by Andrew Hughes
January 25th, 2026

Have you ever been in a recording situation and not known what direction to take a song? Likewise, you may be stuck writing a song and not know how to finish it. In these situations there is usually a straightforward solution. But what if you looked at the situation from a new angle? That’s where Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies come in.

Brian Eno is a trailblazing recording artist and producer who has worked with artists ranging from Talking Heads and David Bowie to Coldplay and U2. He was a member of Roxy Music before starting a solo career in the mid-1970s, and is well-known for innovating a genre now well-known as ambient music. In that world, the writer of this article highly recommends Ambient 1: Music For Airports, but Another Green World is a perfect example of how Eno approaches the genres of pop and rock.

When the average songwriter looks at someone as accomplished as Eno, they’re likely to compare themselves unfavorably to him. We here at SAMI don’t recommend that. What we can do, though, is learn something from Eno’s life and career. Like us, he has been stuck in recording and songwriting situations, and he came up with an interesting solution.

In 1975, Eno collaborated with Peter Schmidt to create a deck of cards with a range of unusual statements they called Oblique Strategies. The idea is, you take out the cards when you’re in this “stuck” situation, shuffle them, and pick a few out until you get an idea of what direction to go in. Eno goes in further detail in this segment taken from an episode of BBC Click:

Eno’s website describes how the set is intended “to help artists, musicians, writers, and creatives break through mental roadblocks and approach their work from fresh, unexpected angles.”

The Oblique Strategies have appeared in several editions over the decades, and you can purchase your own set on Eno’s website. Alternatively, you can consult free alternatives online. This free online version shows you one of the prompts as you open the page, and you can click to show a new one.

For example, as I open the page right now, I see the following prompt: “Emphasize repetitions.” This makes me think of how I could use dynamics (e.g, getting louder) or structure to make the listener focus on my chorus or hook. The statements in the set can be quite direct (“Use an old idea”) or more abstract (“Towards the insignificant”). You may not end up using whatever you come up with, but you’re sure to think of a different approach after consulting the Oblique Strategies. 

Finally, if nothing else, the first listener has a treasure trove of discoveries ahead of them should they choose to explore Eno's discography in further detail. As a postscript to this article, I can recommend the aforementioned albums, in addition to Eno's work with Robert Fripp, Harold Budd, and David Byrne, not to mention the lovely Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks.

by Andrew Hughes
December 15th, 2025

If you’re a member of SAMI, you’ve probably developed your own process over a period of years that is your own. You may realize that every song is a little different, but that certain tricks have worked for you and others have not.

I don’t know about any of my fellow songwriters, but when I started out, I yearned for instruction from my idols. As someone who benefits from step-by-step instructions, I was disappointed to learn how abstract songwriting is, and how difficult it can be to explain.

This month’s article, called “Songwriters on Songwriting”, is an attempt to provide a framework for talking about songwriting. The more we’re talking about it, the more we’re thinking about it, and hopefully, the more we’re writing our own songs to record, perform live, or simply share at our monthly meeting.

For our subject I’ve chosen perhaps my favorite living songwriter, though it’s difficult to separate him from his former writing partner John Lennon. Here’s a quote from Paul McCartney:

“There’s a whole process to learning songwriting, but it’s different for different people. For me, the first thing was to copy other people, like Buddy Holly and Little Richard - and Elvis, who I later heard, didn’t even write his own songs. It meant memorizing their songs, learning the standards of early rock and roll, but in my early to mid-teens it occurred to me to try writing my own. I’d start off with the very simplest idea, and I’d see what came out.” (McCartney and Muldoon, xii)

This quote is a good starting point for us to move forward with, but before we do that, it’s worth giving some background information on who our subject is.
 

Background

James Paul McCartney was born on June 18, 1942 in Liverpool, England. He was raised in a working-class family; his mother was a nurse and his father was a cotton salesman. Paul grew up surrounded by music, with his mother whistling in the kitchen and his father playing old jazz tunes on the piano. Listening to his father play, he says, “was an education, listening to all these examples of rhythm, melody, and harmony” (xvii).

On his fourteenth birthday, Paul received a trumpet from his father. However, as he puts it, “it became clear to me fairly quickly that you couldn’t sing with a trumpet in your mouth” (Miles, 21). So, he traded in the trumpet for a Zenith 17, an acoustic guitar. His first song, written around this time, was called “I Lost My Little Girl”. He didn’t make the connection at the time, but having lost his mother to breast cancer in the fall of 1956, he noted later the song “is a very direct response to the death of my mother” (McCartney and Muldoon, 234).

In July of 1957, Paul met John Lennon, who had also picked up the guitar and started writing songs of his own. Paul soon joined John’s skiffle group, The Quarry Men. Over time the group would solidify its lineup, change its name to The Beatles, and learn countless cover songs, while also writing originals here and there. This gets at Paul’s previous reference to “learning the standards of early rock and roll,” which provided him the framework for his own compositions.
 

Success

The rest, of course, is history. To make a long story short, The Beatles got a record deal in 1962 and found great success in Britain the following year, eventually breaking out in America with the single release of “I Want To Hold Your Hand”.

