Songwriting Pro

The C.L.I.M.B. stands for “Creating Leverage In The Music Business,” and that’s the goal of this podcast- to help singers, indie artists and songwriters like YOU to create leverage in the music business. What is leverage? It’s “strategic advantage; the power to act effectively.” We want to help YOU make stuff happen in the music biz.

It’s exciting to see how folks are digging the show- and being helped on their CLIMB. If YOU like it, we’d really appreciate it if you’d subscribe and leave a rating or review on iTunes. Positive ratings and reviews help us to climb the iTunes rankings so more people become aware of the show and we can help more singers, songwriters, and indie artists like you make The CLIMB!

If you aren’t on iTunes, you can listen to the show at our website:

If you have an Android phone, you can subscribe to the show on:

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT FRETTIE!

Thanks for your time. It means a lot to me, and hopefully it’ll be a lot of help for you!

God Bless and keep C.L.I.M.B.ing,

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 and a #1 in Canada… so far.

Muse, Think Like A Pro

Is Your Spouse Jealous Of Your Songwriting?

September 18, 2017 Brent Baxter 10 Comments

I love my wife. I’ve loved her since shortly after I met her. But I also love songwriting- and I’ve loved songwriting LONGER. I don’t know if I’ve ever loved songwriting more than I love her… but I know for sure that she’s sometimes FELT like I love it more.

I hope you won’t make this same mistake.

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To BE a pro, you need to THINK like a pro, and this FREE ebook will help transform your thinking, your songwriting, and your success. Get it today!

Click Here For The Book

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My wife, Emily, knew she was marrying a songwriter. “Monday Morning Church” had just been a hit single for Alan Jackson when we met through her brother, my roommate and a fellow songwriter. She knew I was a songwriter, but there was no way she knew what all came with that. Honestly, neither did I.

I’m not ready to confess all the painful details, but let me just say I’ve wounded my wife a lot over the years, and songwriting has usually been the blade.

I’ve let songwriting carry me away from her too much. From days in the writing room to nights in the home office or at showcases to just being gone in my mind when I should’ve been fully present with her and/or our children.

Why was I gone so much?

Fear, partly. Songwriting is a a very, very competitive business, and there is ALWAYS more you can be doing. Couple that fear with a lack of faith – faith that God is in charge of my success, not me – and you have the perfect recipe for workaholism. Add in the fact that I love love love songwriting, and it’s even easier to get sucked in.

And when this priority imbalance leads to hurt feelings and conflict, where have I usually turned? To more work and songwriting. Music is my alcohol. Songwriting is my drug.

Songwriting has been my affair. And my wife has rightfully felt cheated.

I’m not sharing this post to air my dirty laundry. It’s embarrassing, honestly. I’m not the husband I promised I’d be. Thankfully, God has enough grace to cover me, and He’s doing the (painful) work of making me more like Christ. He has a long way to go, just for the record.

I’m writing this blog post because I want to spare you and your spouse from making these same mistakes and causing or feeling the same hurts.

Songwriting is NOT more important than your marriage.

You didn’t stand in front of God, family and friends and vow to be faithful to songwriting “till death do us part.” You made the promise to your husband or wife, not to music.

Take some time today to really be honest with yourself. Have you been unfaithful? Have you been cheating on your spouse with music? Go ask your husband or wife if they feel cheated. You might not like the answer. But don’t go into defensive mode. Just shut up, listen and honestly consider what they have to say. It might be time for an apology. It might be time to take a break from writing bridges. It might be time to start rebuilding them instead.

Love is more valuable than love songs.

God Bless and Enjoy the Journey,

Brent

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To BE a pro, you need to THINK like a pro, and this FREE ebook will help transform your thinking, your songwriting, and your success. Get it today!

Click Here For The Book

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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 and a #1 in Canada… so far. SWP 4

WordPlay, Write Like A Pro

Wordplay Thursday #205

September 14, 2017 Brent Baxter 4 Comments

Welcome to Wordplay Thursday!

Here’s a line to get you started. Feel free to use it to start off YOUR song, then go back and change this original line up a little bit. After all, other people will be using this one, too!

“I just had a long talk- with a wooden box…“

I’d love to hear what you come up with, so please share in the comments. Oh, and please keep your posts below an R-rating. It’s a family show, after all!

Wordplay Thursday is a fun way to generate new song ideas- and who doesn’t need more song ideas? If you’d like MORE “creative kickstarters,” join the Frettie.com community today! In our private Facebook group, I share a handful of creative kickstarters every week. Plus, there’s plenty more cool stuff for Frettie members!

God Bless and Enjoy the Journey,

Brent

The C.L.I.M.B., Write Like A Pro

The C.L.I.M.B. #83: How To Make People Want To Hear Your Song

September 12, 2017 Brent Baxter Leave a comment

On today’s episode: Johnny and Brent discuss how YOU can make music industry pros WANT to hear your song- even if they don’t know you and you aren’t a hit songwriter… yet! If you’re a singer, songwriter or indie artist who wants to grow your career, THIS is the podcast for you!

