Songwriting Teams Dos and Don’ts

Songwriting teams need to work well together. Make yourself and your songwriting partner or songwriting group as physically and emotionally comfortable during the session. It’s not a therapy session but the emotional comfort will take time as you develop you relationship.

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In song collaboration you need to be yourself. Let your skills and creativity show your value as a songwriter. In the long run that’s what's really important.

Don’t put on airs or get caught up trying to impress your songwriting teams. I know when you first meet you will want to appear credible. That’s ok, just don’t make up something that you can’t deliver on.

Just like in a date you need to take the time to get to know each other and define your relationship. Talk to each other about what’s going on in your lives.

This is great material to find a topic for a song that you can be passionate about. Don’t force a song topic. Keep talking with your songwriter eyes and ears wide open waiting for something to start with.

Treat the session like a important meeting. Talk about how much time you have and when you have to leave. Talk about future meetings and when you are available.

Talk about how you want to deal with distractions like phones and cell phones. Remember you just have to agree on what you are going to do.

Treat co-writing appointments with songwriting teams with the same respect you would attending or being on time for any other meeting. Before you leave the session organize what you are going to do next for this song or another one and carry through on it.

Don’t be afraid to talk about your strengths. Of course you should do this without bragging. For example if you’re better at big ideas, lyrics, chords or melody get it out on the table and use each other’s strengths. The same is true for weaknesses. You won’t be able to hide them for long.

Better to get them out on the table and build a song around them. Encourage your co-writer to do the same. You’re looking to create something bigger than the sum of the parts.

Set out your expectations on splitting the credit and any royalties. Also talk about joint decision making on any songs you create. Probe your co-writers and see what their expectations are. They may or may not have thought about it and may not understand the issues.

Go slow and don’t start writing until you’ve had this conversation. This is where you can talk about a Co-Writes Agreement if any of you feels you need one. It doesn’t have to be written but you do need to understand clearly who is getting credit for what and how you will jointly make decisions.

You are in a songwriting partnership so don’t make decisions about the song or change the song without your songwriting teams involvement and agreement.

Basically don’t work on the song unless they are around or you have agreed to do it in advance. Once you’ve established a working relationship and talked about joint expectations things will become more clear.

Propose all changes to your partners and don’t just make the changes and then try to convince your partners later. Put yourself in their shoes. How would you like them doing that to a song? It also doesn’t hurt to think up an idea or two before getting to the session that you can suggest if you need to.

You must agree on all parts of your co-written song and all of you should love every line. If you don’t all love it try and find a better one. The line you don’t like may be one you partner loves, so treat the line with respect even if it doesn’t work for you.

Keep the word NO out of the session. I’m not saying roll over and accept things that don’t work. Instead try suggesting something that works better for you.

Even if you can’t think of something there is no harm in saying you would like to come back to it later and see if a different line or word works better. Use positive constructive suggestions to build a better song.

I was at a songwriting session Chuck Cannon was giving and he said that when he writes with Jeffrey Steele they often end up writing more than one song at the same time. When they decide a line might fit better in a different song they start writing it right then and there.

Sound a little chaotic? Maybe, but these guys are some of the best songwriters around and if it works for them, it might work for you. I haven’t tried it but if I did, I’d want to be very organized.

Save all your deletions. You never know it might be a perfect line for another song. Maybe it’s inspiration for the next great song your write together.

Keep a song folder or if you write on a computer, save all of your song versions by adding a version number to the end of the file name. I use MasterWriter songwriting software because it works perfectly for this.

In Nashville the songwriting teams usually split the royalty equally among whoever is in the room working on the co-write. This simplifies the arrangement. Who’s to say a small contribution didn’t lead to a big idea that lifts the song above where it might otherwise been. Ideas can snowball.

Don’t take a part of the co-written song and later start using it to write another song with someone else. This even applies to deletions. The safest thing to do is to check with your songwriting teams. They might not have any problem with it but they deserve the courtesy of being consulted.

If you’re going to have costs for a song critique or demo etc. get your co-writer’s agreement on the payment arrangements. You should do this before you make commitments on your own.

Most of all, try to find a way to enjoy your songwriting teams in every session. Now let’s move on to how co-writing can lift your songwriting to a new level.