My Song Coach

Real, no-nonsense songwriting info.

I’VE BEEN STUDYING TODAY’S TOP RADIO HITS AND SUCCESSFUL FILM & TV SONGS TO BRING YOU THE LATEST SONGWRITING TRENDS AND TOOLS.

My students and clients have had song placements in movies, prime -time TV, artist cuts, and hundreds of thousands of streams on Spotify. Get started on your songwriting journey and find out how far it will take you!

On this site, you’ll find over 125 HOW-TO TIPS and SONG STARTERS! Each one will help you write songs that express your thoughts and feelings while giving your style a contemporary, commercial edge.

And be sure to check out my Hit Song Guides where I reverse-engineer 50+ hit songs to show you how they did it. To get a free songwriting tip or song guide every month, sign up for my Songwriting Tips email.

Songwriting tools you can use…

WRITE FAST. WRITE BETTER

Write a Song in 10 Steps

A 3-Stage Rocket to Lyric Writing

Start and Develop a Song

Should I Write or Should I Listen?

Where to Find New Artists & Music to Listen To

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WRITING LYRICS & MELODY

NEW! Give Your Old Lyrics a Makeover

Can You Use AI to Write Lyrics

The Power of the Kickoff Line

Write a Song If You Don’t Play an Instrument

How to Write Lyrics to a Melody

5 Ways to Rewrite a Melody

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SONG STARTERS & PRACTICE SESSIONS

25 Really Good Lyric Prompts

How to Start a Song

More Song Starters

6 Songwriting Practice Sessions

30-min. Sessions: Solve a Problem

30-min. Sessions: Song Workout

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Check out my online Songwriting Courses

You’ll love my affordable, self-paced ONLINE COURSES!

Learn the secrets of hit songwriting.
Use the songwriting exercises to launch or finish songs.
Get access to workshops and private feedback.
Write expressive songs listeners will love and the music industry needs.

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FILM & TV SONGWRITING

Writing Songs for Film & TV

Universal Lyrics for Film & TV

Write Songs for TV Commercials

Broadcast Quality for Film & TV

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MUSIC BUSINESS

How to Sell Your Songs

Alternate Versions of Your Songs

Should I Copyright My Songs?

Cover Songs Are a Big Deal

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MUSIC PRODUCTION

What Do Music Producers Do?

Be Your Own Arranger

Nail a Vocal Performance

Using Loops and Beats

Can You Pitch a Home Recording

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Your Songwriting Coach

I’ve been studying hit songs for over 20 years. You can read 50+ of my Hit Song Guides on my Songwriting Tips & Inspiration website. In addition, I’ve been a record label executive, Film & TV songwriter with hundreds of credits, a music producer, and a working songwriter for my entire career.

My books—Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting and Shortcuts to Songwriting for Film & TV— have been used to teach the craft of songwriting at Musician’s Institute, Belmont University, and many more schools around the world.

Through TAXI.com, an Independent A&R company, I trained hit songwriters and music industry professionals to give feedback to thousands of aspiring and successful songwriters. Over the years, I learned that many hit songwriters can’t really explain how they do it. So, I dug down to see if I could find some answers. I’ve gathered tons of information and poured it into my books and websites. Have a look around and then get started on your hit songs!

25 Really Good Lyric Prompts

A good lyric prompt can be incredibly useful. It can launch creative ideas and get a song going even on the toughest day. When you don’t feel like writing, the right nudge can turn that feeling around and get you excited again.

An effective lyric prompt gets your emotions, memories, physical senses, or inspiration engaged. For example: “Write a song about a memorable summer.” Summertime can evoke memories of lost loves (Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer”) or the joy of escape into a balmy summer night (The Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Summer in the City”). The prompt encourages you to remember and feel the past, but lets you choose where you want to let those feelings take you.

Americana Songwriting

This year there are close to a dozen TV series using songs in the broad, acoustic-based Americana songwriter style. This trend started with Yellowstone, a series that popularized the music of many Americana artists. Zach Bryan’s songs appeared six times in the 2022 season, driving his song “Something In the Orange” to the top of the Country Music Charts and launching his career.

Give Your Old Lyrics a Makeover

LET’S RENOVATE!

I was watching a home renovation show recently. You know… one of those reality TV shows where a couple of energetic, muscular types swing a hammer and—Voila!— they turn a moldy-smelling shack into a sleek duplex complete with landscaping. And I thought to myself: What if you could do a lyric makeover like that on an older song, give it a fresh coat of paint and plenty of current listener appeal!

Songwriting Habits: Make Them Work For You

Habits… we all have them. A habit is simply a ‘usual way of doing things’. Good habits, like exercising or flossing, can be help you improve your life. Bad habits—well, they can undo all the good habits and then some.

As in life, so in songwriting. There are good songwriting habits that can help you write better and faster. And there are bad habits that can cause you to write the same unsuccessful song over and over.

WHERE DID YOUR SONGWRITING HABITS COME FROM?

Generally, your songwriting habits are formed by the songs you heard in your teens and early twenties (from age 12 to 22). Research has shown that we recall our experiences from those years more vividly and more easily than those that occur later in life. It’s called the reminiscence bump.

During our teens, music and songs play an outsized role in our lives. They help us express our emotions, establish our identity, and relate to others. The reminiscence bump ensures that we’ll remember those feelings and experiences and the songs we closely associated with them. So we shouldn’t be surprised that the melody, lyric, and chord styles of our teens pop up when we sit down to write songs about similar emotions or experiences now.

Can You Use AI for Writing Lyrics?

I just want to say right up front… I’m not going to suggest that you use AI to write a song lyric. Period. Why on earth would you want to miss out on expressing yourself through your own creative process? It’s your thoughts and feelings that make a song meaningful and worth writing.

But I am curious to know if AI can be a useful tool. Maybe it can help us pick up our writing speed or reach listeners more effectively. So, I figure it’s worth checking out. Besides, I want to see what everyone is talking about.

The two top sites for now are Lyric Studio and ChatGPT, so that’s where I went.

Songwriting tools you can use…

Check out my online Songwriting Courses

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Your Songwriting Coach

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LET’S RENOVATE!

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WHERE DID YOUR SONGWRITING HABITS COME FROM?

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