I remember being asked what my secret is to writing great songs. And basically, it’s pretty simple… Just keep writing! Did I start off as a great songwriter? No way! If I were to show you my first (of a dozen +) song notebooks, you would pee yourself.

Granted, I was 13 years old at the time. But still, they are the corniest, most awful songs in the world (other than a precious few that God blessed me with that were waaayyy before their time). It’s been 10 years now since I started writing! (I cannot believe that). And look how far God has carried it all. (Amazing to me).

So there it is… nobody becomes a great songwriter overnight. Sure, you have to have some kind of God-given talent mixed in with it. But it’s like anything else… Talent alone will not make you great. Talent + hard work in cultivating that talent + a lot of time and maturity = great songwriting (substitute songwriting for just about ANY other talent).

A lot of people ask me how I go about writing my songs. Do I write the lyrics first and set them to music, or do I have the music first and then write lyrics to go along with it?

Basically, I simply pick up my guitar and start strumming and playing random chords, or I do some finger-picking. Then I just sort of start humming the melodies that come to my head. A lot of la-la-la / da-da-da’s. And before I know it, words take shape and I start getting a feel for what my heart is trying to say about the music I’m playing. Then I start writing.

A lot of times I write the chorus first, but not always. There have been a few songs, such as “Beside Still Waters,” where I had the verses all written for weeks and had to come back to the song to write the chorus later on. But most of the times I write the entire song in one sitting. It usually takes about 90 minutes or so.

I’ve almost got my new recording track list sorted out. I have 18 songs I’m looking to record over the next couple of months and I’m anxious to get them out to you guys. :-) I’ll begin recording the first song this Saturday and record and release them one at a time. It will be sort of like my “Saturdays” project where I released a song each week… but probably it will be more like every 3 weeks.

Failure… it is the thing that teaches us how to truly succeed! Take giraffes for example. When a baby giraffe is born and is first learning to walk, the mother repeatedly knocks the baby down. This is crucial to the newborn’s survival in the wild. It teaches the baby giraffe how to get back up. It is because of the mother’s love for its young that she knocks it down.

Similarly, it is because of our Father’s love for us that He allows us to fail. If we never fail, we will never learn how to get back up. You hear countless stories of successful entrepreneurs, and athletes, and musicians who failed at some point during their careers only to get back up and become even better because of it. It is part of life, and it is crucial not only to our survival, but to ensure our lives flourish both spiritually and materially. Embrace failure, for in hindsight you will understand why God allowed it.