Be The Songwriter

By Kevin Phillips

Hey you… Yeah, you!   Have you written a song or songs, but never shown anyone your art because you are certain that it’s garbage?  Congratulations!  This is the first step to becoming a songwriter! 

Think back to what first sparked the desire to write a song…  was it meeting someone awesome?  A broken heart from a terrible break-up? Maybe traveling somewhere cool for the first time? Whatever it was, it inspired you to try something new to express what you were feeling.

It is possible that you struck gold with your very first attempt and wrote a great song…  it could happen…  but most likely, it is not quite ready for radio.   Guess what?  That’s ok.    

By now I’m sure most of you are familiar with the theory of, “It takes 10,000 hours of work to become an expert in any field”.  I believe that the point of that theory is supposed to be encouraging…  that it is supposed to inspire us to just start working on whatever it is we feel drawn to or driven to pursue.  The other take-away could be that 10,000 hours is a long time, and it’s too daunting and scary, so it makes you decide that you just won’t bother. Don’t worry about an end goal, just worry about the next step.

I encourage you to dig out that first attempt and have a look at it as if someone else wrote it.   See if you can figure out what the redeeming qualities are, and what really didn’t work.   Try not to look at it emotionally, as a failure to be embarrassed by, but be analytical and fair to yourself.  Songwriting was something you hadn’t done before! Even if the song will never see the light of day, you can learn from what you have written.  

No matter what it is that you DON’T like, what are you actually happy with?   Do the words capture the emotion that you wanted to convey?  Is the melody catchy?  

If you actually like most of it, perhaps try to rewrite it.   If you love the melody but the words make you cringe…  hum it as a voice memo on your phone and see if you can do something else with it later.  Even if there’s just one good line that you like, write it down and keep it.

There is nothing as satisfying as playing your own song to a room of people that are hanging on every word…   and you’ve already made your first steps toward that, so don’t quit now!   

Kevin Phillips is a member of Redhead Mack Band

Website: www.redheadmack.com/