Songwriting Tools - The Listener

Songwriting tools and songwriting tips and tricks need to show the song-writer how to ask what's in it for the listener. Learn how a great songwriter focuses on the listener, all the greatest songwriters do this.

I think Ralph Murphy is correct when he says we should ask ourselves these three questions. What’s in it for the listener? What’s in it for the listener? What’s in it for the listener?

Believe it or not I think a song is like “sales copy” to a marketer. It needs to be focused and have a pitch that hooks the intended audience. So a songwriter must know who the audience is.

When writing every song we need to ask these questions. Are we engaging the listener? Who are we having a conversation with? What are we trying to say to them? Are we saying it as if it was a one on one focused interesting conversation that they will have an emotional stake in?

Knowing who our audience is when we write a song gives us a huge advantage. We know who we are talking to so we know how to talk to them in their own language.

To most beginner songwriters writing a song is about building more and more tools and techniques with no focused structure or starting point.

Hooks, pre-choruses, turn arounds, intros, outros, etc. We can make up our own list of all the stuff that we’ve thrown into our disorganized toolkit.

They’re all valuable but they don’t put the puzzle together quickly. It’s said in Nashville that a new songwriter can expect it to take five years to learn to write marketable songs. Some people do it faster and some never get there.

So check your assumptions and engage the listener and develop a strong songwriting principle. If you've ever been stuck in your songwriting and you're prepared to do the work to really find a out, heres a way to do.