7 Most Common Songwriting Problems

The most common problems songwriters face can be roughly split into two types. 1. Skills Problems and 2. People Problems. Common sense would tell you that if you're skilful in your craft, then you will naturally attract people to work with and an audience. Whilst that is true in the most part, there is a huge oversupply issue in the music business and so competition for audience attention is very high indeed. The skills problems are an easy fix and are arguably less of a problem.

1. 1. When Songwriters Receive Little or no Feedback.
2. 2. When Songwriters lack Motivation, are Demoralised or Disillusioned.
3. 3. When songwriters Can't Sell Their songs.
4. 4. Writing songs without an instrument.
5. 5. Writings Songs When The Songwriter Can't Sing.
6. 6. When the Songwriter Can't Think of Words or Topics.
7. 7. When the Songwriter Has Stage Fright.

1. When Songwriters Receive Little or no Feedback.

There's nothing more demoralising than getting little or no response to your music.

If you're in front of a real audience, you would have to be pretty awful to not get some sort of applause. People clap to be polite and encourage you to keep trying. That's what friends and family and real people do.

But social media is far more brutal. Online consumers couldn't care less about you and your music and whether or not you keep trying to produce it. They certainly don't care about your feelings of rejection. They care about themselves and their entertainment, or worse.

They care about how popular they'll appear to their 'friends' when they share a link to your song or video.

Harsh as it may sound, your material or some other aspect of you, has to appeal to that person's ego. You either have to appeal to them on a deeply personal level or you have to make them look good in front of their peers. And so what ever you present must be outstanding, it must be different.

Not surprising then that so many artists use shock tactics and/or sexuality to push their profiles.

So when no one is interested in your stuff - you have a decision to make. 1. Sell your soul to the popularity beast or 2. Accept that there are lots of other musicians more committed and hungry than you. 3. Dig your trench deeper, ignore popularity and emerse yourself in your art.

For male performers, this is especially difficult. For older men it's even more difficult simply because young pretty females are socially and statistically miles luckier when it comes to holding the attention of a viewer regardless of the viewers age or gender.

So what to do ?

If we ignore the 'become demoralised and give up' option. Depending on age and gender, an artist can either go deeper into the music and become more artistic or, must be willing to sacrifice a little integrity and adopt a more popular or sexually appealing profile.

Either way, gaining feedback and followers is not easy and requires considerably more effort than learning how to be a good musician and songwriter.

This is why today's marketeers keep banging on about branding and building a following. What you have to ask yourself is, 'what, exactly are they buying into, what are they following?'

2. When Songwriters lack Motivation, are Demoralised or Disillusioned.

If you're here, Hi, and welcome to the world of the songwriter.

Every writer, artist and musician goes through spells when everything seems pointless. It doesn't matter if it's an audience, band member or creative problem. All of a sudden, this thing we believed in so much becomes a poisoned chalice.

That's because so much of what we do is subjective. Not only that but its value to us and the rest of society is subjective. And that perception is in turn driven by outside events, the emotions of others or ourselves.

The fact of the matter is, the music remains the same. It still has the power to move people very quickly to places which are quite magical and fantastic. Only our perception or context has changed.

Our ability to learn and adapt and grow hasn't changed either. So what ever challenges appear can be overcome, often by taking a break and giving ourselves a break. As artists, we often live creativity in our heads 24/7. If that suddenly dries up we may panic, forgetting that it probably needed a rest to.

Audiences and personal relationships are more difficult. A brutally frank and personal interrogation of what we really want often shines new light on old problems.

Being a songwriter is an emotional roller coaster, you can either accept that there are ups and downs or get off.

If you choose to stay on board, it's a good idea to get one or two real offline songwriter friends who you can meet and discuss problems with. I guarantee, they will have had the same feelings of hopelessness.

3. When songwriters Can't Sell Their songs.

There are two reason's your songs sell.

1. You have an audience, a fan-base, a following who are 'fanatical' about you or your songs and they feel obligated to buy your material or come to your gigs. PLUS you have a sales mechanism for delivering some kind of product AND collecting the money.

2. You sell your rights to other entertainment industries such as film or gaming through 'synch' licencing deals.

Neither option is plain sailing and requires considerably more effort and committent than learning to play an instrument and writing songs.

4. Writing songs without an instrument.

a) . Rhythm.

You only need a rhythm and something to shout about and you can easily write a very good song without an instrument.

Spoons, drums, shakers and graters or even better, a metronome. Anything which you can repeat will give you an 'ostinato.' That's a riff or phrase or a thing which you keep coming back to. It anchors you - gives you something to return to or keep circulating around.

It's foundation, if you like. And above that foundation you can explore your story and the emotions which go with it.

You could even manage without the words so long as you have an attitude and some kind of emotion to express.

Having a good sense of rhythm is vital, so start there, and spread your stuff over the top of it, voila !

Writing a song with only rhythm is great for one or two songs - but you'll start getting a bit bored once you've done five or six. Time then to find a keyboard or guitar.

b). Digital Audio Workstation.

