5 points to butt-kick your songwriting

5 points to butt-kick your songwriting

 

Our immediate indulgence–point, click, swipe, and poke–life we live does a couple things.

First, it trains us to have zero patience, and to go along with that it gives us the ninja trick syndrome.

We want ninja fixes and tricks to let us shortcut what we do in life.

Problem is, there are no ninja tricks in songwriting. There ain’t no getting around getting the foundations nailed down and grinding them in to second nature.

I’m not talkin’ ‘bout the techniques and tips you’ll pick up on  when you join TuneBooster. I’m talkin’ ‘bout expecting shortcuts without putting in the work.

Here’s five non-ninja points to get in practice. If you roll your eyes at these in disgust? Check your ninja pulse.

1. To get inspired you’ll have to perspire. Amateurs sit around and wait for inspiration. See the issue on the fallacy of writer’s block and what Charles Schultz had to say about it. He was pretty blunt, but dead on.
   2. Kick negative brain chatter in the teeth. For some this is difficult. An area I struggle at times. While it can push you to better songs, it’s really not necessary. Save the self-crits on your song when it’s written, and you’re prepared for it, not when creating.
   3. Respect other writers for what they do, but never, NEVER put them on a pedestal. I can’t even remember which pro writer told me this, but they said, “Don’t ever ask a pro songwriter for an autograph, they are your peers.” There’s more bennies than what appears at the surface, but that’s for another time.
   4. When writing? Write. Turn off the email, the phone goes on do not disturb, and hang an, “Interrupt me and I’ll hurt you ,” sign on your door. Well, not that you’ll actually hurt anyone, but you get the idea… protect your time when writing. If you’re constantly distracted or interrupted it’s a creativity killer.
   5. Blow party favors at your first draft even if you think it sucks. (See #2 above.) Re-writing and editing is where the real songwriting happens, but to do that, you’ve got to have the bones down..

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