Is Your Songwriting Inspiration-Dependent? by Kapa Freeman Talent may be keeping you from your songwriting goals, but not in the way you think. There's an idea in the songwriting community that's really harmful. It's the idea that you have to have "talent" to write songs that people love. I know, because I used to think that too. It was crippling. When you run into negative feedback on your songs, you feel like you should quit because you "Just don't have the gift.". We get this idea because hit songwriters make it look so easy, but watch any documentary on a hit songwriter's life and you'll see how many bad songs came before their good ones... and how many drafts went into the classic ones. Talent can actually be a songwriter's handicap if it's not combined with skill. The talent-only songwriter essentially relies on inspiration to give them songs that people connect with, but inspiration can be a crutch... a pretty unreliable crutch...

Writing Lyrics You Can Feel by Kapa Freeman Do you want to write song lyrics that people can feel? Here's a trick from one of my favorite CCM songwriters. Thank Matthew West for this one. One of his more recent songs, "Truth Be Told" really pulls the heart strings. He gets this effect by using a technique that I call "Imagery pairs.".  Before I get into how to make one, let me show you why they make lyrics so easy to feel. People are hardwired to connect more with visual lyrics. Why? It's simply human nature. If you want someone to feel something, you can't just tell them about it. They have to experience it for themselves. And if you want them to experience it for themselves, they have to SEE it for themselves. It's one thing to tell someone that their words hurt you. It's another thing to tell them: "You stabbed me in the heart with a sentence!" So, the more visual, the more emotional impact, but there is a drawback. Sometimes lyrics ...

Choruses That Grab Attention by Kapa Freeman Do you want to start your choruses with a bang? Grab their attention at the start? Just like Lauren Daigle.   Lauren Daigle made Billboard history with her song "You Say." It was at the top of the Hot Christian Charts for a record 100 weeks. Part of what makes the song work so well is how the chorus starts. She starts by repeating the same note and rhythm. That's it. No, seriously...that's the whole technique. "You say I am loved..." "You," "Say" and "I" are all the exact same note and the exact same length. This technique is used in lots of other #1 Songs, in different styles of music, and different time periods. Sometimes it's a repetition of the note, but the rhythm changes. Sometimes it's a repetition of the rhythm, but the melody changes. But one thing is certain... Back to back repetition at the beginning of a chorus is a great way to make a song people love. Songs like ...

John Mayer's Secret to Writing Catchy Song Lyrics by Kapa Freeman  Why are John Mayer's song lyrics so easy to remember? It comes down to human psychology. I am notoriously bad at remembering song lyrics, except for John Mayer's Songs. Other artists may write a song I remember here or there, but John Mayer does it consistently. Why? I discovered the reason when I was working full-time as a teacher. Teachers can always tell when they're losing students. When those eyes start to glaze over, when that one eyebrow raises in confusion and someone yells out... "I don't get it!"  I got those a lot when I first started teaching. Talking to other teachers, I soon discovered why. I was giving too much information at once. I would vomit these elaborate explanations, thinking that more information would help clear things up... But they just got confused. Talking to my teachers reminded me of lessons I'd learned while getting my teaching degree:  "People remem...