write is when I struggle the most. I have to get back into that groove. It doesn’t need to a perfect song every day but on each given day you should try your best to write the best you can. Even if it is not the perfect song, you can keep it in your achieve and you never know when you will come back to it and turn it into the perfect song.

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WHAT IF THESE ARTIST HAD SAID “I ONLY CREATE WHEN I’M INSPIRED”

2/28/2023

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Do you find yourself choosing to only write songs when your inspired by heartache or some other major life event? Here’s a quick list of some truly great art the world would never know if the artist had said, “I only create when I’m inspired, otherwise I will just be forcing it”:
 
Michael Angelo spent four years painting the Sistine Chapel. He painted daily for years, embracing his work (labour). He didn’t want to take the job at first because he considered himself a sculptor not a painter. But once he committed to the job, he didn't wait for inspiration to strike. He began and inspiration found him daily.   
 
Monet painted the Japanese Bridge in his gardens at Giverny 71 times. He didn’t wait until he felt inspired to paint the perfect version of this bridge. He painted it from different angles in different light all day long and let the work inspire him. I doubt he even thought to himself, “this one looks like the last 70!” 

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REASONS YOU SHOULD NEVER STOP WRITING SONGS

2/21/2023

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Songwriting is grueling, brain-numbing work with little reward. Then, there are the difficult aspects. It’s easy to get discouraged and I’ve had many friends and co-writers lay down the pen. So, in dedication to those who have given up writing, I want to offer a few reasons that we should all keep writing, even when it’s hard:
 
You have something to say that no one else can say. Your life experience gives you a perspective that no one else on earth has. If you don’t write your story, no one ever will. That little piece of humanity is lost without you telling YOUR truth.

Your voice deserves to be heard. In a world where many don’t feel like they have a voice at all, writers do. People will listen to what you write. They want to hear what you have to say. It may be tens of people or millions of people. Either way, let your voice be heard.

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WAYS TO KNOW IF A SONG IDEA IS WORTH PURSUING

11/22/2022

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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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SONGS CAN SOUND GOOD AND MAKE SENSE

10/25/2022

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A couple of years ago, I was scheduled to write songs with a pretty well-known rock band. They wanted to write at 9 PM at a remote house they had rented for a month so they could write their record. When I arrived, I first noticed the kitchen table COVERED with mostly empty Jack Daniels and Jim Beam bottles. Several of the guys were on the back-deck smoking something a little funny. It was nearly 10 PM when we finally started writing. It probably won’t surprise you to learn that they started throwing out CRAZY lines that didn’t have anything to do with anything.

I tried to be diplomatic and gently lead them toward lines that were better than the ones they were contributing. Finally, one of them turned to me in frustration and said “Dude, it doesn’t have to make sense, it just has to SOUND good.” I knew we were at a turning point in the evening. I was either going to get myself invited to leave or we were going to write a good song. 

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THE BIGGEST OBSTACLE TO SONGWRITING SUCCESS

10/18/2022

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6,000 demos to get 100 artist cuts. By now, you have heard me countless time saying that I have demoed over 6,000 songs and have just over 100 cuts. That’s not a great cut to demo ratio. I don’t even want to know what percentage that would be. But I have discovered that one of the keys to being successful is failing a lot while keeping your enthusiasm up. My first song catalogue contained over 2,000 songs. From that catalogue, I had 1 top ten hit, one major album cut, one single that died at 37 on the chart and a few independent cuts.
 
Quantity songwriting is your education. Those 2,000 songs were my “education”. I was learning to write while I wrote them, and I was getting better all the time. Almost all of those cuts came in the last year of a 3-year deal.
In catalogue #2, I had two multi-week #1 songs and quite a few cuts. Things started to pick up significantly. I had learned a lot from the first catalogue, and I was writing much better songs. 
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THE SONGWRITER’S ACHILLES HEEL

10/11/2022

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When I first started trying to write as a profession, I gave myself 2 years to chase my dream of becoming a songwriter. At the same time, I was producing for artists as a freelancer and I was working in a music recording studio in Tehran as the sound engineer. The one-year mark came and went quickly, and I was almost nowhere near the first-year checkmark of my two-years plan. I had made a tiny bit of progress, but not much. The thought crossed my mind that I was halfway through with my “plan” but I told myself that I still had another year to get things going. When I got to the 18-month mark, I began to freak out a little. I really wanted it to work. I had bet everything on this career change. And I had 6 months to do what I had not been able to do in 18 months. The pressure was on. The pressure was not only on. It was debilitating. Smothering. I froze up. I could hardly write at all or when I was writing it was just keep getting rejected and I was very frustrated by all the rejections. And I didn’t succeed by my deadline. I did have one glimmer of hope on the horizon that convinced myself to change the plan a bit and give myself some more time. 
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DON’T LOSE YOUR SONGWRITING INNOCENCE

