Next month, September 2024, we celebrate 10 years of I Heart Songwriting Club. 10 years of helping people become better songwriters through regular practice, skill building, and a beautiful feedback cycle within a meaningful peer community space. Thousands of songwriters and tens of thousands of songs later, we think we have a pretty good handle on understanding the needs of songwriters.

In a recent workshop I ran for a group of writers who were not yet part of the Club, the question of confidence came up. The people in the room told me that they lacked confidence in their songwriting. So I asked them to write the answer to this question on a sheet of paper: What do you think you need to become a more confident songwriter?

They had a choice to throw this piece of paper in the bin or anonymously share their answer with the group. Here is what the 30 people who chose to share it with the group said (some responses were doubled up, so we didn’t repeat them in this list):

What songwriters think they need to become more confident songwriters?

Responses from real songwriters: 

• More pride in my own individual, unique story 
• Structure 
• Passion, care, love 
• Knowing where / how to start 
• Always thinking my songs are too simple 
• The ability to see through my ideas – stick with them, and make something of them
• Starting point 
• Less fear of vulnerability 
• Give myself more time to create 
• Being more playful 
• Lyric ideas
• Practice 
• Technology knowledge 
• Creative ideas free-flowing 
• Writing more songs 
• Knowing the right words to use 
• Freeing up my voice 
• To be able to find an interesting melody 
• Specific strategies 
• Feedback 
• Others sharing/singing my work

Reading this list back, I could have offered solutions to each of these points, which may or may not have been helpful to those in the room. And who knows whether they had sought solutions themselves or not. But it’s more likely that they had not asked themselves this question before.

I acknowledged the courage it took to look within and see the limitations around their creativity. Only when we’re aware of where we’re really at can we choose to move forward effectively. But is confidence what we’re really after? 

Surely internationally recognised songwriters are confident…

I always speak with songwriters—beginners, established, and even internationally recognised songwriters. You might be surprised to hear that the level of songwriting experience doesn’t assume confidence in the writer. For this reason, I want to turn the conversation away from the need to feel confident about songwriting to being reflective, courageous, and proactively taking the next steps forward.

When I started the Club, I was not a confident songwriter. I was creatively blocked, had hundreds of unfinished ideas, put off finishing songs, and was terrified of writing. It was not confidence that started the Club but the desperation to get my songwriting back on track. It was courage and a seed of belief that maybe I could be a better songwriter.

Writing over 500 songs in 500 weeks, I have experienced far more confidence in 10 years of weekly writing than ever, but I don’t always feel confident. Sometimes, I forget that I can write a song. I genuinely don’t believe I can do it. I have doubts that I can write anything that I like. The difference is I still show up every week to write, and that doubt is pretty quickly put to rest because the skill of writing so many songs kicks in, and I end up writing a song. In that moment, I remember, I can do this. That’s the step forward, isn’t it? To overcome the current block and keep moving forward.

Confidence isn’t really the goal, is it?

When people say, “I want to be more confident in my writing”, I want to dig deeper and ask what they really want. Do you want to feel more joyous? Do you want to build skills? Do you want to develop your melody writing? Do you want to write more songs that you are proud of? Do you want to know when your song is finished? Do you want to feel more connected to other songwriters? Do you want feedback on your songs?

Dig deeper and ask yourself what you really want. Keep going until you can identify what’s important to you. Then ask yourself, what’s the very next thing you can do towards that? Then just go and do that.

What courage makes possible

When you’re choosing to be courageous to take your next steps, you’re going to see results from that activity. That could be a finished song, feeling stronger in your lyric writing, new production skills, feedback on your songs, or a set list of new music that you can play at a gig.

Over time, those small steps forward start to shape a career.

People who aren’t musicians and songwriters only see the big picture. They don’t see the tiny steps forward and the courage that each artist and songwriter had to take to get where they are. 

Solutions

If we go back to the above list of what songwriters think they need to become more confident, most, if not all, of those limitations would be dissolved if those songwriters wrote songs more consistently.

Consistency doesn’t mean you need to quit your day job and write all day, every day. Even one hour a week would make a mammoth difference over time. That’s exactly what I did. One hour of songwriting every week for 10 years. 

If you are thinking, what can I possibly achieve in one hour a week? Then think about how you have achieved other things in life in one hour a week – cleaning your house, going to the gym, gardening, learning a language. A lot of growth can happen in one hour a week, especially over a year, over 10 years…

If you’d like to start becoming a better songwriter and want some help writing one song a week, come and join us in The Club.