The C.L.I.M.B. Podcast is live and ready for download!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE C.L.I.M.B. ON ITUNES

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE C.L.I.M.B. ON STITCHER (for Android)

If you aren’t on iTunes, you can listen to the show at our website:

If you have an Android phone, you can subscribe to the show on:

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT FRETTIE!

Thanks for your time. It means a lot to me, and hopefully it’ll be a lot of help for you!

God Bless and keep C.L.I.M.B.ing,

Brent

Uncategorized

Congrats To Our September 2017 “Play For A Publisher” Winners!

September 11, 2017 Brent Baxter 6 Comments

Congratulations to our newest “Play For Publisher” Top Ten songs and songwriters!

First of all, thank you to each of you who took a chance, took positive action, and submitted one or more songs to the “Play For Publisher” event with Dan Hodges of Dan Hodges Music. Ya’ll are just plain awesome.

Out of about 200 songs, it took a while to whittle it down to just 10. We have country songs, pop songs, cowrites, solo writes, male songs and female songs!

There were a lot of worthy songs sent in, and I felt bad about leaving so many out. If your song wasn’t chosen this time doesn’t mean that it isn’t a good song.

By the way, here’s a little about HOW I pick these songs. Brave, awesome songwriters like you sent in your song or songs. I downloaded them and listened in the truck- BEFORE I looked at who the writers are. I picked the Top 10 and On Hold songs, THEN I looked up who wrote them.

So these were picked based on the song, not on the songwriter. As a result… some folks got more than one in the Top 10 and On Hold. Congrats to them for doing good, consistent work.

You know, one time I turned a song in to my publisher, and they didn’t know what to do with it, so they didn’t want to do anything with it. My cowriters wanted to demo it, and the publisher said they wouldn’t pay for a demo.

The song was called, “Crickets,” and we got it cut by Joe Nichols. It’s the title track to his last album.

That’s right. The song my publisher wouldn’t even pay to demo got cut anyway. (My cowriters did an out-of-pocket guitar/vocal, and we pitched it ourselves.)

Welcome to Nashville. So while I listened to each and every song and did my best to pick the ones that have the best chance of catching Dan’s ear… I could be wrong. That’s just the way the music biz works. So if your song wasn’t selected, it doesn’t mean you should give up on it.

Okay, here are the Top Ten (in no particular order):

“One Man’s White Trash (Is Another Man’s Treasure” by Chloe Dolandis, Zach Ziskin

“Park It On The Water” by Donna King, Lee Black, Gina Boe, Riley Roth

“Hang Ten My Friend” by Pat Aureli, Danny Myrick

“The Boy That Once Was Me” by Sam Speirs

“Call Me Drunk” by Troy Castellano, Doug Folkins

“Kids In Love” by Jay Putty, Brian Donkers

“Fifth Of July” by Sarah Spencer, John Cirillo, Dan Reifsnyder

“I In Love” by Lynn Tessari, Terez Goblet

“Ugly Is The New Beautiful” by Jayne Sachs, Hattie Murdoch

“Takes” by Rob Harris, David Rivers, Todd Taylor

(The Songwriting Pro community would LOVE to hear your songs, so if you have a link you’d like to post to your “Top 10” song, please post it in the comments below!)

Congratulations! Dan and I look forward to hanging out with you on September 18. (In the days before the event, I’ll email the winners the instructions about the online meeting.)

Like I said, the 10 songs above aren’t the only good ones I had the pleasure of hearing. There are several more that were put “on hold” for the top 10 songs. This list could be quite a bit longer, but I’d like to spotlight a few of them, too. (Ya’ll feel free to link up your songs in the comments, too!)

“ON HOLD” songs…

“Devil You Know” by Mikalyn Hay, Bobby John, Murray Daigle

“GPS” by Donna King, Riley Roth, Brandon James

“Friday Groove” by Joe Sly, Emily Kroll, Donna King

“Pulling Strings” by Tom Glynn, Kelly McKay

“Magnetic” by Joe Slyzelia, Loralei Ells, John Stanislawski

“Tequila’d” by James Hoppe, Vanessa Welwyn

“Calling Your Bluff” by Lynn Tessari, Ben Woolley, Ajaye Jardine

“Beyond Repair” by Art Dickerson, Parker

“Scotland Whispering” by Sam Spears

“He Is Greater” by Josh Otten

These songs, along with others, were in there battling it out with the top 10, so be encouraged!

If you want to become a songwriting pro (in how you think, write songs or do business), then a great place to start is RIGHT HERE. I want to help you on your songwriting journey. I’ve been in the music business for years, and I’m here to help you get the cuts – and avoid the bruises. CLICK HERE TO START HERE.

God Bless and Enjoy the Journey,

Brent

WordPlay, Write Like A Pro

Wordplay Thursday #204

September 7, 2017 Brent Baxter 5 Comments

Welcome to Wordplay Thursday!

Here’s a line to get you started. Feel free to use it to start off YOUR song, then go back and change this original line up a little bit. After all, other people will be using this one, too!

