The Lyric Writer's Workroom

Songwriting tips, techniques, and ideas

What’s Your Songwriting Goal for 2011?

5057450362_d33e97d903_z by Aziz J HayatMatt Blick e-mailed me just after January 1st, asking what my songwriting goals are going to be over the coming year.

Hmm. What’d I accomplish in 2010?

  • Wrote ~150 songwriting articles for this website
  • Taught beginning guitar and songwriting classes
  • Publicly released one instrumental track
  • Performed a few gigs and open mics
  • Wrote maybe nine or ten songs

All that work, and I only released one track? And it didn’t even have any vocals?!

Here. Take this stick.

Ready? Got a good grip on it? Okay.

Now beat me with it.

I did have plans to release an album called A Game with Shifting Mirrors in 2010, but instead I began work on a songwriting eBook. I’m happy with that choice; I enjoy acquiring and sharing knowledge. By contrast, recording has always seemed like a chore. The problem is that I’ve become more of a scholar than a songwriter.

In 2011 I want to ship my music. I’ve been writing songs for about four years now—it’s time to start performing and recording my own work.

What about you? What’s your focus for 2011?

Related Articles

Join 4,011 Songwriting Subscribers

Get free songwriting tips and techniques via the Lyric Writer's Workroom blog, sent directly to your email inbox.

No charge, no spam, no filler.

Reader Interactions

Comments

    • Nicholas Tozier

      That’s a great goal! I hope you’ll let me know when you’ve got a complete song recorded. 🙂

      • Muse-in-Despair

        Yup, i sure will. By the way, i remembered that one joke i told people in the audience before the song. We were in a goth band and i went like: Two goths are going down the road and one says to another: “I just bought the new Love Like Blood CD.”
        The other says: “F__k me, a talking goth!” O_O

    • Nicholas Tozier

      Writing every day worked well for you last year, Matt! You got some great songs out the door.

      My immediate goal is to perform a song called “Lazy Angel” at an open mic next Thursday and record a simple demo of it. Once that’s done, I’ll set a new target and repeat the process.

  3. Rob Stevens

    Well, you asked for it, so I thought about it for a couple of days, and here is my humble list:
    – Learn to write better, personal, sharper lyrics.
    – Learn to do more with a guitar than just playing the rhythm.
    – Learn to record on a pc instead of on a multitrack.
    – Read more books and watch more classic movies for inspiration.
    – Travel more for inspiration.
    – Structure my ideas, sources of inspiration, etc. by making tagged blog posts.
    – Work less hours in my day job.
    – Write more in general (letters, stories).