Good point. I hadn’t thought about it quite that way. 🙂

Thanks again, Ellen!

Hi Tony

You are right about getting songs outside of one’s own head. I really miss your classes!

(If any one is reading this and thinking of taking Tony’s songwriting classes, I know that’s one sure-fire way to get songs finished!)

Thanks, Ellen! I do think the time can come when it’s hard to take things any further on one’s own… when playing it for a friend, songwriting group, band, producer, an audience, etc., can really help… not that someone else always has the answer but just to get it outside and see what feels right – or not.
I do think it can be helpful to put it aside for a while. Getting some distance can help. Other than when I get one of those infrequent ‘gifts’, where it just comes together fast, I almost always write in fits and starts, dribs and drabs… sometimes it adds up to something; sometimes not.

Great blog! I think it’s really helpful. For me, this is the hardest part of writing a song, unless it’s one of those very few (in my case) songs that seems to fall out of the sky.

Sometimes, I think I rewrite the life right out of a song. Then, maybe it’s a good idea to put it away for a while? What do you think?

For me, the “tweaking” turns to “rewriting” and sometimes to an entirely new song…not a bad thing, necessarily. But sometimes it just turns into a sterile mess. Maybe I haven’t figured out how to listen to the song.