Many musicians struggle with composing their own material.

 Listen to the interview below to gain strategies for starting, and finishing, more of your own musical compositions.

In the first of a two-part interview, I sat down with my former colleague at Berklee College of Music, Mark Simos, to discuss the strategies featured in his book Songwriting Strategies: A 360-Degree Approach. 

Our conversation includes:

• The 360-degree approach
• “Song Seeds” – how to capture a short idea and grow it into a complete composition
• Translating song seeds across variations in lyric, melody, rhythm, and harmony
• Using different forms of restraint to enhance your creativity
• These strategies apply to writing tunes and songs in all genres and can also help improvisers. 

Learn more about the 360-degree songwriting approach at Mark’s website www.360songwriting.com.

Here are several clips of presentations that Mark has given on songwriting:

• Rowe Conference Center Workshop
• Songwriting of Hazel Dickens Part 1
• Songwriting of Hazel Dickens Part 2

Clips in this episode

• “Nahatlatch” – by Mark Simos with Jenna Moynihan and Mairi Chaimbeul
• Bach Partita No.3 in E major – performed by Itzhak Perlman

• “Postlude” – by Christian Howes, from his 2016 release on Resonance Records, “American Spirit“