Category Archives: Write Like A Pro

WordPlay, Write Like A Pro

Wordplay Thursday #181

12 Comments

Welcome to Wordplay Thursday!

I was up till midnight last night working on my taxes, so let’s run with that for this week’s writing prompt.  It’s not a fill in the blank this time… more of a brainstorm.  It’s silly, but it’s an exercise.

“Our love is like tax season or taxes.”  or  “Her/His love is like taxes or paying my taxes.”

I’ll give you some examples to get you started:

“It always catches me by surprise.”  “It left me exhausted, angry and glad it was over.”

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 an inside look at the techniques I use to find song idea after song idea- ideas that YOU can use, too- I have just thing for you!

CLICK HERE TO FIND GREAT SONG IDEAS!

God Bless and Enjoy the Journey,

Brent

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

The C.L.I.M.B. #59: One Word Can Kill Your Song

Leave a comment

This week on The C.L.I.M.B.: Brent & Johnny discuss how just ONE line in your song can wreck it’s chances for success.  These “one-line cut-killers” are sneaky!  You might already have some of them hiding out in your songs and not even know it.  We’re gonna help you identify them… so you can kill them before they kill your song!

The C.L.I.M.B. Podcast Episodes 59 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)

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN ON THE C.L.I.M.B. WEBSITE

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!The CLIMB iTunes review 3

CLICK HERE TO LEAVE AN iTUNES REVIEW

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

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

TheCLIMBshow.com

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

Stitcher

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.

Write Like A Pro

Here’s How ONE Line Can Cause Your Song To Fail

2 Comments

Wanna know how just ONE LINE in your song can really mess up its chances for success?  Here are a few ways…

____________________

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

_________________________________

As you may know, each line in your song is important.  Every line needs to be “on point.”  Every line needs to point to the central idea, theme, and vibe of your song.  Every line needs to pull its weight.  Each line has a job to do.

And sometimes, one single line can mess up your song’s chance to get recorded or connect with your listener.

And I’m not talking about, “Oh, this line or that line was off-topic or was a little confusing.”  Sure, those are things to be avoided because they DO hurt your song.  But I’m talking about a few other types of lines…

The Cornerstone / Stumbling Block

It’s a mistake to make one line of your song TOO important.  “If the listener misses this one line, they’ll get lost,” is a dangerous way to write.  Don’t hang too much of the weight of your song on one line.  Sadly, you can’t expect too much of the listener’s attention.

Listeners usually won’t give your song their full, undivided attention.

I write EXPECTING that the listener will zone out on at least a line or two while they get/send a text, honk at a bad driver, or get some notification on their phone.  If that text comes during that ONE LINE they have to “get” or they won’t “get” your song… they won’t “get” your song!  What you built to be the cornerstone of your song just became a stumbling block to your listener.

And this doesn’t have to be the line that provides “the big surprise twist ending.”  It can be a line in the first verse that sets up that the singer is a single mom.  Or is in prison.  Or just got his heart broken.  Whatever it is.  Don’t hang too much on one line.  Pepper that information throughout your song.

The Wait-For-It Line

This one usually IS the twist, surprise or otherwise killer line where you think, “if the listener will just listen until we get to THAT line (usually in the 2nd verse or bridge), I’ve got ’em!”  Well, I hate to tell you… they probably won’t stick around.

The danger with a Wait-For-It Line is that you CAN’T make the listener wait for it.  Every line needs to keep the listener’s attention.  You can’t put clichés throughout the lyric, expecting the Wait-For-It line to save your song.  The listener will tune out (literally or figuratively) before the line ever gets there.

Keep the listener’s attention with EVERY line.

The Crossed-That Line

This will really depend on your genre, but your song can be chugging along just fine, making the A&R person bob his head and tap his pencil, when all of a sudden you drop an F-bomb that has to be an F-bomb because it’s the rhyme, or you say something really negative about women, or something else that is a cut-killer. (Again, depending on genre.)

Another example of this is when a happy love song has a line that reveals that the singer is a parent or a grandparent.  Nothing wrong with this, but it limits which artists can sing it.  It might even be very important that the singer BE a parent or grandparent.  But just realize the tradeoffs involved.

Those are a few cut-killing and connection-killing lines.  Do you have a few more that you’d like to add?  Have you put some cut-killing lines in your songs (admit it- we all have).  I’d love to hear from you.  Leave a comment!

If you want YOUR songs to be more “cut/able” (able to be cut) then you should definitely check out my new, expanded and upgraded version of “Cut/able: Lessons In Market Smart Songwriting.” Its five powerful lessons will help you write songs that artists want to sing, radio wants to play, and listeners want to hear! CLICK HERE TO WRITE CUT/ABLE SONGS.

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 and a #1 in Canada… so far.

WordPlay, Write Like A Pro

Wordplay Thursday #180

14 Comments

Welcome to Wordplay Thursday!

“Her shoulder’s as cold as __________.”