Seems like a good idea as even a free one will have a metronome and a means of layering recordings.

The down side of these is that there's usually a learning curve and you need a phone or computer and you'll probably end up needing a microphone and before you know it - it becomes more expensive and technically challenging than learning to play a keyboard.

If you get good and you want to record - get a DAW - but learn an instrument first.

c). Do it With Friends.

Standing around in a circle, just clapping and humming is the most rewarding and life enhancing experiences you will do. This is because - in this situation - you have to open up.

It gives you so much more than just a song - if you can - write songs with friends. You'll be surprised where it leads.

5. Writing Songs When The Songwriter Can't Sing.

If you can't sing then learn. Even if it's out of tune and not nice to listen to, you simply need to educate your mind's sense of musicianship. If you just get the rhythm half right, that's a massive improvement on simply being a poet with no rhythm.

And don't be afraid of how bad you are, make all the mistakes there are to make and don't apologise for being a poor singer. Cultivate an arrogance to your poor voice, be proud of your incompetence and you'll be surprised how your voice is no longer an issue.

Singing is not about singing - it's about listening.

Listen to the expressive way in which people speak. Welsh is a particularly singy songy language. And listen to the speeches of Winston Churchill and see how he uses pitch and volume variation to cadence his words and saturate them with emotion.

There's a style of singing which originated in Europe in the early 20th century called 'sprechestimme' or 'sprechgesang' which is really interesting.

Instead of singing fixed pitches, the singer is constantly sliding up and down the scale so that the effect is half way between talking and singing. Have a listen to some of it, it will give some credibility and confidence to your own voice - no matter how bad you think it is.

If you don't have at least some appreciation of how a human voice makes the sounds it makes - how will you explain to another person how they should sing it ?

So sing your songs badly - but sing them.

6. When the Songwriter Can't Think of Words or Topics.

The thing about not being able to find words or topics is easily fixed. It's just knowing what to look for and where to look for it.

For example, any object has a story, be it a wall, a brick, a tree or an ocean. This story can be told in a few simple sentences. These sentences are your verses. How you feel, or how the observer feels, or how these objects feel or make you feel is totally different, and that is where the song is, the emotion is always the heart of things. That feeling makes a great chorus or refrain or just the title. And that's the important thing about songwriting. Know where your heart is and keep coming back to that feeling and the attitudes which stem from it.

Keep returning to that title, that theme, that emotional topic or hook, and the song writes itself.

There's 'a thing' in some songwriting circles called the 'bottom up - top down' debate. It's about whether you build structure or words first. I'd say, forget structure at first. Instead, try to see the attitude and emotions of the song as the very top, the most important. Everything else is subservient to those and can be shaped to accommodate them.

To illustrate this; your verse to chorus structure must follow how the story makes a person feel. It's pointless pencilling in a big long chorus if your emotional hook can be served in two words, 'you dig ?'

When you look at songs in that respect, you quickly understand how difficult you make songwriting if you start messing around with chords and structures and harmonies first. That's all unnecessary and aimless if you don't know what is at the heart of your song.

7. When the Songwriter Has Stage Fright.

I had stage fright when I was 18 and at 58, and I still have stage fright.

The only time you don't get stage fright is just after you come off the stage. It's a real bummer, I know. But that 'lack of stage fright' stays with you for a few days. So if you perform on a regular basis, two or three times a week, you will be able to manage it far more easily.

Obviously we can't all do that, so what do you do then ?

Well, it's still a case of managing it rather than defeating it. Remember, in the wild, the only reason so many eyes would be upon you is if they were about to eat you, so it's not a natural situation.

I found what works for me is a twofold approach.

Before I go on, I'm able to distance myself from it because the person I become on stage is a completely different person than the one typing these words. I just think, 'well he can figure it out when he gets up there.'

When I do get on - and this is very important - I put every pore of my being into the 'attitude' & 'emotions' of my performance.

Think about that last sentence carefully and get your head around it. You must relive the 'emotions' and imbue the 'attitude' of your tale. And you must do it completely and whole heartedly. That way, it's like you put a spell on yourself and the audience doesn't matter so much.

There's a massive upside to this approach - your performance will be outstanding because your audience will believe you.

A couple of other tips: video yourself rehearsing and watch it back. This will give you confidence in your stage presence.

And meditation will help enormously in being able to control your thoughts and emotions, so practice that.

And be prepared and organised - I mean everything, if you go to start your first song and you've forgotten to put your socks on, it will freak you out.

Conclusion

The task of actually writing a song is a deeply personal thing but not that difficult to learn. We are usually self motivated, so any problems we have with finishing the song can be worked on and figured out relatively quickly.

Working with people and getting them to approve, validate you and buy your material is a totally different ball game. It is without question - much more difficult. Being ignored does not encourage persistence, so expect to spend ten times as much effort on marketing as songwriting.

Good luck & best wishes.