In those early years of success, Paul says The Beatles “realised we suddenly had an eager audience. So at first we were writing with this audience, mainly young girls, in mind.” Over time, however, “we became aware that we could take songwriting in other directions…which meant writing songs for ourselves” (xiii).

The band’s unprecedented success opened new possibilities in the realm of songwriting, as Paul explains: “Of course, we had to maintain a delicate balance between the songs that interested us personally and those that played to the fans, but the more we experimented, the more it became apparent that we could go just about anywhere, which meant a more creative direction” (xiii). It also helped that, after the Beatles stopped touring in the summer of 1966, they were no longer concerned with arranging their songs conveniently for live performances.
 

What Can We Learn?

From everything we’ve discussed so far, there are a few interesting takeaways. For one, it’s clear that Paul’s upbringing had a profound effect on his musical approach, and he admits as much: “Many of my songs are based on people I knew in and around Liverpool,” particularly his parents (xv).

Paul gathered much of his material by observing his surroundings, even before he realized he was doing it. “I really fancied myself as an artist”, he says. “I was preparing” (Miles, 42). He would have made a habit of making mental notes at a young age, saving his observations for a later date when the song called for it. We see this in songs like “Eleanor Rigby”, “Penny Lane”, and “Mother Nature’s Son”, where Paul paints a vivid picture of a place based on somewhere he’s been before.

Along these lines, it’s clear that Paul’s openness to experience has shaped his personality: “We were never told at home that you shalt not do this, you shalt not do that…so when I matured and was able to put my own thoughts and feelings into songs, I drew from this foundation” (McCartney and Muldoon, xv). He has commented over the years on how the meanings of his songs have evolved to the extent that his subconscious may have inserted something in a song without his intending to.

One example is the aforementioned “Eleanor Rigby”, which Paul wrote in 1966 based on a woman he knew in Liverpool. At first he made up the name Miss Daisy Hawkins, but over time came to the final name with this same habit of observation we’ve already discussed. Years later, Paul learned of a grave marker near St. Peter’s Church in the neighborhood of Woolton, where he and John met and spent time together. Further down on the marker is the name Eleanor Rigby.

Paul recalls getting the name of Eleanor from Eleanor Bron, whom the Beatles worked with, and Rigby from a shop in Bristol, which he was visiting to see his girlfriend who was working there. “It is possible that I saw it and subconsciously remembered it,” he says, but it could also be a coincidence. It’s impossible to say for sure, but these little moments can give our projects new meaning. Paul’s openness to these moments is definitely something we can learn from.

We could easily reserve an entire article for how Paul’s work was enhanced by his creative partnership with John Lennon, and how John, in turn, enhanced Paul’s work. However, my intention here was to explore how we as individuals think about songwriting, as we don’t always have collaborators available. Let’s close with one final quote from Paul:

“Over time I came to see each new song as a puzzle. It would illuminate something that was important in my life at that moment, though the meanings are not always obvious on the surface. Fans or readers, or even critics, who really want to learn more about my life should read my lyrics, which might reveal more than any single book about The Beatles could do” (xiii).

This quote sheds light on the value that songwriting, or any creative work, can have for each of us. It helps us understand the world and ourselves. It can be very personal, but sometimes the most personal works of ours can be the most satisfying to finish and share with the world. As someone who has learned a lot about songwriting from Paul McCartney, I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment of this quote.
 

Sources

McCartney, Paul, and Paul Muldoon. The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present. Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2021.

Miles, Barry. Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now. H. Holt, 1998.

by Andrew Hughes
November 13, 2025

In each of these articles, our goal is to provide a way forward for stuck songwriters. By exploring different perspectives on approaching the craft, we will continue thinking creatively, which better prepares us to cross those hurdles. This was especially relevant in last month’s article, which focused on how to work with the inner critic rather than give in to it.

This month we’re sharing a video from a series by Clay Mills and Marty Dodson, who created SongTown to teach songwriters how to navigate the music business and submit their songs to artists active in the industry.

Both Mills and Dodson have each written thousands of songs performed by major artists, several of which became #1 pop, rock, and country hits in the 2000s and 2010s. They have since transitioned to teaching by establishing SongTown, where they offer courses, song feedback, and more.

To be clear, this article is not an advertisement for SongTown’s platform. The purpose of this article is not to sell you on their memberships, so we won’t be exploring those in detail.

The video is worth watching just for an idea of how two industry songwriters approach their work. It is also representative of what their video series and podcast is like, which you can glean based on a few titles: “How To Crush Self-Doubt As A Songwriter”, “Organize Your Songwriting Ideas, Titles & Melodies Like A Pro!”, and “5 Things Amateur Songwriters Worry About (That Pros Don’t!)”

Early in the video, Clay Mills clarifies his view on the advice he and Marty give in their videos: “I never approach any of this as rules people have to follow. These are all just tools, and you’ve got to use the right tools for the job.”

It makes sense that we songwriters look for rules. We are creating something out of nothing, a very abstract process that is at times challenging, surprising, and rewarding. With so many possible outcomes out there, having limits can help us narrow down a goal for ourselves.