Here’s a writing prompt for you. It’s a simple fill-in-the-blank. You can use one word or several. Feel free to get as crazy, genre-appropriate, or as imaginative as you want. The point is to get the creative juices flowing. And it’s a good thing to dig deeper, so don’t stop at the first idea that hits you. Try coming up with at least five things- and try to get IMAGERY in at least one of your plays!

“Her shoulder’s as cold as  ___________.”

I’ll give you an example to get you started:

“Her shoulder’s as cold as her side of the bed”

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 an inside look at the techniques I use to find song idea after song idea- ideas that YOU can use, too- I have just thing for you!

CLICK HERE TO FIND GREAT SONG IDEAS!

God Bless and Enjoy the Journey,

Brent

WordPlay, Write Like A Pro

Wordplay Thursday #179

9 Comments

Welcome to Wordplay Thursday!

“A dream is __________.”

Here’s a writing prompt for you. It’s a simple fill-in-the-blank. You can use one word or several. Feel free to get as crazy, genre-appropriate, or as imaginative as you want. The point is to get the creative juices flowing. And it’s a good thing to dig deeper, so don’t stop at the first idea that hits you. Try coming up with at least five things- and try to get IMAGERY in at least one of your plays!

“A dream is  ___________.”

I’ll give you an example to get you started:

“A dream is that song in your head that keeps you up later than the moon and gets you out of bed earlier than the sun.

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 an inside look at the techniques I use to find song idea after song idea- ideas that YOU can use, too- I have just thing for you!

CLICK HERE TO FIND GREAT SONG IDEAS!

God Bless and Enjoy the Journey,

Brent

Cut/able Songwriting, Write Like A Pro

Cut/able Songwriting: Dierks Bentley & “Black”

2 Comments

So… how do you write a song with a negative-sounding title, and make it a positive, sexy love song?  Well, you write it like Dierks Bentley’s “Black.”

Let’s look at some of the songwriting lessons that make “Black” a cut/able song.

____________________

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

_________________________________

Ok, I know what you may be thinking.  “Didn’t Dierks write that song himself?”  Well… yes.  He wrote the song with Ross Copperman and Ashley Gorley.  But that doesn’t change the fact that it still made the record- and the radio.

I’m sure Dierks doesn’t cut everything he writes.  So “Black” still had to compete- even if was just against other songs he wrote.  There are valuable songwriting lessons to be learned here.  So let’s look at a few.

The song puts a positive spin on a negative phrase.

If a cowriter brought in the phrase “make the world go black,” where would your mind immediately go?  Probably somewhere dark.  (ba-dum-dum!)  That phrase has a negative connotation- slipping into oblivion, passing out, and even dying.

A potential angle would be something like “I want to stop thinking about her blue eyes, that red dress… I’m gonna sit here and drink till the world goes black.”  And that could work just fine.  It could be pretty cool.  But ya know what?

A song with a positive spin… usually gets more spins.

The writers went to the next level, did the extra work, and took the song to a positive, sexy place.  Much more commercial!

The song bridges the confusion gap.

“Black” has a twisty idea (the world going black = good instead of bad).  This means the listener might get lost.  So Bentley and crew just came right out and said what they mean in the bridge: “I don’t wanna see a thing, I just wanna feel your touch.”  They even said it twice to make sure you got it!  This makes it clear that it’s not so much that Dierks doesn’t want to see her, but that he really wants to focus on another of his senses – the sense of touch.

If you confuse, you lose.

This song bridges that gap, so the listener is less likely to be confused.

The song’s images are right on point.

The imagery in the song points to either “black” (the dress on the floor) or the sense of touch (“brush me with your hair,” “find your fingertips, trace them back to your lips”).  Is the “brush” in “brush me with your hair” a paintbrush-with-black-paint reference?  I like to think so.  And some of the images pull double-spins.  “Heart attack” and “put me flat on my back” usually mean bad things.  Here, they mean very good things!

These are a few of the elements that make “Black” a cut/able song. If you want YOUR songs to be more “cut/able” (able to be cut) then you should definitely check out my new, expanded and upgraded version of “Cut/able: Lessons In Market Smart Songwriting.” Its five powerful lessons will help you write songs that artists want to sing, radio wants to play, and listeners want to hear! CLICK HERE TO WRITE CUT/ABLE SONGS.

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 and a #1 in Canada… so far.

WordPlay, Write Like A Pro

Wordplay Thursday #178

15 Comments

Welcome to Wordplay Thursday!

“Jet lag hit me like __________.”

Here’s a writing prompt for you. It’s a simple fill-in-the-blank. You can use one word or several. Feel free to get as crazy, genre-appropriate, or as imaginative as you want. The point is to get the creative juices flowing. And it’s a good thing to dig deeper, so don’t stop at the first idea that hits you. Try coming up with at least five things- and try to get IMAGERY in at least one of your plays!

“Jet lag hit me like  ___________.”

I’ll give you an example to get you started:

“Jet lag hit me like a cast-iron skillet in the whiskeyed-up hand of an angry ex-wife.

