Nashville is the heart of country music. It's where all country writers aspire to be and all legends love to come back to.
Here are some exercises to strengthen your country songwriting craft!
1. Go outside and look at your surroundings. Find inspiration in the simplicity of life by writing about things that make us all human. Country songs have a way of sounding like a simple thought when in fact there are layers upon layers of metaphorical thought and emotion. Write about the parts of life that make us all human. They are often the most relatable songs.
2. Find a cowriter who is already strong in their country songwriting. Hanging around people who are better than you at the craft you are practicing often leads you to challenge yourself. Challenging yourself produces more thought behind your creations!
3. Go to a country show. Watch how the artist sings the songs and pay attention to the songs they seem to resonate more with. Write songs like that! Pay attention to certain melodic structures and clever hooks.
4. Stop confining yourself to a structure! Hit songs become classics because listeners and fans are craving something they haven't experienced yet. Sticking too closely to a structure can sometime defeat your strongest creative notions.
5. Give yourself a dedicated schedule to write by. For example, Mondays can be country days. Tuesdays are for pop. Wednesday is for finishing songs from the 2 days before. Allow yourself space between the genres and the days you write so you will be able to think clearly and write specifically for one or the other.
