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Yesterday I took a class with Motown songwriter, Clay Drayton, and he offered up a great tip for coming up with song titles.

Next time you're in a conversation with someone, listen carefully to what they're saying. Don't just listen, but listen for titles. He had us do an exercise where we would speak to the person next to us for 2 minutes, while that person listened and wrote a list of all the titles they heard from the first person's conversation.

You'd be amazed by how many song ideas you can get from that. And once you have a title, you have a central focus for your chorus, which will get you going for your whole song as well... cool stuff. If you incorporate it into your every day life, you'll be flowing with ideas...

That sounds like a great idea. After all, when you get a great title, it makes the rest of the song fall in place a lot easier. The other day I was watching " Dog the Bounty Hunter " Just after he put one of the bad guys away , he was talking to the camera. He felt sorry for the guy because the criminal was going to be sent away for a long time away from his family. He said, I feel for that guy because he's " A Long Way From Home " I thought , that's a great title for a sad song. I did end up writing a song around it. Weather it's a great song is debatable, but it was easier to write because I had something to go on. It always helps to keep your ears open. Something as simple as " Call Me Maybe " You never know.

songmaster wrote:That sounds like a great idea. After all, when you get a great title, it makes the rest of the song fall in place a lot easier. The other day I was watching " Dog the Bounty Hunter " Just after he put one of the bad guys away , he was talking to the camera. He felt sorry for the guy because the criminal was going to be sent away for a long time away from his family. He said, I feel for that guy because he's " A Long Way From Home " I thought , that's a great title for a sad song. I did end up writing a song around it. Weather it's a great song is debatable, but it was easier to write because I had something to go on. It always helps to keep your ears open. Something as simple as " Call Me Maybe " You never know.

yeah - that's awesome. And think about how many of those titles and songs you'd come up with if you were constantly actively listening for them!

The solution can only be four-dimensional incremental concepts.

AnthonyCeseri wrote:Yesterday I took a class with Motown songwriter, Clay Drayton, and he offered up a great tip for coming up with song titles.

Next time you're in a conversation with someone, listen carefully to what they're saying. Don't just listen, but listen for titles. He had us do an exercise where we would speak to the person next to us for 2 minutes, while that person listened and wrote a list of all the titles they heard from the first person's conversation.

You'd be amazed by how many song ideas you can get from that. And once you have a title, you have a central focus for your chorus, which will get you going for your whole song as well... cool stuff. If you incorporate it into your every day life, you'll be flowing with ideas...

Excellent tip! Thanks for sharing it!

Suz

(Hmm. Song title: Thanks for sharing it. Oh, wait. That sounds like a Barney song . . . )