Quotes About Songwriting

Of course, you can't teach songwriting. You can only encourage people to do it and help them to sort out for themselves what they want to achieve, and get a list of exercises together that improves the craft and gives them more access to the craft of writing good songs.

I always was songwriting in high school, writing songs while I was supposed to be listening to the teacher.

Recovery stabilized me; songwriting gave me a purpose.

Songwriting is what I do, and there could be worse burdens to carry.

I think I'm better at songwriting now, and it does come easier. I have faith in my initial instincts.

I love songwriting, and rap is part of my songwriting, but I'm not a rapper.

Some people see Jermaine Dupri as a producer, and they don't really know what the songwriting skills are.

I lived in Nashville for about five years. It was almost like me going to college for my craft. I immersed myself in the songwriting community there. They embraced me, and I made some real friends but also learned so much.

Songwriters often seek the company of fellow songwriters to help finish what they've started, and these days, many do it at songwriting camps.

A lot of bands are influenced by other bands, and that informs their songwriting for sure. It definitely informs my songwriting, too. But it's more about not thinking about it, and if it comes out of you, it's better.

As a creative individual, I really go out of my way to avoid the corporate scene in terms of songwriting. If the first question is how much money is it going to make, I'm going to be in trouble anyway.

I'm grateful to songwriting and recovery to bringing me to a place of peace.

All of my acoustic playing came from my songwriting. All of the chords I've learned and all of the voicings I play them in are a direct result of composing.

I've always wanted to sing and to be an entertainer. After high school, I moved from New Orleans to Los Angeles and started songwriting. But I didn't really get serious until then.

I remember when I started writing lyrics, I was very grand. I tried to use a lot of symbols,because I thought that's how songwriting should be - with imagery and metaphor. I figured, after a while, maybe I should just write it as I would say in real life.

I started quite late. I only discovered that I could write a song when I was, like, 17... some musicians, they're starting out, writing songs when they're, like, 12, 13. I never thought I would go into songwriting when I was that young.

The songwriting did come naturally; it really did. Like Joe said, the first song we ever wrote together was the song that got us signed, you know, so it was either luck, fate, or something in between.

What I do is I really enjoy and appreciate the challenge of songwriting and singing and performing and just being really, really grateful at all times. Also, I have no fear or problems with saying no and setting boundaries, you know, with the label, with my management.

I bought a Three Dog Night album when I was pretty young, and I remember listening to all those songs. That's just greatly crafted songwriting, and the songs have such great harmonies. I remember marveling over those and trying to figure them out on piano. That was my early education - figuring out records, older records, as a kid.

I take songwriting very seriously and I wouldn't want anything I do to be construed as frivolous or mundane.

I wrote 'No Words' and 'Mull of Kintyre' with help from Paul. He was always like a big brother to me and a strong influence on my songwriting.

Basically, I'm just a guitar player that figured out I wasn't ever gonna be able to buy dinner with my guitar playing. So I got into songwriting, which is a little more profitable business.

That's the nice thing about songwriting: You don't have to punch a clock or be in a specific place to do it. There's really a lot of freedom to it.

I sing and play guitar, but songwriting is how I pay my rent. And so I didn't really need a lot of publicity to get people to record the songs.