1. Channel the Song Gods

Feed your creativity with other modalities. Books, movies, poetry, music outside your genre. If you play folk listen to jazz. If you play jazz, listen to classical. Mix it up. I hear music when I read books 🤷🏻‍♀️.

Pay special attention when inspiration hits (this is when Song Gods speak—+ it’s not super loud). Stop + write for 10m. Shut off your phone while writing. 

Take a solo “songwriting day” or a weekend escape to the beach or the woods. Less distractions you can more easily tap the muse. 

Also if you don’t have get-away time – remember you are a songwriter 24/7. You don’t have to be sitting at your desk to write.. You get ideas in waking and dreaming life. At the family barbeque or on long road trips (my favorite). Keep a songwriting journal or notes folder in your phone to collect your song concepts. 

2. Write at a Clip: Prioritize the best song concepts

The key as you write your song concepts is to prioritize them. Not all of your song concepts deserve the top of the list. Learning to recognize the best ones is part of being a good songwriter. 

The strongest concept  qualifies as the most urgent, important, and even the most vulnerable things that are hard to write about. As Amy Wineshouse said “there is no point in writing anything but the truth.”

3. Choose the strongest concepts from your list to write a “song sketch”.. 

This is a process I teach in my Signature Songwriting Circle. It’s a part of the CCVM Alchemical Songwriting Method designed to help you write your best songs ever. When you write at a clip and volume without holding each song too precious, you give yourself enough time tapping the muse to get the magic flowing —and better songs will rise to the top. 

Each week write: 7 song concepts 

• • Write 1 concept every day (10 min). Hit the core of something you need to say that you haven’t. Make it urgent. Use my 22 Songwriting Prompts here. 

• • At the end of the week choose your strongest concept to write 1 song per week.
    • • Write through Chorus 1—we call it a “song sketch”. 

• • After 4 weeks choose the top 2 song sketches to finish by the end of the month.
    • • Finish 2 songs per month. 

• • Each month you’ll have:
    • • 28 song concepts 
    • • 4 song sketches (through the first Chorus)
    • • 2 finished songs 

Or double up to write:  2 song sketches a week

• • 7 weekly concepts

• • 4 song sketches

• • 4 finished songs.

4. Glean the Best Songs

Not everything you write will be stand outs. So don’t drag the ball and chain around (I once did this for 3 years on one song. It never made the list lol).

And we don’t always recognize our best work. It’s kind of impossible as an artist to be objective about your own writing. Matter of fact the closer the more myopic you get. 

Using the method I am talking about here in this blog the higher the chances you’ll write some true stand outs.

Here’s the recipe: Write 3-4x what you need to “pick the cherries”.

Writing a couple singles? Write 5-6 songs

Writing an EP? (7 songs) → Write 14 – 21 songs

Writing an LP? (10 songs) → Write 20-30 songs

Then pick the cherries. When the cream rises to the top and you only put out your top songs, I promise your career will fly. 

This popular method of writing songs and releasing them right away to see what sticks is not a solid strategy that will help you build a real career in music. Your success is only as good as your songs. 

5. Pick the Cherries 

So this process of “picking the cherries” has a little more to it. 

Demo each finished song as well as your song sketches (demo as you write, don’t let them pile up).

Then at the end of 3 months you’ve got 6 (or 12) finished songs depending on how much you write. Put those demos in a playlist (with the lyrics please)—and send it to your top 5-7 people. I call this your Inner Circle. Big artists all have their private Inner Circle they show their material to and so should you. Give them 2 weeks to listen and vote. 

Then with that information, you can pick the cherries with a more informed perspective. 

This process is proven to result in stronger records that can actually build a real career – besides touch thousands or millions of people’s hearts 

And what do you do with the rest of the songs? Finish some of the B cuts, Demo them, and you’ll accomplish the following: 

• • Build a song catalog – if demoed well enough they can hold up as acoustic B-sides.

• • Great giveaways for your list 🙂. True fans love B-sides.

• • Great to show publishers to get a fuller scope of your songwriting. 

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Come join our upcoming Signature Songwriting Circle where we take you step-by-step through this entire process from start to finish. The 2023 program runs from July 19, 2023 – Nov 8, 2023

Come join our Artist Stanctuary Membership for more! Our community is filled with artists of all genres, ages, backgrounds and levels of experience. Experience the power of music masterminds and group coaching calls.