Tag Archives: songwriting
Songwriting Tips from the Experts, Part 14
“Songwriting is hard for me. It’s not like they just come rolling out of my ears or anything. And the only difference between me and the other guy who is a songwriter is that I cull. I throw away a lot of stuff. I throw it away until what is left is good. I’m willing to do that work. I don’t keep something until I think it’s great.” Continue reading
Songwriting Tips from the Experts, Part 13
“The process of writing, for me, is not very cut and [dried]. One thing for sure, it’s one long process of self-editing and self-critique. I think a lot of [songwriters are not] . . . tough self-critics or self-editors.” Continue reading
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Songwriting Tips from the Experts, Part 12
“As you survey your worship set on any given Sunday, ask yourself who gets the best action verbs. If the answer isn’t the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit, there’s a problem.” Continue reading
Songwriting Tips from the Experts, Part 11
I get to feature a Land-of-Lincoln homeboy in today’s post, Peoria-born Dan Fogelberg, who died far too young, 56, of prostate cancer back in 2007. I’m partial to the singer-songwriters anyway, but I’m especially partial to Fogelberg, whose “Longer” my … Continue reading
Posted in contemporary worship music, songwriting
Tagged contemporary worship, songwriting
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Songwriting Tips from the Experts, Part 10
Very rarely do the best baseball players turn into the best managers. Sparky Anderson’s lifetime batting average was .218; Tony LaRussa’s, .199. Mediocre numbers on the field didn’t stop either from becoming the only two managers to win a World … Continue reading
Songwriting Tips from the Experts, Part 9
“I was doing a concert, and I sat down at the piano and started playing a new song in D, and the crowd started clapping even though they’d never heard this song, because what I was playing in D [sounded like] what I always habitually play in D on the piano, and they thought it was a song they’d already heard.” Continue reading
Songwriting Tips from the Experts, Part 8b
“I’m not advocating that level of scrutiny for cwm necessarily, but it would be nice to get a sense periodically that an inner critic was at work a bit more often in cwm.” Continue reading
Songwriting Tips from the Experts, Part 8a
As was the case with Bob Dylan, I came late to the Leonard Cohen party, and I’ve been catching up ever since. Non-aficionados will at least recognize “Hallelujah,” his best-known song, one covered by a slew of artists over the … Continue reading
Songwriting Tips from the Experts, Part 7b
We feature more this week from the always mercurial, occasionally obnoxious, often puerile, never boring mind of Frank Zappa, courtesy of the interview conducted by Paul Zollo in his Songwriters on Songwriting. As noted earlier, though Zappa died in 1993, … Continue reading
Songwriting Tips from the Experts, Part 7a
“Until [there is a change in attitude at the distribution level], there is little hope that a person who is doing anything other than formula swill will have an opportunity to have his music recorded, let alone transmitted.” Continue reading
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