Category: Habits of Success
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Stuck? This One Change Made Me Write 20 Songs in a Year
A few weeks ago, I asked some songwriters here what was stopping them from writing more.Here are just a few of the painfully familiar responses: “It’s not my job. Other things constantly get higher on my to-do list.”“When I finally have time, I’m too knackered to do anything decent.”“I have 10,000 lyric snippets… and 0…
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When “Do What You Love” Fails You
One question I’ve been asking songwriters who feel stuck is “what gets in the way of you writing regularly?” Of the hundreds of responses I’ve gotten in the past few months, there is a persistent theme. Recognise any of these in your life? “I have a full time job, and take care of my family, home,…
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Mistakes Songwriters Make About Pitching Songs to TV
When I was 24, I took a song of mine, ‘Waiting for the Avalanche,’ to a music industry conference— specifically a panel of music supervisors (the people responsible for sourcing and securing the rights to use songs in film and tv). I got the chance to play them this song. One of them said the…
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5 Books that Are Songwriter Must-Reads
5 Books that Are Songwriter Must-Reads As professional songwriters, we have collectively read hundreds of books on the art of songwriting. What we want to do in this article is discuss 5 of the most influential and transformative books that we personally keep coming back to as songwriters. Some of these books aren’t specifically about…
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System #2 to Help You Make Time for Songwriting – Collecting and Organising Ideas
System #2 to Help You Make Time for Songwriting – Collecting and Organising Ideas Songwriting is a fun process. However, it becomes frustrating when you try to sit down to write and nothing comes to mind. This can cause you eventually stop making time for songwriting. In this article, we’ll discuss how you can ensure…
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3 Simple Systems to Help You Make Time for Songwriting
3 Simple Systems to Help You Make Time for Songwriting After emailing the over 12,000 people on my mailing list and asking them the question “What is your biggest challenge with songwriting?”, one response from a subscriber by the name of Jesse particularly stood out to me. She commented on how she now has so…
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Songwriter Habit #1 – Write Everyday
Songwriter Habit #1 – Write Everyday It’s a hard thing for songwriters to hear, but highly effective songwriters practice writing everyday. This is hard to hear because it implies that getting good at songwriting requires dedication and discipline. In this blog post, we’ll talk about how writing everyday us a habit necessary to become a…
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Songwriter Habit #2 – Revise Your Songs
Songwriter Habit #2 – Revise Your Songs The media often portrays great songwriters as simply having inspiration strike them, then magically writing inspiring songs on their first try. In reality, a lot of revision is done between the song’s first draft and the version that the listener hears. Here, we’ll discuss how revising your songs…
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Songwriter Habit #3 – Collecting Everything
Songwriter Habit #3 – Collecting Everything We’ve all been there before: You get a sudden idea for a song, and you tell yourself that it’s alright, you’ll remember it later. But let’s be honest, most of the time, we won’t be able to accurately recall what it is later. In this article, we’ll teach you…
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Songwriter Habit #4 – Getting Feedback
Songwriter Habit #4 – Getting Feedback Songwriters are often solitary creatures. Most of us like to work away at our projects, treating them as our babies and ensuring that they never reach another person’s ears till they’re complete. However, one of the most crucial habits that distinguishes highly effective songwriters from the rest is their…
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Songwriter Habit #5 – Stepping Away
Songwriter Habit #5 – Stepping Away Songwriting isn’t just about writing songs. It’s about how we find inspiration and ensure that we can write not only consistently, but also regardless of whether inspiration jumps out at us or not. Here, we’ll discuss a part of that process: Stepping away. This article is a summarised transcript…
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Songwriter Habit #6 – Thinking Like An Anthropologist
Songwriter Habit #6 – Thinking Like An Anthropologist It’s easy for us as musicians to say that we listen to lots of music. However, what differentiates the way we listen to music from the way popular songwriters listen to music? In this blog post, we’ll discuss what we mean by thinking like an anthropologist when…
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Songwriter Habit #7 – Listening to Lots of Music
Songwriter Habit #7 – Listening to Lots of Music As musicians, we often fall into the trap of listening to things that we’re used to. After all, the familiar is safe and comfortable. However, this is actually something that might be detrimental to your growth as a songwriter. Here, we’ll discuss why listening to lots…
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What I’m listening to and why.
I got a phone call from my friend Benny the other night (Benny, who I make videos with on all things songwriting). He was very excited: “Kep! You have got to listen to the new Sam Smith song! It’s in…Phrygian!” What the hell is Phrygian, and why is this so exciting? Well, music nerds, Phrygian…
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How to Successfully Network as a Songwriter—my answer to a slightly petulant question on my YouTube channel
I was recently asked a question on my YouTube channel that went something like this: The most important part of building a career as a songwriter is building a network, establishing good contacts, and schmoozing. Could you please tell us how you did that? I’ve actually made it significantly more polite than the question was…
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The 3 Things I Did This Year to Write Over 20 Songs
In this video, I share the three pillars of my creative practice that ensure I write even when not inspired, and have given me the structure to write over 20 songs this year. Producing lots of creative work is more often about the habits, practices, and environments that we build, rather than about inspiration alone.…