SONGWRITING TAKES COURAGE

Being a songwriter is not for the faint of heart. But, being alive is not for the faint of heart, either. The more I experience and the more stories I hear, the more I realize that the vast majority of us have faced some really difficult things in life. If you have not, then count your blessings. I loved this quote the moment I saw it. Even the courageous are afraid. They just decide that something else is more important than fear. Soldiers in battle who go toward the enemy to save a buddy are still afraid. They just put their friend above the fear, and they face it anyway. In life, or in songwriting, the same principle applies. The moment you come over your fears and realize that you actually can start taking the risk and aim to become a full-time writer, the doors will open to you. Life will surprise you the way you never expected. There definitely will be times you will get disappointed and discouraged over and over but you should always remember that you’ve already started a game that from beginning you knew that only strongest ones will survive. Play the game with all your heart and not only you will make it, but the journey as well as the winning will give a joy you never could experience it in anything else.

If you decide you want to be a songwriter, there will be many fearful moments. There will be times when you put your songs out there and you are soundly rejected. You’ll hear things you don’t want to, and you’ll experience disappointing moments you never could imagine. Hundreds of these moments will come and either one of them is already a good reason for someone to give up, but just think of why you started this whole thing and it will give you enough motivation to pass through the rough times. There will be moments on stage when you think you might wet your pants, but when you overcome that fear, you’ll have a great chance to experience how it feels when an arena filled with 60,000 people are shouting and singing along to the songs you wrote. There will be financial crossroads you will come to that require you to take a safe road, or to venture out into the great unknown with no guarantee, but again, think of the time that you pass all the times with $1 in your pocket and make it to the point that most probably money is not really an issue for you, because the royalty cheques are fat! The question you have to ask yourself is this –
 
Is the fear stronger than your dream?
It’s always about priorities, doesn’t matter what the topic is. In life, anything with higher priority will come first for us, right? If the dream is more important, then you will face the fear. You will give it everything you have and pull your all in, you will definitely get a satisfying answer. You will defeat the fear or die trying. That’s literally what I did in my life, and I almost lost my life twice, no joke. But at the end of the day, I’m here now, alive, with many hit songs and still running. If the fear is bigger than your dream, you will give up and walk away – or to trigger you here I’d say you’d chicken out! The brave is sometimes killed in the battle, but the fearful never live at all. If you want it, start writing and don’t worry about anything else. Just focus on writing better songs.

Author

Hangi Tavakoli is our in-house established and professional music producer with more than 17 years of experience in songwriting, music production, mix and mastering. He has produced more than 3,000 and written more than 4,800 published songs to-date, including some major hits in international scale.