Are you having a hard time getting your songs to resonate with your listeners emotionally?
You can tell they’re hearing you, maybe even giving you their full attention, but you can tell their hearts aren’t in it.
If your listeners aren’t crying at your sad songs or getting all dreamy-eyed at your love songs or pumping their fists in the air during your rebel songs, you’re probably making at least one of the following seven mistakes.
But there’s good news- if you can identify these mistakes, you can fix ‘em!
If you want to avoid these mistakes, read on.
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Here the 7 mistakes, in all their emotion-killing glory.
1. Your song has too many characters.
If your song has too many characters, your listener won’t have enough time to get to know them or care about them. You, your girl, your ex, your best friend, her BFF, her ex, her mom… I’m lost. And now I don’t care.
2. Your song has too much story.
Songs can tell amazing stories, but you have to keep them simple enough that the facts don’t crowd out the emotion. Too much story will turn you into a bland reporter, busily relaying facts just so the listener gets from point A to point B. “This happened then that happened. Two years later in a different town, this other thing happened.” Give enough space in your story for the emotion to come through.
3. Your song is too cliche’.
If your song is just a regurgitation of the same old stories told with the same old rhymes and cliched phrases, stuck in the same old melody… why would the listener get excited or moved? It’s like telling the same joke with the same punchline with the same delivery to a crowd that’s already heard it a hundred times. Don’t expect a big laugh. It’s just not going to happen.
4. Your song is too “inside.”
It’s great for a song to be very personal to you. But if you write it in a way that only you understand it, your audience will not be moved. You might know what you’re talking about, but if there’s not enough there for a listener to engage with and latch onto, they’ll just be frustrated, lost, or bored. Let the listener in on your inside joke!
5. Your song tells but doesn’t show.
Don’t just tell the listener you’re sad and expect them to be sad. Even if you show them tears in your eyes, don’t expect them to cry any of their own. Paint a picture of what made you so sad, and it’ll give the listener context and maybe something to relate to. And then they may be reaching for their own Kleenexes.
6. Your song’s melody doesn’t support its emotion.
If your song is supposed to be angry or resentful, but your melody, production, etc. is smooth and poppy… I’m not buying it (literally or figuratively). If your singer is singing about regret and heartache, but the melody feels like happy good times, I’m not buying it. It’s like mumbling a half-hearted, “I love you” or yelling “I’m sorry! Will you forgive me!?!?!?!” in an angry tone of voice. Or when a woman says, “nothing’s wrong, I’m FINE, okay?” in a tone of voice that tells you the opposite. You’re sending mixed emotional signals that cancel each other out or confuse the listener.
7. Your song idea is not emotional enough.
Is your song too “head” and not enough “heart?” Is your topic too trivial or just an interesting (but un-emotional) thought? You can write a song about how the square root of 49 is 7. That’s fine. But don’t expect anyone to laugh or cry when they hear it. Unless they REALLY hate math. So… me in 7th grade. Yep, 7th grade me would cry about a square root song, but that’s not a real big market.
If your songs don’t connect emotionally with the listener, the listener won’t connect financially with you. The heart is connected to the wallet.
Knowing simple things like this is how you write stronger, more commercial songs. And if that’s what you’re after, I have a great opportunity for you.
In the month of July 2019, I’m hosting a transformative online songwriting event called, “Building A Hit: From Blank Page To Finished Lyric.” In this powerful 4-week online workshop, I reveal:
How to find great song ideas. Kill writers block and fill up that blank page again and again.
How to focus your ideas for maximum impact. Don’t waste any more great ideas by leaving them under-developed or confusing.
How to frame your idea for maximum commercial appeal. Having a great, compelling idea isn’t enough. You have to build your song in a way that an artist will want to sing it and an audience will want to hear it.
How to finish your song. Stop leaving your best ideas unfinished. Nobody loves a song they never hear, and a song that’s only 99% finished will never get recorded, never get on the radio, and never change your life.
If you want to join me on a journey that will help you think and write like a pro songwriter, click on the link below. Spots are limited for this event, and I only host it twice a year. Miss out, and it’s gone for another 6 months. Don’t delay. Transform your songwriting today..
