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Does learning the CRAFT of songwriting hurt the HEART in your songs? The answer may surprise you! Here's the truth, in just about 3 minutes. Listen up!
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TRANSCRIPT:
Today on 3 Minutes & The Truth, I want to talk about the heart and craft of songwriting. We talk about the art and craft of songwriting. But today, I want to talk about the heart and craft of songwriting.
I encourage songwriters to learn a lot of craft, to learn how the pros do it, and to learn systems for songwriting. But does that kill your song's heart? Does that kill your originality?
I think the answer is no. Eventually. But at first, a lot of "craft" might actually decrease the amount of "heart" in your song. So here's the deal, when you start off writing, you're all heart and your very little craft, right? Because that's WHY you write. You have stuff you want to get out. And so there's a lot of heart, but you haven't learned the craft yet.
And so your songs, while being very emotional, may leave the listener confused as to what's going on. It may not connect well with others. And then you start to learn the craft of songwriting. And then you start to get clever. And you're like, "ooh, look, what I can do here - I can change this line here, I can do this wordplay. Or I can do this clever little turnaround here."
And so you start getting up in your head, right? You start showing off because you have some new skills that you didn't have before. And then your songs just about inevitably start to lose heart. And so it's like, yeah, I get what you're doing. That's clever. That's that's an interesting concept, but I just don't really care.
And so you have to stick it out. You're learning the craft, now you need to re-learn the heart. And so on the other side of that, if you stick with it, and you stay teachable, and stay coachable, and you keep digging for the best that you can be and you keep learning... you come out the other side, with heart AND craft. You start applying the craft you've learned to songs and ideas that matter to you and that have a lot of heart.
And that's the cycle. We start off a lot of heart, no craft, our songs are, very emotional but not very good. Then we start getting well crafted, but it just didn't have any heart. It's just stillborn. It looks like a song, sounds like a song.. but I just don't care and neither do the listeners.
And then you come out the other side, able to apply a high level of craft to songs that mean something to you. And if you do that you're going to be alright, cuz that's where the pros are working from.
So, no- learning the craft doesn't kill your heart. Eventually.
This has been 3 Minutes & The Truth.
God bless,
Brent
PS- Thanks for stopping by Songwriting Pro! I appreciate it. As a matter of fact, I want to give you a gift just for your visit. It's my FREE PDF e-book, "6 Ways To Make Your Songs More Commercial." It'll help you write songs that artists want to sing and fans want to hear. You can get this awesome gift at 6simpleways.SongwritingPro.com.
Who is Brent Baxter?
Brent is an award-winning songwriter with songs recorded by Alan Jackson (the top 5 Country hit "Monday Morning Church"), Randy Travis, Lady A, Joe Nichols, Ray Stevens, Steve Cropper, Andy Griggs, Buddy Jewell, Lonestar, Gord Bamford (the #1 hit and CCMA Single Of The Year "When Your Lips Are So Close"), The Sound (the #1 hit and Dove-nominated Southern Gospel Song Of The Year "Can I Get A Witness"), Wilburn & Wilburn (#1 hit "Hallelujah Homecoming"), The LeFevre Quartet and more!
