Is There Such A Thing As “Too Much Revision” In Songwriting?
Revision is one of the most respected parts of songwriting. We’re told to rewrite, refine, and polish. To cut the weak lines, strengthen the chorus, and keep working until the song “gets there.” All of that advice is sound. Revision matters. But there’s a quieter question most songwriters eventually run into and rarely talk about. […]
Why Your Best Songs Start Before You Sit Down to Write
Most songwriting advice focuses on technique. Chord choices. Rhyme schemes. Song structures. Productivity hacks. All useful, all necessary, and all slightly incomplete. Because long before a song takes shape on a page or in a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), something else is already at work. Songwriting often happens before you sit down to write. Lines […]
The Order of Responsibility in Songwriting: Why the Audience Should Come Last, Not First
One of the quiet traps songwriters fall into is thinking about the audience too early in the songwriting process. These questions feel responsible, even professional. But when asked too soon, they can quietly derail a song before it has a chance to become what it needs to be. In an interview, Rick Rubin once said […]
Whatever You Do, Make Sure Your Work Is “Good Work”
There’s a line from American writer Dave Eggers that keeps circling back in my mind: “What matters is that you do good work. What matters is that you produce things that are true and will stand.” It’s one of those sentences that feels almost too simple at first glance. No fireworks. No strategy. No hustle. […]
Stop NOT Writing Songs: Why Writing Badly Is Better Than Not Writing at All
You know, there’s a particular weight that unfinished songs carry. Not the kind that sits loudly on your desk, but the quiet kind. The song you keep meaning to start. The lyric you circled weeks ago. The melody that showed up once and then vanished because you didn’t catch it in time. These songs don’t […]
“There’s a Song in That.” Developing the Songwriter’s Way of Seeing the World
Songwriting doesn’t begin when you pick up a guitar, sit at a piano, or open a DAW. It begins much earlier than that. It begins in how you move through the world, how you notice things, and how you respond to your own life as it’s happening. Long before a song has chords or lyrics, […]
What Songwriters Can Learn From Authors About Longevity
Songwriters and authors don’t often get mentioned in the same breath, but they wrestle with remarkably similar problems. Yet there’s one area where authors often have a quieter advantage: they tend to think long-term by default. Songwriters, on the other hand, are frequently pushed toward short cycles, instant reactions, and constant output. There’s a lot […]
Songwriting: The Art of Saying More With Less
One of the quiet truths about songwriting is that you’re working with the smallest canvas in all of storytelling. A novel can wander for chapters. A film can take two hours to build a world. A songwriter gets a verse, a chorus, maybe a bridge, and a melody to carry it all. That limitation isn’t […]
The Slow, Boring, Unstoppable Power of Consistency in Songwriting
People love the idea of sudden inspiration. It’s dramatic. It feels mystical. It makes for a good story. But the truth underneath it all is far less glamorous and far more useful: the songwriters who win the long game aren’t the ones waiting for lightning. They’re the ones quietly turning up, day after day, doing […]
What John Steinbeck Can Teach Us About Songwriting Flow
John Steinbeck wasn’t a songwriter, but he knew something about creativity that every songwriter eventually bumps into: the moment you start editing too early, the whole thing can fall apart. He once wrote… “Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing […]