If you can't create without inspiration, then you have no control over your creative life

Imagine you're in a funk-rock band whose drummer often fails to show up for rehearsals and gigs. That would be an intolerable situation, because all the bands' efforts come to nothing if the drummer isn't there to perform.

Though it might be painful for the band to admit it, you'd actually be better off rehearsing and performing without the drummer. Sadly, that probably means doing a different, less propulsive style of music. In the music world, professional doesn't mean "louder and flashier," it means that you showed up on time and did what you said you were going to do.

In much the same way, if your creative work depends on inspiration showing up, you're in trouble. Inspiration is not a reliable partner. Sure, you've done some amazing things when inspiration showed up, but you should also have some way to work even when inspiration is nowhere to be found.

It's easier to do this if you don't try to compete with your own best work. Just aim to create something simple that convincingly fills its space. As a songwriter, you can always put stock chord progressions together with standard beats and craft some competent rhyming couplets. You can tinker with the results and patch up any weak spots. And if the song still fails, you can throw it out and start over as many times as you need to.

You don't need inspiration to practice your songwriting craft. Sure, your results will be more modest and the work will move more slowly without the help of inspiration. It doesn't mean you've failed as an artist. It means that you're a professional, and you're showing up and doing the gig no matter what.

If you make inspiration feel welcome, it will visit you more often

All of us dream every night, even though most of us remember our dreams only occasionally, and some people never remember any of their dreams. Similarly, inspiration is potentially available to all of us every day, but most of us remain uninspired most of the time.

There is a well-established technique for remembering more of your dreams. If you pay attention to your dreams, treat them as something important, and write down the dreams you remember, you will soon remember more dreams in more vivid detail. Even people who don't remember their dreams can get this process started by starting a dream journal and writing down any fleeting images or emotional tones that they wake up with, just on the chance that those impressions might be from a dream.

Just by paying attention to your dreams and treating them as important, you can quickly increase the number of dreams you remember.

If you want to have more inspiration in your life, one way to do it is to keep an inspiration journal. Make note of anything that even vaguely smells like inspiration. Write down ideas that tickle your fancy. Record any thoughts that start with "Wouldn't it be cool if..."

It's important to understand that writing down an idea is not a commitment to follow through on it. There will always be too many ideas and too little time. And it's just as important not to send away any inspiration just because it isn't practical.

For example, if after seeing the movie "Up" you think "Wouldn't it be cool if a rock band's tour bus were carried from city to city by helium balloons?" don't dismiss that thought because the engineering is impractical and your band isn't ready to tour anyway. You don't have to invent a new flying machine -- just acknowledge the inspiration in some way, perhaps by drawing a little sketch of the flying bus in your journal.

If you accept and acknowledge every bit of inspiration that comes your way, you will soon be visited by more inspirations, bigger and better ones, and some of them will be practical ideas that help solve your specific problems.

Online resources: Songwriting challenge

The Songwriting Scene blog has issued a seasonal songwriting challenge. Write a seasonal or holiday song, and compare your results with other songwriters who took up the challenge. See the details at Songwriting Scene.

It would be ironic for me to enter this challenge personally—I've written so many holiday songs, it might as well be my day job. But this is a good kind of exercise, because you always learn something by seeing how other songwriters responded to the same assignment.

Sobering Truth: People don't trust their own musical taste

Many people don't trust their own ears when deciding what music they like. Some carefully-staged scientific experiments have confirmed this unfortunate fact. People rely largely on external cues — for example, if other people seem to like the song, or if the artist is on a respected record label.

Separately, an overwhelming body of anecdotes confirms that even the people who are paid to exercise their musical judgment — people whose decisions could directly affect your own musical career — mostly don't trust their own ears either. They also largely rely on external cues.

As a songwriter or musical artist, you must learn to trust your own ears. If you can't find the courage to have an independent opinion, who can? More importantly, without confidence in your own musical tastes, you won't be able to create anything new and powerful.

If you want to have a career in creating music, it's important for you to realize that "creating unique, better-quality music" is not a realistic business plan. Creating better music is only Step 1. You need to plan to put just as much or more effort into Step 2, to work on those external cues that will help people (both fans and music insiders) see you as successful and thus decide that they like your music.

Many musicians find it distasteful to work on marketing, branding, promo, and the other elements of Step 2. Remember, this stuff is necessary only if you want to build a career; if you just want to make music, you can skip it.

But there is one external cue that is completely under your control, and there's no reason for you not to master it. I'm talking about your own attitude about your own music.

Your confidence and enthusasm for your own music makes more difference than you might realize. If people sense that you like your song a lot, they're more apt to like it themselves. Conversely, if your performance is tentative and apologetic, your audience will be underwhelmed. If you aren't sure about your own song, why should they stick their neck out and like it?

So make sure that you are writing songs that you can perform with confidence and enthusiasm. Write about subjects that light you up.

When you practice performing your songs, don't just practice the words and notes. Also practice your confidence and enthusiasm. Success begins as an attitude inside yourself, and, like so many other things, it too improves with practice.

Free Songwriting Lessons

Over the next few years, I will reveal, in this blog, every secret of rock songwriting. I'll cover everything you need to know to write whatever kind of songs you want to write.

Note: I use the word secret loosely. There are no secrets in songwriting, because anything that actually matters is clearly audible to the listening audience. If it's audible, it's not a secret: you can measure it, define it, and imitate it. And if it isn't audible, it doesn't matter.

I'll explain how you can write songs that are guaranteed to please your audience.

Note: There are no secrets to this process either. After I explain it all, you'll say "well, duh!" Yes, you use this stuff already in other areas of your life, and there's no reason not to use it in your songwriting life too.

I will reveal hundreds of clever songwriting techniques — which is massive overkill. No one needs that many different techniques in their toolbox. But I believe that each one of these techniques is needed by someone out there. So don't sweat over trying to pick up the whole huge body of techniques. Just collect a handful of them that you find useful.

I will of course cover the nuts-and-bolts of chords, melodies, structure, lyrics, and the writing process.

All for free!

There should be no mysteries in songwriting. I often compare songwriting to playing guitar. If you want to play guitar, you can get lessons, books, videos, magazines, software, and if you want to be a great player it's all up to you to practice, practice, practice. Same thing with songwriting, except there's rather a shortage of helpful teachers, books, videos, magazines, and software. The shortage of clear information makes it seem as though songwriting is mysterious. But it's not. Songwriting is something anyone can learn, and, same as any other skill, it's up to you to practice, practice, practice.

So stick around! Bookmark this blog. Better yet, become a follower of the blog. That's your visible way of lending me encouragement, and like all creative people I need encouragement at least now and then. Tell your musical friends! Post questions and comments. Let's see how this all shakes out.

The adventure "officially" starts on Wednesday.