What To Write About

When looking for inspiration for songs, it is common to look inward and write songs about your broken heart or some other personal experience. The day a songwriter realizes that this is not the best approach should be considered a red letter day in his/her songwriting career. Think about it this way. Think about what makes the music industry and songwriting industry tick. Is it the musicians, the songwriters or the producers? Wrong on all accounts. What makes the music business and songwriting business tick is everyone who buys the product. In other words, average American people who go to Wal Mart and buy CDs. These are the most important people in the music business. And if you don't believe this then you are in for a rude awakening someday.



Keeping this in mind, you want to write songs that will make these people go to the store and buy the CD. And the songs they want to hear are songs about things they know. They want to hear songs about love, songs about patriotism, songs about heartache, songs about people that overcome adversity. Are you beginning to understand. Pay attention to successful movies, the news on TV, Internet Sites and on the radio. Listen to the world around you and zero in on what's going on. All of this can give you ideas for songs. Go talk to people you know or even those you don't know. Talk to senior citizens and veterans. Ask them to tell you the stories of their lives. This is where you will find great song ideas. So go on, get going.

Writing Everyday

Just a quick post today, just a few days before Christmas. Developing songwriters should get into the habit og writing everyday. It's like keeping your muscles in shape. Have a desk or some place where you can keep all of your writing things so you can to that place anytime and go through your song ideas, choose one to work on and try to write a few lines. I've read how some writer sat down and wrote what turned out to be a great song in fifteen minutes. That has rarely happened for me. Instead, I have partial songs in a database in my computer and in notebooks I keep in a stack. I try to go there often and try and write a few lines on a few different ideas. When I'm lucky, inspiration will take over and I will write for hours or get new song ideas.

Let's talk about keeping your songs on your computer for a moment. I have a main file entitled "Joe's Music Files". In a sub folder under that I have "Joe's Original Songs". Under that I divide my writing into "Completed Lyrics", "Lyric Ideas", "Needs Melody", for lyrics I think are complete but have no tune and a few folders fo "Style" like Blues songs, Rock Songs, Gospel Songs and a few others. This arrangement helps keep me organized.

Like a lot of things, staying organized can help you keep things in order so you can be productive with your writing. Here's hoping you can stay organized and write some great songs.