10/4/2022

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Your innocence is your major asset. One of the things I love about working with young writers and artists is just the innocence they bring to the writing process. They aren’t bitter or jaded. They aren’t worried about what radio will think – this can be good or bad. They just want to write a great song – a great song that they love. While I am writing this, my current example of this kind of writers is Sam Veil. He used to be a busker for years until we met in 2017 and he joined Flipside and I started mentoring him and producing for him. In his busking years, he wrote a lot of songs and when we met, he was singing his songs on his guitar and I was stunned. Not only by his creativity, but mainly for the feeling these songs had. It was a very long time I hadn’t had the chance to sit with such a fresh writer who is writing songs so simple yet so pure. His songs had the innocent of a child and the experience of a grown man! Perfect combination. That was the reason when we met, on the same day I offered him to work together, and two years past today and we are still working together and in fact Sam is an established singer / songwriter in Singapore now.
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THINGS CREATIVELY SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE DON’T DO

9/27/2022

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Creatively successful people have healthy mental habits. They not only have mastered their art, but they have learned to master their habits, attitudes, and emotions. They understand this mastery allows them more creative space in their mind and spirit. Check out these things creatively successfully people don’t do so you too also become a master of your creativity and destiny.
 
Give their power away. Creatively successful people don’t blame circumstances or other people if they are not having the success, they feel they should be having. They rest all the responsibility for their success squarely on their own shoulders. They empower themselves and it drives their creativity to improve their art.
 
They don’t shy away from change. Creatively successful people don’t try to avoid change. They understand that change is inevitable and welcome it. They believe in their abilities to adapt.

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COMMON SONGWRITING MISTAKES AND HOW TO AVOID THEM

9/20/2022

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​Are your songs not getting results? Is that latest greatest song you’ve written not having the impact on your audience that you were so sure it would. Often the difference in a good song and one that moves the listener is a simple quick fix.
                                                                                                                                                                         
Keep your intro under 15 seconds. One of the most common mistakes in commercial songwriting is the long intro. As a rule, intros should be 15 seconds or less. You will only have the listeners valuable attention for a short time. It’s important to keep that attention and get to the meat of your song. 15 seconds gives you enough time to set the mood and groove of your song and wet the listeners appetite for more to come! Basically your first 30 seconds of your song is the time you have to attract listener’s attention and make sure they are going to sit there and listen to your song. Don’t waste much of this precious time on a long intro. 
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THINGS SKILLED SONGWRITERS DO DIFFERENTLY

9/13/2022

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​Throughout my 15 years as a professional songwriter, I’ve noticed there isn’t always a large difference in talent level among creative people. Why, then do some songwriters seem to have an over abundance of fans buying their music while others struggle to sell the first song? The answer is there is not a huge difference in skill most writers process, but there is a little. And that extra 5% makes a big difference. I absorbed that the skilled songwriters share some common mental habits. The good news is that these habits can be adopted through practice. Here are some traits that can help us over the hurdles to accomplishing our songwriting goals.

Skilled songwriters write whether they feel inspired or not. I think this would the one single thing I am keep telling all writers. To keep writing. Don’t wait for inspiration, and don’t even wait for a reason, excuse or a topic to write. Start writing and the inspiration comes. 
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SIMPLE WAYS TO UNLEASH YOUR OWN CREATIVE SONGWRITING POWER

9/6/2022

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​As a professional songwriter, I am asked often how I walk into a co-write with superstars create songs “on-demand?” Well, I didn’t start out doing this, but I’ve learned a few tricks over the years that’ve allow me to train my creativity and tap into it anytime, anyplace. The good news is, you can do the same too! These simple strategies go a long way in the songwriting business.
 
Make it clear that you mean business. Developing a writing routine shows yourself and others that you are in your creative zone. By sticking to a fixed scheduled you remind yourself and others around you that you are doing it professionally and not for fun. Not only do you need to show others when it’s okay to interrupt your writing and when it’s not, but also, your own creativity needs trained as well. Studies show that writing at a regular time each day allows the subconscious to be prepared to create more easily “on demand” than when you have no set routine.
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THE SINGLE BIGGEST DISTINCTION BETWEEN PROFESSIONAL AND AMATEUR SONGWRITERS

8/30/2022

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​In my mind, the single biggest distinction between a professional and an amateur writer is their way of thinking. Here are some of the most significant differences I’ve observed over the years in my day to day life as a full-time songwriter.
 
Amateurs think “Somebody is going to steal my song.” 
Professionals think, “I’m going to write my idea better than anyone else. If they write it better than I did, more power to them.”
 
Amateurs write when inspiration hits and only when it happens, and they brag about it.
Professionals write anyway.

