In working with songwriters (and tracking my own development) I’ve noticed something about writers who are improving, writing more songs that are consistently good. They understand how important it is to Get The Big Things Right. Yes, everything in a song is important, everything matters… but some things matter more than others.

What the ‘big things’ are varies from song to song – that’s why it’s an art and a craft, not a formula. I’ve written a lot of other posts about specifically what these ‘big’ elements might be. But whatever they might be in a particular case, seeing the big picture really matters.

Having this perspective can help in any song – What’s in the foreground, the focal point? What fills out the picture? What’s background? What’s the frame?

There are masterpieces – songs where it feels like the writer(s) got everything right. But there are many less well-written but still tremendously enjoyable songs. I can find shortcomings in them, yes, but they still work. In fact they can sometimes give me more pleasure than the arguably more perfect songs. Why? Because they got at least some of the big things right. Really right. I’ll forgive a lot for that!

In my songs, I do my best to get everything right (whatever ‘right’ is… it’s a feel thing). But the reality is that sometimes (often) I can’t pull everything together and the song has loose ends that I can’t pull in. That doesn’t necessarily mean the song isn’t potent. Most great songs, books, movies, etc. are not ‘perfect’. But if one can figure out, instinctively or logically, what the most important ideas are, and if those ideas are strong, very powerful work can still be the result.

Try thinking about this when you’re working on something new… What’s the big idea? What’s most important? And see what happens if you let the proportions and balances within the song flow from thinking about those questions.

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