[00:02] we need some other things to draw on to help us get to that finish line and in this video what I want to share with you are five things that I lean on time and time again to really help me when that initial spark of inspiration has kind of
[00:18] fizzled out and it's time to engage some other tools techniques processes and even like mental models of how I think about the songwriting process that really helped me get a song past that Finish Line before we dive into these
[00:32] five strategies I think it's really important to understand when each of these five strategies is most useful and in my mind and experience I really think about the songwriting process like a cocktail glass now it's really more of a
[00:46] funnel but I like to think of it as a cocktail glass because it's more fun and if we look at the cocktail glass at the very top of the cocktail glass is where a song idea starts those are the little popping bubbles of INSP inspiration or
[01:00] ideas and this can honestly be anything this can be a snippet of Melody it might be a cool slogan on a billboard it might be something a character said in a TV be an interesting word or image or moment any songwriter is asked
[01:16] the music or the lyrics first and the answer is just yes it's not either or it can be one it can be the other everyone has their own thing it's not really that instructive about the songwriting process to ask where the song starts
[01:29] it's much more interesting for songwriters especially to understand what happens after that initial bubble of inspiration and that's when we move down the cocktail glass and it's really at this point where the glass reaches
[01:43] that small little squeeze point where we get our first three strategies and the first three strategies that I employ at this point in the songwriting process which is to say after I've had an initial idea after I've played around
[01:57] with it a bit and I've developed upon it and and I maybe have a section or two and and I maybe have a section or two sections of a song but I'm kind of stuck in the songwriting process this is where these first three of five strategies
[02:10] comes into play and these three strategies here are finding a strategies here are finding a title choosing a song map and deciding on a song form so those are the first three that I'm going to cover and then
[02:23] which very frequently for me come further down the process it's after I've made those first three decisions and I'm still a little bit stuck before the finish line is when I engage these last two strategies and honestly the final
[02:38] strategy here is by far the most powerful strategy for finishing every song so stick with me as we head towards that last strategy so strategy number one that I employ all the time is finding a title and when I talk about a
[02:54] title in songwriting I'm not actually talking about what a song is called what a song is called hold you know it's label in the Spotify playlist is not actually part of the song itself when I think about tidle as a songwriter I'm
[03:07] really talking about that short phrase that repeats throughout the song and really captures the essential meaning image or Peak emotion the central
[03:19] metaphor or the core message that I'm trying to convey and when something sticks out to me as a title it's usually something that I feel like I can actually approach from multiple different angles that's when something
[03:34] really stands out to me as a title so one of the things that I like to do as a songwriting strategy is decide on the title choose a title now because it's in choosing a title that we put a limitation around the idea it's when
[03:49] we're saying this song is about this one thing and I'm going to go narrow and deep into this one thing rather than staying in this broad open experimental state age where the song could still be about anything and everything choosing a
[04:03] about anything and everything choosing a title helps us anchor the song in one thing and one thing only and in making that decision we create momentum decisions beget decisions but the important thing is this in choosing a
[04:16] stick with that title and very frequently I find what happens is it's in choosing a title that I create a certain momentum with the songwriting that it drives the song forward it becomes clearer this song is about and
[04:30] in making the next decision and driving it Forward often I'll come up with an even better title but I would never have gotten there had I not put a flag in the sand and said this is the title of this song strategy number two is to make a
[04:44] song map and I've gone into quite a bit of detail about song maps in some other videos which I will include as links in the show notes so I'm not going to go into full detail here but my intention is to give a summary of the concept and
[04:56] really explain why it's so helpful and to point you to some other free resources that you can access so a song map in essence is very much like an essay plan which sounds a bit dry but stick with me so a song map is an
[05:11] outline of how your song will start develop and climax essentially the other beginning middle and the end of the song and there are many different song maps
[05:23] that we can apply and I'll give you a few examples in a moment but some of the reasons that a song map is so helpful is that it really gives you direction for your entire song so if you ever have the experience of you know you're writing a
[05:36] song line by line and you're getting stuck a lot of the time the reason we feeling around in the dark we don't really know what the end point is or just kind of randomly taking different Pathways and making the next decision
[05:50] and then the next decision rather than actually having a vision for where the song is headed so a song map really helps us stop being kind of line by line songwriters and really helps us just go okay the function of this section is
