I had someone yesterday put a song up on Facebook, asking for opinions on the song. Kind of a dangerous thing to do, first because songs that are not finished are not really ready to put out. They usually keep changing and you will probably get fifty million opinions.
One of the most common questions I get from new writers is how to get started in Nashville. At least once a day, I receive either an e-mail from our web site, or a phone call from a writer planning to move to town.
This is not a how-to article. This is just on some songwriting tips that I want to share with you to help you become a more versatile songwriter. Take the hints that you feel help you out and discard the ones you don’t agree with.
These past few months, I've been aware of several friends of mine, finally making a very painful decision for them, and having to move BACK to their home towns after, in some cases, decades in Nashville.
The life of a Nashville songwriter is a glamorous parade of hit songs, money, No. 1 parties and awards shows ... or at least, so country music fans think. While those things can and do happen, the reality of the average songwriter's career in Music City is a much darker picture in 2016.
A lot of reasons people get hung up on lyrics is because they are trying too hard to make a "statement" in each line. The result is usually very poetic lines that really don't mean a lot past a few words strung together.
"I just want to write my songs" or "I just want to do what I do.." are some of the 'most often made" comments I hear from young and newer songwriters or artists that are trying to find their way into the music business. They just want to "be who they are" and be paid for it.
What a wonderful occupation songwriting is simply for the fact that you can't show anyone how to do it.
If I were manufacturing a car I could show you how it was done, but with songwriting there is no manual.