​​Amateurs think about what they want to write and what they personally feel close to and write about that whenever the inspiration hits them.
Professionals also think about what audiences want to hear.
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LAST MINUTE RE-WRITING QUESTIONS FOR SONGWRITERS

8/23/2022

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I have found that going back to my songs with a clear mind a week or two after I write them and running through this quick checklist helps me catch and fix many of the major flaws that can exist in a song. Print this one out and hang it in you writing or re-writing room to remind yourself to check these issues before you consider your song done. They are some minor points, but they have a huge impact on your song’s overall quality. Paying attention to these little details is what makes a difference between a good and a great song.
 
Is my message clear? I like to run my song by someone else and get their feedback. I ask them to summarize the message they understood from the song. If they don’t get out of it what I intended means I didn’t deliver the message very well, I work on it some more and check with them again until they exactly tell me a summarized version of what I was trying to say in the song.
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EACH PART OF A SONG LYRICS HAS A JOB

8/16/2022

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​The basics of lyrics writing. Each song has a structure for its body and the layout. The structure can be different from song to song but there are certain elements that are in all songs and I want to discuss the importance of each of these elements. For those who are new to songwriting or for those who just want to remind themselves of the fundamentals, here are some of the basics of songwriting.
 
Intro. The instrumental piece that starts the song and sets the musical tone for the song. This piece establishes the groove or feel of the song. It’s always good to keep it short and going fast to the point for commercial songs but in some cases, there is not intro involved and the song starts straight from verse or even chorus.
 
Verse 1. Introduces the characters, context and setting for the song. All of these elements give the listener what they need to understand the song and they should set up and point to your big idea – title of your song. 
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Basically, can consider the first verse as one kind of intro, but instead of the instrumental music, this intro has the vocals and the words to prepare the atmosphere for the listener and lead them to the hook – or chorus of the song.

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THE TRUTH ABOUT “TURNING PROFESSIONAL” AS A SONGWRITER

8/9/2022

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​When my cousin was going through his freshman orientation at university at the School of Music Business, a parent raised their hand and asked “So, if my daughter gets her degree in songwriting from the university, she’s pretty much guaranteed a “slot” in the Music Business, right?” There are so many things wrong with that statement that it’s hard to know where to begin. Let me take a run at it though the big issues here.

There aren’t “slots” in the Music Business There aren’t a prescribed number of openings for professional staff writers. Publishers come and go. Rosters go up and down. But as long as there is money to be made in the music business, there will be opportunities for great songwriters. Unless a publisher has no money left and has maxed out their roster, they are always open to meeting with writers who show promise. A “slot” will magically open up if you have “the goods”. 
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FEED ME – GREAT SONGWRITING NEEDS CONSTANT INSPIRATION

7/26/2022

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​Do you feel like your melodies sound dated when you’re writing a new song? Are you in a songwriting rut? It happens to us all. We start rolling and write a bunch of songs we really love, and then one day we wake up and everything starts sounding the same. Every new idea we create seems familiar. And worse, those ideas may sound like melodies we heard years before! That’s the most horrible part. There had been times I wrote a brand new song and played it for my artists and they showed me the “original” version of that song. I was very sure I hadn’t copy, and when I was so frustrated of what is happening, a psychologist friend of mine told me that human brain tend to keep the audio in the memory for an unbelievable amount of time and no matter if we remember it or not, when we want to write, subconsciously we might write the melody that we don’t remember and we are not even aware of the fact that song ever existed or we ever had heard it. But it already is registered in our subconsciousness. 
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THE SONGWRITER’S BUSINESS PLAN

7/19/2022

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One of the things I discovered when I started mentoring songwriters is that very few of us have a plan for where we want to be in future and how we want to get there. That may be the curse of the creative mind – we get so lost in making stuff up that we lose sight of the business side of things that must be tended to as well. And it’s a big mistake for people who want to make a living in any aspect of creative industries. There is two words in “Music Business”. There is music and there is business and they both are equally important.

​None can work without the other one. In mentoring sessions, we often work on a customized plan for the specific person. But, in general, there are some steps I recommend for every songwriter who is trying to turn their songwriting passion into a business.
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WHAT MAKES A GREAT SONG A HIT SONG?

7/12/2022

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I can’t count the number of times I have had this question asked of me. Someone will play me a great song and express their confusion over the lack of interest they are getting from the industry when they play it for people. It’s anything strange in this industry to see that a great song doesn’t become a hit song. I am not going to brag about any of my own songs here, but I know countless unbelievably great songs written by people I know that they all – and sometimes myself included – were very sure that this song will become a massive hit and when it was recorded and released, we were just waiting to see it in top of the charts, and waiting, and waiting, and nothing was happening. After a few disappointing experiences like this, I started trying to find out why such great songs are not becoming hits. And after putting the pieces of puzzle together, I came to some conclusions that explain why not every great song will become a hit.
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