[06:06] section is going to be this other thing and I already know what that is so I can meaningfully write this section knowing where it's headed it gives your song Direction and the other really important thing that it does especially if you
[06:21] thing that it does especially if you have a song title In Mind is a song map helps you pre-plan to a certain extent how each section is going to arrive at your title and even more than that how each section is going to approach that
[06:37] title that's repeating but approach it in a slightly different way and another concept I've talked about quite a lot on the channel is this idea of verse development and the idea that we don't just want our verses to be saying the
[06:50] same thing dressed up in different language we really want to be progressing the emotional idea to different places and to new places and different places and to new places and IDE ideally we really want that title to
[07:03] have a different emotional resonance every time someone hears it and that's songwriters particularly when we're talking about lyric writing it's this idea that we're going to repeat something and we sort of know for
[07:16] various reasons that the repetition of an idea whether it's through a chorus or repeating hook something like that but that that repetition is really important the challenge is how do we make that
[07:28] repetition have increasing value rather than decreasing value through repetition how do we make the repetition feel like it's going further and deeper every time rather than becoming more and more shallow each time and a song map is
[07:44] incredibly important and Incredibly valuable tool that I honestly use in every single song I write so a free resource that I want to point you to is a song map template that I have created as a simple onepage PDF and the template
[07:59] really includes some very pointed guiding questions that will really help you craft song development and really help you think about the Journey of your song before you even necessarily sit down to write any individual lyrics it's
[08:13] very much the idea of seeing the forest for the trees and not getting completely lost in that Forest but having a sense of direction having a map a pathway of direction having a map a pathway through before you dive in the third
[08:27] strategy in our cocktail glass method is deciding on a song form so this is something that I find really really helpful and again it's not about saying not going to change it it's actually just about making a decision that's
[08:41] going to help you make the next decision and then help you make the next decision after that understanding that the more Direction and momentum you have with your song the more clarity you have and the more clarity you have ironically or
[08:54] paradoxically the more flexibility you will have in actually creating different variations or diverting from that decision that you made so one basic decision I will make at the outset at this point in the cocktail glass process
[09:08] this point in the cocktail glass process is is this song a song with a chorus or is this a song without a chorus and if it's a song without a chorus what kind of non- chorus song form am I going to be writing in right if there's a refrain
[09:22] line that is going to replace the function of a chorus and a refrain line very simply is a line of L and Melody that repeats in two or more verse sections and it actually sounds like the hook like yesterday by The Beetles even
[09:37] Blackbird by The Beatles like still crazy after all these years by Paul crazy after all these years by Paul Simon like the mother by Brandy Carlile like so many songs the list is kind of endless so the other kinds of questions
[09:50] direction I'm going to go is you know is the refrain line the first line of the section or is it the last line of the section there's this basic decision that is helpful to me and hopefully will be
[10:03] to you as well to make here which is what is this song form so either way we go song with a chorus song without a chorus there are many many variations within each of those kind of Pathways that we can take but making that simple
[10:17] decision can really help again create a sense of momentum and Clarity for chorus one of the things that I might then do is sit down and write the chorus if I haven't already done so understanding basic song forms and basic
[10:32] song form variations is really important as a songwriter and in your development as a songwriter because if we can't hear the difference between songs that have a chorus and songs that don't have a chorus but have other things going on
[10:45] it's really hard to name what's going on and generally when you can't name what's going on it's very hard to then use those tools and techniques in your own songwriting so being able to analyze other people's songs and song forms
[11:00] especially is really really important and it's Way Beyond the scope of this particular video but we have made a short course which is honestly as cheap as chips for the value that you will get and that short course is called the five
[11:12] most powerful songwriting exercises and I'll include a link to that in the notes one of those exercises is all about song form analysis and it's not just about what kinds of sections exist it's also about variations different permutations
[11:27] about variations different permutations of song form and even magnifying in on things like how many bars are inside certain sections because when you dive into an analysis like that even in a song like Someone Like You by Adele what
[11:40] you start to see is even though on the surface it looks like a totally standard song form that there are these really interesting variations happening inside the sections that make it feel really interesting and dynamic and not at all
