Skip to main content

Is Your Songwriting Inspiration-Dependent?

Is Your Songwriting Inspiration-Dependent?
Is Your Songwriting Inspiration-Dependent?

by Kapa Freeman

Talent may be keeping you from your songwriting goals, but not in the way you think.

There's an idea in the songwriting community that's really harmful. It's the idea that you have to have "talent" to write songs that people love. I know, because I used to think that too. It was crippling.

When you run into negative feedback on your songs, you feel like you should quit because you "Just don't have the gift.". We get this idea because hit songwriters make it look so easy, but watch any documentary on a hit songwriter's life and you'll see how many bad songs came before their good ones... and how many drafts went into the classic ones.

Talent can actually be a songwriter's handicap if it's not combined with skill.

The talent-only songwriter essentially relies on inspiration to give them songs that people connect with, but inspiration can be a crutch... a pretty unreliable crutch... and it comes and goes when it pleases. And when you don't have it, you simply can't write a good song without it.

Why?

Because you can't control it. In other words, depending on inspiration is basically writing songs on accident. Great songs aren't written on accident. There's an exception to every rule, but do you really want to bet that you're going to be the exception?

The alternative to being a talent-only songwriter is being a skilled songwriter. The talent-only songwriter writes great songs on accident, but a skilled songwriter writes great songs on purpose.

  • They know how to write lyrics that connect emotionally.
  • They know how to format melodies to make them memorable.
  • They know how to combine the two so they flow naturally.
  • They know how to use harmony to make a chorus explode.
  • They know how to use rhythm to ramp up energy.
  • The skilled songwriter has full control over their songwriting process.
  • They don't wait for inspiration to give them permission to write a great song. Inspiration takes orders from them.

Talent will only take you but so far. Skill will take you as far as talent can take you, and far beyond.


Check out all of the posts related to Music Marketing: 


Kapa Freeman is the Founder and Songwriting Coach of The Intentional Songwriter, whose goal is to help musicians become publisher-ready songwriters so they can access songwriter-only income streams that pay more money for less of their time.

After taking an "assembly line approach" to songwriting, Kepa added consistency to his songwriting and went from song rejections to publishing deals over the course of a year. Now he uses this same approach to help musicians go from beginning to publisher-ready songwriters in a matter of weeks.

https://www.prosongsonpurpose.com/




Tags:

Popular posts

"Whoop The Devil" by Destin Dumais: Standing in Christ's Authority

Who gave you the authority to stand firm? Destin Dumais opens his debut single with an amazing sound that excites, gets you up on your feet, and gets you ready to conquer. “Whoop The Devil” is a hard-hitting country-rock song with one clear message: As believers, we hold real authority in Christ! The song starts with a cowboy scene. “Gonna saddle up and ride, ain’t no place you can hide.” Then comes the line that makes an important difference: “Been deputized, authorized.” Nobody appoints himself to this work. The badge was handed over at Calvary. Jesus said it plainly in Luke 10:19: “Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.” Who gives the authority? Jesus does! This kind of confidence never relies on your strength, your mood, or your track record. This confidence rests on His name, and His name only! Does that now mean that our fears will disappear for good? Not always. Destin admits that...
More >>

"Faith Like Daniel" by Marlee Smith: Praising God When the World Says No

Who do you trust when everyone disagrees? What do you do when the world says that your God doesn’t matter? Marlee Smith’s energetic pop-rock song, “Faith Like Daniel,” comes with an all-teenage female band behind her, and her response to what the world says is anything but timid. When the world feels overturned, she’ll keep “praising my Father,” even when the world says she shouldn’t. Remember what we read in the Bible about Daniel? Daniel knew that pressure. A royal decree banned prayer to anyone but the king for a period of thirty days. Daniel heard the news, went home, opened his windows, and prayed as he always had. No speeches. No protest. Just steady faith, three times a day. Then came the lions, and what happened that night in the den became a testimony. Scripture says, “No kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God” (Daniel 6:23). Daniel never trusted that his circumstances would be easy. He trusted the One who stood over them. Marlee’s message carries t...
More >>

"Send Me an Angel" by Josh Orange: Grace for the Struggle at 5 AM

What if help is one honest word away? Josh Orange, a folk-rock group from Sydney, Australia, wrote “Send Me an Angel” in about thirty minutes. Structure, lyric, the whole thing arrived at once and became the spark for the band’s sixth studio album. Some prayers work that way. They don’t wait for polish. The song opens at 5 am. A man puts his feet on the floor and asks Jesus, “for the strength to begin.” He doesn’t ask for much. He works for his living, and he isn’t proud of his sins. Then comes the plea: “Come help me Jesus. Send me an angel.” Sound familiar? You’ve tried hard, opened the door, and done it again. Gordon Burke, the lead singer of Josh Orange, sings about running all the way to Nova Scotia, and the further he went, the darker he got. Distance never fixed it. Ask yourself, where have you been running? Listen closely and notice what he never does. He never cleans himself up first. He prays with “blood on my boots,” and he prays honestly. Scripture says that’s the right w...
More >>