However, when we tell ourselves the song has to contain three verses, a catchy chorus and a bridge all within the space of three minutes, for example, we miss opportunities to improvise and try something different.

Mills and Dodson go on to offer a few examples of so-called rules that they like to break themselves, which you can learn more about by watching the video yourself! SongTown’s videos are also available in audio form as the SongTown on Songwriting Podcast, which you can check out on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

by Andrew Hughes
October 20th, 2025

At our recent Keep Looking Up: Songwriting Retreat, we gave each attendee a copy of SongC.R.A.F.T. — Writing Songs In Your Authentic Voice, a book co-written by Nancy Beaudette and Laura Zucker. We hoped this gift would continue to reward its readers well beyond the retreat itself, whether or not the event gave them additional inspiration to create.

Each letter in CRAFT represents an actionable step for songwriters to take on their respective journeys. The first section, then, is about calming the critic. We songwriters know that we can get in our own way during the creative process. However, rather than silencing that voice, which plays an important role in that process, the authors discuss how to work with this inner critic in a healthy way.

This will be our primary focus today. What is a specific step anyone can take to develop a healthy relationship with that voice? By working with our critic rather than arguing with it, we hope to offer guidance to those songwriters who are irreconcilably stuck.

Journal

The main suggestion offered in this section of the book is to adopt a daily writing practice. The authors recommend setting an alarm in the morning to allow ten to fifteen additional minutes to write whatever comes to mind. They insist that the exercise is not meant to be “artful”, and that there is “no wrong way” to do this exercise[1]. This helps us keep the critic at bay.

The authors call this practice Morning Pages, which comes from Julia Cameron’s 1992 book The Artist’s Way. In such a short time it is unlikely you will fill three pages, as Cameron herself recommends. However, one individual with decades of morning pages behind them suggests that, while it seems hard at first, eventually the pages will go by in no time [2].

If getting up early is a dealbreaker for you, then choose a different time of day. We are likely to be healthier, happier, and have an improved memory if we write regularly [3]. So why not reap some of those benefits, even if that means writing in the afternoon or late at night?

What matters here is that you get in the habit of using your creative skills. There is more than one way of doing this, though. Here are a couple tried and true alternatives that keep the creative cogs moving when the critic in our heads is loud.

Keep a pile

Even as many of us songwriters wait for new ideas to come to us, we conveniently ignore all the unfinished ideas waiting to be worked out. On page 13, Beaudette and Zucker write about keeping “the fertile songwriter part of us” awake, which allows us to “capture our best work when inspiration does strike.”

In an ideal scenario, we will follow through with the ideas that come right away. In practice, as we all know, we often end up with fragments that end up in a pile somewhere. Rather than view this as a weakness, though, why don’t we view it as a strength?

Having a stockpile of ideas is helpful when we’re stuck. You may find that the idea you’re working on sounds like a chorus for a verse you’ve been sitting on. It can also be a challenge to finally work out that song after all this time, which builds your confidence as you see it through.

The other advantage is that you will always have something in your back pocket when you feel stuck. You will never be in the situation of having nothing to work with when you can go back to an idea from a few years ago and remember how you performed it.

Whether these ideas live on the phone via voice memos, in a notebook, on a computer, or all of the above, they serve as excellent springboards for our next creative work.

Write the Song Anyway

This suggestion may seem obvious given what we’ve already discussed. You may be thinking that you would have done that already if you felt able to.

Granted, it’s easier said than done. But it’s worth thinking about what stops us from finishing those ideas we’ve stockpiled in the first place. Beaudette and Zucker write: “Fear is the adversary of creativity, but the angst is fueled by our own thoughts.”

We can make the mistake of assuming that every song we finish will be recorded or performed to a live audience. Even if this were the case, there’s no reason we can’t make changes in the future. But if we question this assumption, we can free ourselves from the obligation to make our songs sound a certain way.

Think of your favorite songwriter. Consider how many songs they’ve written that you’ve never heard, because the songs weren’t “good enough”? We will not always be up to the task of writing to our standard at all times. So, if we have to write below our standard, at least we’re keeping the inner songwriter awake. And who knows? You may borrow ideas from a “bad song” later on.

Conclusion

What we’ve discussed here is only a fraction of what you’ll learn as you read SongCRAFT. Rather than summarize the entire book, we instead encourage you to pick up a copy for yourself, or if it’s already sitting on your shelf, to give it a shot! Alternatively, if you’ve read the book before, we hope this helped to solidify some of the ideas in your memory.

Sources

Beaudette, Nancy and Zucker, Laura. SongC.R.A.F.T. Writing Songs In Your Authentic Voice. Moonlit Pond Records/Left Food Forward Productions, 2018.

Kate. “Morning Pages: An Excerpt from The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.” The Creative Revolution, https://creativerevolution.io/morning-pages-an-excerpt-from-the-artists-way-by-julia-cameron/

Smith, Cecil M. "The Benefits of Writing." Northern Illinois University, https://www.niu.edu/language-literacy/_pdf/the-benefits-of-writing.pdf