DON’T MISS OUT- CLICK HERE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS GREAT OPPORTUNITY.
God Bless and Enjoy the Journey,
Brent
Brent Baxter is a hit songwriter with cuts by Alan Jackson, Randy Travis, Lady Antebellum, Joe Nichols, Gord Bamford, Ruthie Collins, Ray Stevens, and more. He’s written a top 5 hit in the US, a #1 in Canada & a top 10 in Texas… so far.
Section 4, in general this could be right but I can say this, many of the great and famous songwriters such as Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan, have very deep and hidden meanings underlying within some of their songs. All along the watchtower is touching on the trap that is related to the US FEDERAL RESERVE banking system and its control over society through a hidden debt slavery system. It is a song about a foreign banking system that has been usurped into the society of the American people but done in such a way that only those very few who know will see the song for what it is really warning about. How did Jimmy know this? I don’t know but the hidden knowledge is within that song and probably hidden within many songs written by the most famous songwriters. In relation to a private corporate government administration system, speaking out against or revealing hidden information of a private corporation is illegal so this is why some songwriters try to reveal the secrets of dangerous private governments within a song that on the surface, may not mean much but to those that know, becomes a clue to the cracking of the systems. “All Along the Watchtower” is really a story about man trapped within a society that he has no idea how to be free, it gives the first impression of a prison but those who know can see that he is talking about those imprisoned within a society of debt by a system that has a hidden flaw, a hidden code, something that can only be cracked by those who know the code but without the knowledge of such a code, the people will remain trapped and enslaved within such a system until the grave. Sometimes the deep story hidden by the amazing colours that people like Jimmy Hendrix was able to do, created the perfect cross between such an incredible bit of music that also contained a hidden code.
All Along The Watchtower was written by Bob Dylan. I guess when I develop the poetical credibility of Dylan, I could bend some of these rules too.
Country music is the reciprocal of the hidden code…’though at times it uses metaphors as well. You might say…it wears its heart on its sleeve.
Here’s the problem with #3. Your song is too cliche’.
Most of the biggest pop songs of today are just regurgitation’s of the same old stories told with the same old rhymes and cliched phrases. It’s already proven that most pop songs today, also use the same old melody, so why is the anti-depression pill popping public still eating it up???
Good point, Mark. Pop does lean a lot more heavily on production than lyric and melody. Thing is, if you or I write something that cliche, it probably won’t fly – unless we’re inside the machine, very close to the project (writing with the artist or producer). And the production better be slammin’.
“Thing is, if you or I write something that cliche, it probably won’t fly – unless we’re inside the machine, very close to the project (writing with the artist or producer).“
– Brent, your statement above is the bottom line of the music business. My wife and I wrote a song a few years back that I sent to the Director of Music Operations for a major network. The Director loved the song and sent it to the producer of a very popular show. Some time had passed so I called the producer and asked him if he had a chance to listen to the song. He said he did, and he liked the song. He then said that they would have to pay us to use the song and they already have staff songwriters who they pay to write and they need to take care of their hired writers first. I thanked him for his time and consideration and we ended our conversation amenably. Maybe I could’ve negotiated some type of deal with him but I wasn’t prepared for his hired writers reply. Preparation for music business negotiations is just as important as learning how to write great songs.
Good point. We start as creative hobbyists. Making the transition to commercial endeavor, becoming a company engaging in commerce with other companies, is a whole new area of study we have to do.
I read John Baheney’s “The Craft and Business of Songwriting” years ago, before the industry had an earthquake, and found it more about the business than the craft, but enlightening.
Use of music in TV commercials, documentaries, movies is contracted for in Synchronization Licensing. TAXI.com is a company that has customers seeking music. I get their newsletter and sometimes read the specifications of what they’re looking for. They usually give three Songs as examples, and specify any other details. If you’re recording Broadcast Ready music you might want to explore their $300 membership (last time I checked), or occasional $200 specials.
If you still think your Song has potential you might explore other ‘consumers’. One Song ‘out there’ can generate interest in other Songs, and the ‘one’ Song can get reused over time, generating income.