[11:54] static and boxy even though it's a totally standard pop song format so definitely check that out if you're interested in a more indepth analysis of song form so at this point in my cocktail songwriting process even after
[12:11] I've decided on a title I've got a song map I've decided on the song form and I've progressed past that initial stage of kind of losing the spark of inspiration but still moving ahead on the song with the help of that map and
[12:25] the help of the kind of shape of the song form sometimes I still get stuck which is to say sometimes when we engage those elements of craft we actually lose the buzz of inspiration and sometimes I want that back right like I I want the
[12:41] feeling of being inspired and having interesting new novel ideas kind of burst into my mind I don't want it all to be about craft in that last stage I think songwriting is such a fascinating blend of inspiration and craft of
[12:56] intuition and discipline but both things all these elements are really important to the songwriting process so I find I often get stuck there when I'm too much inside the craft and I've lost that sense of maybe Sparkle is the way that I
[13:10] feel it in my body and this is when I engage these last two strategies that really help me move a song all the way down to the bottom of that cocktail glass and to the finish line so the first of these strategies is what I call
[13:23] first of these strategies is what I call invite invisible mentors so I really think of the songwriter that I love and admire like Joanie Mitchell and Paul Simon and Bill Withers and Marvin Gay and all kinds of other songwriters that
[13:39] you would probably never expect this is when I invite them into the room as my invisible mentors I think of these songwriters as people that I can learn from when I'm listening like a songwriter not just like a consumer of
[13:53] deliberate strategy it's not about passive listening to music it's about active immersive listening so often what I'll do is I'll turn on a playlist of songs or songwriters that I love and I will listen actively like that and I
[14:08] find when I'm listening actively and really holding the song that I'm writing really holding the song that I'm writing in mind I find it almost impossible not to get sparks of ideas flying so I really encourage you to try this if you
[14:21] don't already is to make listening and immersive listening part of your songwriting process and as a little extra a hint a thing that I will also Chuck into my songwriting process here that is a guaranteed way for me to come
[14:36] up with ideas that also feel like they have that crackle of inspiration is to do this immersive listening while going for a very vigorous walk or even a run and there is something about the combination of oxygenating the brain
[14:51] engaging in bilateral movement of the body which I think also creates neural crossover like the firing of neural Pathways across the Corpus colossum between the left and right hemispheres of the brain and then the input of
[15:06] listening to music there is something that then kind of creates that firework effect for me and I am that awkward person who is running around an oval Breathing heavily into my iPhone because I'm having so many ideas but I just keep
[15:22] doing my laps keep getting little ideas and moments of inspiration and keep breathing them heavily into my iPhone and it all works out in the end and that brings us to strategy number five which is by far the most powerful strategy
[15:37] that any human being can engage in order to get work done get it done frequently regularly and consistently and this strategy is all about seeking out a
[15:51] strategy is all about seeking out a deadline so having a deadline for your work there is just some magic psychological alchemy that happens when there is a deadline now the thing is it's no use going I'm going to finish
[16:05] that song by Friday cuz that's kind of a fake deadline it's so easy to break our own self-imposed deadlines deadlines are most powerful when they're kind of set people involved so it's really the combination of the deadline plus having
[16:20] an accountability partner or an accountability group and I've learned have been in situations and circumstances where there's a lot of accountability and deadlines like going to music school and I think that's a lot
[16:34] of the reason why people do things like that enrolling in a course enrolling in a class going to a workshop or enrolling in a songwriting group is a great way to engage in that kind of structure and accountability that has deadlines
[16:48] embedded inside of it so we now run songwriting groups five times a year and anyone is welcome to join so those songwriting groups are 8 weeks rather rather than kind of ongoing and it's not a song every week cuz that can feel very
[17:02] uh Relentless if you're someone who has a full-time job or you have kids or you have family or caring responsibilities so the Cadence of those groups is a song prompt every 2 weeks so over the course of 8 weeks you write four new songs and
[17:16] those groups are small so you're allocated to a group of eight other songwriters which really Fosters a sense of team spirit and group dynamic and you really get to know the other people in your group so those are available to any
[17:29] songwriters around the world and if you're interested in more information or please check out the link below in the show notes I wish you all the best for finishing your songs this year and if there are any other tools techniques
[17:42] methods or processes that you use that help you reliably finish your songs that are a combination of craft and inspiration please let us know in the comments and I'll see you next time thanks guys