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 an inside look at the techniques I use to find song idea after song idea- ideas that YOU can use, too- I have just thing for you!

CLICK HERE TO FIND GREAT SONG IDEAS!

God Bless and Enjoy the Journey,

Brent

Cut/able Songwriting, Write Like A Pro

Cut/able Songwriting: Eric Church & “Kill A Word”

3 Comments

So… how do you get a rough-around-the-edges rock ‘n roll country rebel to sing about “love and truth” and NOT be cheesy?  You write it like “Kill A Word.”

Let’s look at some of the songwriting lessons that make “Kill A Word” a cut/able song.

____________________

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

_________________________________

Ok, I know what you may be thinking.  “Didn’t Eric Church write that song himself?”  Well… yes.  He wrote the song with Jeff Hyde and Luke Dick.  But that doesn’t change the fact that it still made the record- and the radio.

I’m sure Church doesn’t cut everything he writes.  So “Kill A Word” still had to compete- even if was just against other songs Church wrote.  There are valuable songwriting lessons to be learned here.  So let’s look at a few.

The song is in Eric’s neighborhood.

Eric Church is NOT a hippie.  He’s shown no sign of being the sit-in-a-circle-and-sing-kumbaya type of artist.  He isn’t a sissy, and his ideal fan isn’t, either.  So how does he build a song that is pro love-and-truth in a way that fits him and his fans?

His solution is to sing about love in the most violent terms you’ll hear on country radio this year.

He’s not a dreamy-eyed pansy handing out daisies.  No, he’s seen the ugly in this world, and he’s had enough.  He’s mad as hell.  He wants to take all the bad, drag it out back and put a bullet in it.  That fits his artistic brand.

Not every artist could (or would) cut this song- and that’s alright.  Different artists have different styles.  This angle and execution (pun intended) wouldn’t work for everyone, but it sure works for Church.

The song fills one of his G.A.P.S.

Every artist has G.A.P.S. in his or her catalog – (areas of opportunity in Growth, Achievement, Preaching/Positioning, Songwriting).  These are slots the artist hasn’t yet filled with a song.  “Kill A Word” fills G.A.P.S. by being NOT about love, NOT about music, and NOT about being a rebel or outsider.  It’s a topic he hasn’t really covered before, but it still makes sense for him as an artist.  It allows him to grow into a new space as an artist.  It adds some depth to his persona and to his catalog.

The song shows you what can’t be seen.

Country music is a very visual genre.  We like to “see” our songs when we hear them.  But how do you talk about fear, hate, regret, etc. and still give us imagery?

The songwriters chose to show us the various methods of execution!

Yes, it’s all metaphorical, but I still see teeth flying and bare hands around a neck.  Yes, those are dark images, but they’re very engaging and memorable.  They found a way to “show” us thing we can’t see directly (lies, hate, etc.).

These are a few of the elements that make “Kill A Word” a more cut/able song. If you’re ready to dive into concepts like an artist’s “Neighborhood” and “G.A.P.S.” – if you want your songs to be more “cut/able” (able to be cut) then you should definitely check out my new, expanded and upgraded version of “Cut/able: Lessons In Market Smart Songwriting.” Its five powerful lessons will help you write songs that artists want to sing, radio wants to play, and listeners want to hear! CLICK HERE TO WRITE CUT/ABLE SONGS.

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 and a #1 in Canada… so far.

WordPlay, Write Like A Pro

Wordplay Thursday #177

15 Comments

Welcome to Wordplay Thursday!

“Loyal is __________.”

Here’s a writing prompt for you. It’s a simple fill-in-the-blank. You can use one word or several. Feel free to get as crazy, genre-appropriate, or as imaginative as you want. The point is to get the creative juices flowing. And it’s a good thing to dig deeper, so don’t stop at the first idea that hits you. Try coming up with at least five things- and try to get IMAGERY in at least one of your plays!

“Loyal is  ___________.”

I’ll give you an example to get you started:

“Loyal is a husband unfriending that flirty girl on Facebook.

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 an inside look at the techniques I use to find song idea after song idea- ideas that YOU can use, too- I have just thing for you!

CLICK HERE TO FIND GREAT SONG IDEAS!

God Bless and Enjoy the Journey,

Brent

WordPlay, Write Like A Pro

Wordplay Thursday #176

13 Comments

Welcome to Wordplay Thursday!

“Heartache is __________.”

Here’s a writing prompt for you. It’s a simple fill-in-the-blank. You can use one word or several. Feel free to get as crazy, genre-appropriate, or as imaginative as you want. The point is to get the creative juices flowing. And it’s a good thing to dig deeper, so don’t stop at the first idea that hits you. Try coming up with at least five things- and try to get IMAGERY in at least one of your plays!

“Heartache is  ___________.”

I’ll give you an example to get you started:

“Heartache is a chest full of broken glass.

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 an inside look at the techniques I use to find song idea after song idea- ideas that YOU can use, too- I have just thing for you!

CLICK HERE TO FIND GREAT SONG IDEAS!

God Bless and Enjoy the Journey,

Brent