Many years ago, when I was playing and producing other people’s songs and not my own (now I do both), I was in the band of a great songwriter, Billy Mernit (now an author, teacher, and expert on romantic comedy films – look here). He’s still a friend. Back then he did me a big favor.

We were discussing songs and songwriting, and the subject of writing Bridges came up. Billy said something like, “I love writing Bridges; it’s fun. It’s like a little vacation in your song.”

This stuck with me and I’ve rarely had trouble writing a Bridge since. For me they’re fun… just like Billy said. The power of suggestion.

On the other side, when I was a teenager and I first tried writing a song or two, my efforts weren’t met with much enthusiasm. This lack of enthusiasm was deserved based on the quality of my teen songs (I was not a prodigy), but I was left with the feeling that I probably didn’t have much talent as a songwriter.

Though… most people’s first attempts at writing a song don’t produce masterpieces.

It took me many years to commit to write songs that were as good as I could make them, whatever my talent level. Had it been suggested to me back then that I might turn into a decent songwriter, or even that writing songs was fun (like Billy’s Bridges), who knows how that would’ve affected me?

The Power Of Suggestion… to create what becomes a Preconceived Notion.

I see this a lot in my Songwriting Workshops and working with songwriters individually. Most of us have ideas in our heads, usually planted somewhere way back in the past, about our own writing; ideas like, ‘I’m just bad at writing Choruses’, ‘My rhyming is no good’, and of course, ‘Writing Bridges is hard for me.’

Many times these preconceived notions are simply not true. (When I point that out – even to myself! – I’m often met with some resistance.) Sometimes a negative assessment may be accurate… we all have weak areas. But being ‘bad’ at something can mean that a particular aspect just doesn’t come naturally… which does not mean you’re sentenced to be bad at it forever.

Weak spots in one’s game can be worked on and improved, sometimes to the point where the former weak spot becomes a strength.

Just because somebody said something to me once, or even more than once, about my writing doesn’t mean they were and are still correct. It’s worth examining what my preconceived notions are, especially the negative ones (which so often seem to carry more weight than positive ones).

Am I really bad at something? Maybe, maybe not. If I am, I can focus on it and get better.

A preconceived notion doesn’t have to be a life sentence. It’s usually just an idea that got into my head… I believed it at the time… and never bothered to reexamine it.

This brings me to what may be the most dangerous preconceived notions of all: That because improving may require more time and energy (sometimes known as work) than I’d like, that the challenge of getting better can’t be fun, an enjoyable experience.

And that if I’m not good at something right away (whether it be one song or a whole career path), it means I don’t have enough talent and should quit.

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