“If you have faith in your ability, never give up. I was writing songs for eight years before I met with any success. Learn from your mistakes and keep trying”
—Ellie Greenwich
As a music publisher, one of the biggest mistakes I see talented new songwriters make is to expect something to happen with every song they write—and then get disillusioned and give up when it doesn’t happen.
It’s important to recognize that, when you’re first starting out, each song you write is just a stepping-stone to the next one. It’s all part of an important learning process that gradually takes you closer to finding your own ‘voice’ and your own distinctive writing style.
So be persistent. You may have to write 30 or more songs—and endure the heart- break of many failed demo submissions—before you come up with your first ‘breakthrough’ song capable of having a real chance of success. Many top song- writers admit that they ended up throwing away their first 50 or so songs because they just weren’t good enough.
Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill—who wrote the classic ‘(You’ve Lost) That Loving Feeling’—admit that their earliest songs weren’t all great. As Barry Mann told the Huffing ton Post: “If we looked at a list of a hundred songs we wrote, going back even to the Sixties and Seventies, the first twenty-five weren’t so good, then all of a sudden number twenty-six, number twenty-seven, number twenty-eight and twenty- nine were really terrific songs. Not all of our songs were great songs, but at that point, we were learning.”
Some writers find it hard to get started on a new song because they’re afraid of failing or ending up with a really bad song. However, as Canadian poet and novelist Margaret Atwood once remarked: “If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.”
To achieve your goals you need to have the courage to face rejection and the self- belief, passion and perseverance to keep going. Be ambitious and constantly challenge yourself in terms of song construction, genres, and the subjects you write about. But set realistic expectations. Don’t expect miracles.
Award-winning country music songwriter Brett James believes in the so-called ‘10,000-Hour Rule’. He explains: “The rule says that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to master anything. I feel this can apply to songwriting too. It takes about 10,000 hours of writing to become skilled at it.”
As the legendary Brian Wilson once said: “No masterpiece ever came overnight. A person’s masterpiece is something that you nurture along.”
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