If songwriting has always seemed like something only ‘real musicians’ do - (yep, often musicians don’t put themselves in that category unless they’re Pros) - then you’re about to get a shock.

In this article & video, I’ll be addressing some of the most common ‘excuses’ that I hear for why people think they can’t or shouldn’t or won’t write their own original songs.

watch the video or keep reading below.

Here are 15 reasons musicians think that they shouldn’t be writing songs – and how you can FLIP that mind-frame!

“I’ve only just started playing piano” - great, you can JUST START writing songs as a reward for all the hard work you’re doing!
“I’ve never even thought about writing a song” - well hopefully after today you will think about it!
“I don’t have anything to write about” (!!! NO way) - what’s it like being you? What was your first thought when you woke up this morning? What’s your favourite thing in the world, or the thing that is your pet peeve? There are so many things about you that are both unique and something people can relate to - write about those things.
“I don’t have a creative bone in my body” – nonsense. Think of creativity as simply making choices when there are many. Songwriting has all the possibilities in the world, so there are a LOT of options to choose from and each choice that you make is part of your unique creativity!
‘I don’t know enough about theory’ - in the course ‘The Keys to Songwriting’, I’ll teach you what you need to know to get started writing songs. You don’t need to know the entire world of music theory to get started on your first basic song.
‘I’m not a lyrics person’ - very few people can come up with great lyrics straight away - it’s a process. Start with a conversation you’ve had, or a journal entry - any way that you can get what you want to say out, then we use a process to craft that story into song lyrics.
‘I wouldn’t want anyone to hear it’ – they don’t have to! Writing a song is a valuable process, even if you never show it to anyone.
‘I’m not feeling inspired’ - that’s because you’re not looking for it, you need to hunt inspiration down!
‘I don’t know where to start’. Start with whichever comes most naturally to you - got an idea for a melody? Start there. Got an idea for the story you will tell? Go there first. Love chord progressions? Begin here. If you’ve got nothing to start with (what I call ‘inspiration nuggets’) then again, I’m going to show you in this course.
‘I don’t have time, it will take too long.’ - it can take as short or as long as you want to spend on it. Yes if you are crafting the best song of your life it will take some time, and some rewrites, but if you are just getting your first song, your first dozen songs out on paper, it doesn’t take as long as you think because we’re not aiming for perfect, we’re aiming for done.
‘Everything I write turns out cheesy / cliche / pastiche’ - of course it will, you can’t expect to be completely original without working at it. The best artists steal or borrow and make it their own. As you write more, you’ll discover more of your preferences, the things that you enjoy putting together, the things that work and are to your tastes, then you will start to carve out your own personal writing style.
I can only ever come up with small bits, but never a whole song. - in the course you learn the ‘rules of songwriting’ so that you can take a small nugget of inspiration and turn it into a full song using songwriting tools.
‘I’m intimidated by the myth of the ’ten-minute’ song’ and knowing that a song has never ‘just come’ to you, therefore you must not be a chosen one. It is intimidating that some artists can write a hit song in 10 or 15 minutes, but those artists had to spend years and years honing their craft before that was possible. Those type of songs are rare and not the norm. You will work hard at the songs you write, but that just means that when it’s done you can feel all the more proud of finishing it.
‘I’m overwhelmed’ - If you’re thinking that it’s going to take days, months, years just to put a full song together, then yes, there are a few elements to a song. But when you use the process outlined in my course and work through the step by step workbook, you’re going to see just how easily a song comes together when we break it down into manageable steps - the Piano Picnic way!
‘I’ll do it when I’m better at piano’.. You could do that - but even if you wait till you’re an advanced pianists, you’ll still have to start from the beginning as a Songwriter - it’s not like being a great technical pianist means you also get a free pass as an amazing songwriter! You have to work at this skill too! And the catch 22 is that if you start writing songs now, you will become a better pianist as a result!