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You would’ve guessed by now through reading my posts that I’m a real fan of the songwriting process and the many ways that a song can be created.

I’m also a great believer in not throwing any songwriting ideas away, no matter how small, bland, banal, silly or trivial you might think they are.

Now I know of songwriters who, like me, are pretty good at organising their ideas for future reference and that’s a great thing.

However, I know of others who have indiscriminately thrown away reams of paper and piles of notebooks filled with potential song fragments, possible song titles and bits and pieces of hurriedly scribbled phrases and sentences.

This really breaks my heart.

If you’re one of those songwriters who would rather clear the slate than organise your song snippets for later use, listen up… Have I got a deal for you.

Next time you’re feeling the need to sort out and purge or, if the temptation to chuck away all of your stuff you’ve held on for so long has become far too much to bear…

Just give your songwriting ideas to me.

That’s right, give them to me. I’ll gladly take your songwriting ideas off your hands and out of your life.

Think of me as a retirement home for all your old song snippets that you feel have stifled your creativity and have gotten you nowhere. I’ll give your stuff a new home and in the process, I might just develop some of them into songs of my own.

But here’s the thing…

Even though I’ll be in possession of your old ideas, I’m still very mindful of where these ideas have come from and will definitely give you credit where the credit is due.

So, the deal is…

If I create a song from anything that you’ve sent me, I’ll give you between 10% and 50% songwriting credit depending on how much of your idea I’ve used.

I think that’s a pretty good deal considering you were going to throw them away in the first place.

This is proof of how much value I personally put on songwriting ideas, no matter how large or small they are or, where they came from.

So before you throw your old stuff away and before you succumb to the urge to bin all of your old song fragments, think about my offer. Contact me and we’ll work out how I can offload these ideas from you.

I’m serious. What have you got to lose?

Peace,

Corey 🙂

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I remember chatting to a songwriter friend of mine a while ago about the pain he was experiencing when writing songs.

He said to me that he was great at starting songs but really lousy at finishing them (well, aren’t we all).

He also told me his main philosophy for his songwriting process and to me, this was the main reason he wasn’t finishing his songs.

He said to me words to the effect of…

… if the song is not perfect then the song isn’t worth finishing.

WTF!!! No wonder he was experiencing the pain of songwriters block.

I think that the concept of having to write the perfect song is something that’s more common among us songwriters than we care to admit so, allow me to be a little blunt here.

This struggle for songwriting perfection KILLS PEOPLE.

It kills their creativity and kills their inspiration and sometimes (in extreme circumstances) the drive to perfection generally can kill a person physically.

There is a HUGE difference between being driven to write great songs and being driven to write perfect songs.

My reply to his philosophy was this…

… why don’t you try seeing your songwriting not as a means to an end (the hit song) but as a way of just letting yourself go?

As songwriters, how much pressure do we put ourselves under? A lot!

Is it worth it? NO!

You see, the notion of perfection in anything is but a mere illusion. It’s created by the ego and massaged into existence by insecurity, jealousy, doubt, low self esteem and shame.

Songwriting should be a celebration of life, of letting yourself go, setting yourself free and playing around with your creativity. It’s not about reminding yourself how inadequate you are through comparing yourself needlessly to other songwriters.

Always remember that there’s not another one of you on this planet so therefore your experiences, your thoughts, your insights, your feelings, your dreams, your desires, your observations and the way that you question life, universe and everything around it are uniquely yours, and yours alone.

What does that mean? A lot actually.

It means that…

  1. There is no point in comparing yourself and your songwriting to others as there is no one else but you to compare yourself to in the first place
  2. Being the one-of-a-kind and unique creature that you are, whatever you say is always very, very important.

The concept of perfection would only exist if there was something perfect to aspire to in the first place.

Now granted, there have been some amazing songs written in the past and there will be amazing songs that will be written in the future, but none of those songs are “perfect” and they never, ever will be.

We, like our songwriting, are all works in progress so embrace those imperfections and just concentrate on writing songs without getting in your own way.

Peace,

Corey 🙂

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With today being the 4th of July I’ll again be participating in this years 50/90 Songwriting Challenge as I have done for the last 11 years.

Sometimes I do think that I’m batshit CRAZY.

For those of you that have no idea what I’m talking about, the 50/90 Songwriting Challenge (also known as 50/90) requires the participant to write 50 songs in 90 days starting from July 4th until October 31st.

50/90 has been likened to a marathon for songwriters and if my maths is correct, I would need to write one song every 1.8 days to complete the challenge in full.

I can do that, I mean I have done it before in 2017, 2018 and 2019 (not in 2020 thanks to COVID-19) but I am going to approach 50/90 a little differently compared to the FAWM Songwriting Challenge (14 songs in 28 days) that I completed in February.

This time around, instead of doing complete band arrangements of my songs I’ll be stripping them back to a more acoustic vibe to ensure that the songs don’t get bogged down in over-instrumentation.

The more limits I place on myself the more I’ll be able to write and besides, if time permits I can always go back to the songs and embellish them later on. It’s important that I make the song idea-recording-uploading process as efficient as possible.

I’ll also put more of an emphasis on collaboration with other 50/90 participants. It’s one of the really cool things about being involved.

Don’t get me wrong, 50 songs in 90 days is a daunting task and I am going to have my work cut out for me but there’s nothing like a goal or a deadline to get my creative juices flowing.

Just like I’m doing with the songs I wrote for FAWM, I’ll  be releasing them on a playlist through my SoundCloud account.

I might even need your help to choose the best ones.

As with previous years, 50/90 will be the ninja warrior of songwriting endurances for me. YES! It’s a challenge but it will also be a lot of fun too, as the 50/90 website clearly states…

“During these 90 days, participants will encourage each other, collaborate, give and gain feedback on their new creations and push themselves to practice and refine their skills in songwriting. Whether long time vets of songwriting or picking up the pen for the first time, participants will grow their skills in making music… and just might have some fun along the way.”

That’s what I intend to do… I will again be walking the walk and talking the talk by putting all of my songwriting knowledge to good use and allowing my songwriting process to do its thing.

Who knows, there might even be some cracker songs written along the way.

Wish me luck guys,

Corey 🙂