“Buy me a drink…“

I’d love to hear what you come up with, so please share in the comments. Oh, and please keep your posts below an R-rating. It’s a family show, after all!

God Bless and Enjoy the Journey,

Brent

The C.L.I.M.B., Write Like A Pro

The C.L.I.M.B. #82: This Secret Will Transform Your Career

September 5, 2017 Brent Baxter Leave a comment

On today’s episode: Johnny and Brent share a secret that will help you move from music dream to a music career! If you’re a singer, songwriter or indie artist who wants to grow your career, THIS is the podcast for you!

The C.L.I.M.B. Podcast is live and ready for download!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE C.L.I.M.B. ON ITUNES

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE C.L.I.M.B. ON STITCHER (for Android)

If you aren’t on iTunes, you can listen to the show at our website:

If you have an Android phone, you can subscribe to the show on:

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT FRETTIE!

Thanks for your time. It means a lot to me, and hopefully it’ll be a lot of help for you!

God Bless and keep C.L.I.M.B.ing,

Brent

Write Like A Pro

The Easiest Way To Make The Music Industry WANT To Hear Your Song (Even If You’re Not A Hit Songwriter… Yet)

September 4, 2017 Brent Baxter 4 Comments

Artists, publishers and labels are under a daily avalanche of songs. Everybody is slinging song after song at them. So how do you stand out from all the other songwriters out there? How do you get the artist, publisher or label to actually WANT to listen to your song?

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To BE a pro, you need to THINK like a pro, and this FREE ebook will help transform your thinking, your songwriting, and your success. Get it today!

Click Here For The Book

_________________________________

If you’re a big hit songwriter with a proven track record, it’s not hard to get people excited about hearing your new song. They already expect it to be something special.

Personal recommendations from people the listener respects and trusts is another great way to get the listener excited about hearing your song.

But what if you aren’t a hit songwriter yet and you don’t have champions in the music biz recommending you yet? How do you get a music industry pro to pick YOUR song out of the stack?

Publishers, artists, and A&R representatives have heard thousands of songs. Your job is to bring them a song that gets their attention, make them sit up and say, “WOW!” How can you you do that before the listener even hears your song?

Write songs with interesting titles.

For example, there are two songs. One is called, “True Love.” The other is called, “Love And A Hand Grenade.” Which one are you more likely to listen to? Write titles that intrigue people!

If you can give the (music industry) listener an interesting title they haven’t already heard a hundred times, then you increase your odds of being the song picked out of their inbox full of mp3s and links.

Bottom line:

A great title gets your song “winning before it’s spinning.”

Dig deeper. Don’t just stop at the same old title. Your song might still be great, but the world may never know- if they don’t ever listen to it because it has a boring title.

If you think YOU’VE heard some variation of your title a bunch, it’s nowhere near as many times as publishers and artists have heard it. If you’ve heard 5 other songs with the same title as yours, publishers have probably heard 50 other songs with the same title as yours.

Dig deeper. You can do it. Don’t settle.

Here’s another thing to consider: if you write the same title as a hit songwriter… do you REALLY want to head to head with that writer? If it’s close, the hit writer will win. First off, the publisher will EXPECT the hit writer to write a better song. If it’s even close, the publisher or artist will give the hit writer the benefit of the doubt. They’ve earned it with their track record. And the publisher might know the hit writer personally, which is another advantage.

Secondly, the hit songwriter’s song probably IS better. There’s a reason they’re a hit songwriter, after all. I’m thankful that the title “Monday Morning Church” wasn’t also in Craig Wiseman’s hook book. His version of that song would’ve been great, had more “push,” and my version never would have seen the light of day, much less gone top 5.

Avoid the competition and comparison by writing more interesting and unique titles. “Only” is often better than “better.”

God Bless and Enjoy the Journey,

WordPlay, Write Like A Pro

Wordplay Thursday #203

August 31, 2017 Brent Baxter 8 Comments

Welcome to Wordplay Thursday!

Here’s a line to get you started. Feel free to use it to start off YOUR song, then go back and change this original line up a little bit. After all, other people will be using this one, too!

“She has a heart like Mars…“

I’d love to hear what you come up with, so please share in the comments. Oh, and please keep your posts below an R-rating. It’s a family show, after all!

God Bless and Enjoy the Journey,

Brent

The C.L.I.M.B., Write Like A Pro

The C.L.I.M.B. #81: Songwriting Advice From Hit Publishers

August 29, 2017 Brent Baxter Leave a comment

On today’s episode: Johnny and Brent share great, helpful songwriting advice from hit music publishers that will transform your career! If you’re a singer, songwriter or indie artist who wants to grow your career, THIS is the podcast for you!

The C.L.I.M.B. Podcast is live and ready for download!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE C.L.I.M.B. ON ITUNES

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE C.L.I.M.B. ON STITCHER (for Android)

If you aren’t on iTunes, you can listen to the show at our website:

If you have an Android phone, you can subscribe to the show on: