Kathleen (Leena) Hurrell, an instructor in our Independent Artist Program, writes about three of the most common songwriting mistakes, and tips on how to avoid them.
It’s one thing to make a mistake, but it’s another thing to keep making them. In this blog, I’ll take you through three mistakes novice songwriters make, and more importantly, how to stop making them.
1. They try to fit too much story into one song.
When you go on a weekend trip to New York City, it’s nearly impossible to fit every highlight into a single photo. The Statue of Liberty, One World Trade, and Times Square are simply too separated from each other to get them all into the background of your selfie. The only way they could possibly all fit into the frame is via a drone shot. From that distance, you’re now all such tiny specks that we can’t even tell what’s going on in your picture. So what do you do? You take photos of each highlight separately and combine them into an album to show the full story of your trip.
Music works the same way.
If you try to fit too many highlights into one song, the lyrics become so vague in order to fit it the whole plot that we no longer understand the story that’s attempting to be told. So, let each song highlight a single emotional moment. Let the listener really take in that feeling, that single snapshot of life, so they can fully entangle themselves in its essence. You can then combine several songs into an album to make a body of work that shows the full spectrum of emotions behind a story from beginning to end– similar to how a series of separate scenes make up a movie.
2. They think their first draft should be the final product.
Nobody puts this colossal mistake into better perspective than my friend and fellow MI Instructor Susan Koc. She says, “When you sit down to write a song, you have a slab of untouched marble in front of you. The most effective way to begin, is to chop out the general shape of it first. But if you’re trying to shape the song by polishing from the beginning, you’re never going to finish the piece.”
Before sitting down to craft your lyrics, try creating an outline of your song.
What’s the story you’re trying to tell? That’s your verse content. What’s the main point you’re trying to get across? That’s your chorus.
Once you have a general idea mapped out, then go in and add the colorful details and pretty polishing. This approach will take a lot of time, frustration, and tediousness out of your process.
3. They obsess over their song needing to be a hit.
When you start obsessing over your song needing to be a hit, that build-up of pressure that you put on yourself begins to clog the flow of creativity. If this pressure goes unchecked, that clog builds to a full-fledged writer’s block, and you, who was once a free-streaming channel of inspiration, become a flood of insecurity and unproductivity.
So, do everything you can to keep your writing process fun and free of pressure. Find ways to get yourself into that groove where you get lost in the magic of music and lose track of time. This playful zone is the secret to quieting your self-conscious to allow ingenious ideas to come through loud and clear: it’s the Drain-o of writer’s block.
If you’ve already stumbled upon a stubborn blockage, your best bet at success might be to move on to another project. Stepping away from a clog for a little while can give it time to dissolve, so when you return, your creativity can flow freely again without the painstaking effort it takes to plunge yourself out of a state of deep stress.