One of the most disheartening things I hear from people who want to be songwriters is: “I can’t write songs because I’m not talented enough.” This breaks my heart. These people have a belief that they don’t have the talent to write songs.
Let’s talk about talent.
Growing up I was often told I was talented, “Francesca, you’re so talented. You’re a talented pianist, talented violinist, talented musician, singer…”. And in many ways, being a ‘talented’ child became a limitation for what I could do as an adult. Hear me out.
Because I was labelled as ‘talented’ by others, I believed that I could only do those things; that I was born with the skills to do that.
But the flip side of that same coin is, I believed that if I didn’t have talent in a certain area, then I couldn’t do that. It never crossed my mind that I could become someone who could do something that I wasn’t ‘talented’ at.
I believed I wasn’t talented enough to be a songwriter. I really struggled to write songs and I was really blocked and stuck and too fearful to share my work.
But I wanted nothing more than to be a songwriter.
Let’s cut a very long, 30-year story short – My belief about talent stopped me from being all that I wanted to be. Until…I woke up.
I must have had temporary amnesia for many years and completely forgot that I had spent 10 years practicing my violin for 1 hour every day, and my piano for 1 hour every day for 15 years. I wasn’t talented. I had LEARNT HOW TO DO THAT. I had become a good violinist and pianist.
Once I smashed that belief that I had to be talented to be good at something and once I realised that I could actually learn and grow, I was able to become the songwriter that I wanted to be.
Then I applied that to everything. I could become a guitarist, a songwriter who wrote in French language…. [insert anything you dream of here]
Now you might be thinking, well some people are naturally gifted at certain things…and, to a point, I agree – there are some people that seem to have natural abilities, innate gifts, an ease in the physical/mental coordination around certain activities – in the arts, in sports, academically.
We all have natural talents. Something we are more naturally “good at”. But why stop there? Why should we stop at our talents? We aren’t just our talents.
These naturally gifted souls you are thinking of, do you think they stop there? Of course not! They seek to expand themselves every day, to learn new skills and grow in other areas.
And it’s so simple. And you can have that too.
Create a practice to grow and become who you want to become.
This does not mean you need to quit your day job to become a songwriter. It can very simply look like having a practice around songwriting and committing to showing up every week. When you do that over time, things change. You will find an ease to that activity, a confidence, and over even more time, you will become a songwriter.
It also can be really helpful to get some tools to help you around songwriting. But simply start by realising that this is not about talent. It’s about showing up and getting skilled up, leveling up to be doing the thing that you want to be doing.
And anybody can learn this and anybody can grow in this area. It’s simply about you showing up and giving it a go. Consistently.
Create a practice to grow as a songwriter.
So here’s a quick tip to help you to create a practice to grow as a songwriter. The simplest starting point is to put a schedule together to write one song every single week. And stick to it. That’s it.
Don’t be attached to it or get hung up on it having to be a great song. Just use that time, every single week to grow and improve in your songwriting. This is about giving yourself the practice to grow and become the songwriter that you want to be.
If you want an awesome community around that, some simple structure, and some feedback, you can have that in I Heart Songwriting Club.
And if you know you want to grow more skills in this space and you want songwriting lessons from me, and to be mentored by a pro-songwriter and have your hand held every step of the way, I can definitely help you with that in my Beginner Songwriting Course.
I really hope you’ve taken away something useful from this. I love helping songwriters inspire their way to living their wildest creative dreams. Did you know I’m sharing tips every week on my socials? Follow my socials for more inspiration.
Here’s to your Wildest Creative Dreams
Francesca
P.S. If you want to discover more of how my creative practice has changed my life, check out this video filmed from my holiday apartment in Nice, France via Brisbane thanks to amazing nutritionist and coach Trang from The Dream Life Project.
Francesca de Valence is an Australian artist and songwriter obsessed with inspiring people all over the world to become creatively free. Speaking and performing on stages around the world and through her work as founder of global tech phenomenon and songwriting community, I Heart Songwriting Club, Francesca is an ‘uplifting, enlightening, and empowering’ force (Music is My Muse).
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