Is Siri the secret to Taylor Swift's songwriting success?
Not even close...
But watch Taylor Swift get interviewed by Ryan Adams and see why she thinks Apple's Siri is so astonishing...
Taylor Swift's songwriting tips begin at 1:49.
She discusses how she organizes her lyric ideas, the songwriting tools she uses, writing prompts, and more...
- She differentiates a pre-writing phase, when she's not actively writing an album.
- If she gets an idea that's a cool observation or lyric idea, she stores it in an endless swipe file in a notepad app on her phone.
- When she's writing a song, she looks through all her lyrics and cherrypicks ideas that have to do with the visual she wants to paint.
- To access emotions, she puts herself in other people's perspectives. For example, she would pause John Hughes' movies (The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Pretty In Pink) and ask herself, "What's he or she thinking in this moment?"
That last one is wise and a brilliant songwriting prompt.
Getting into the mind of other people and taking their perspective is a key skill to develop.
Whether it's making music for a listener or writing songs for a publisher...
The better you know someone's perspective, the better you can deliver value to them.
And you can write some great lyrics in the process. That's great incentive to create something valuable for someone else.
And notice her workflow.
She's always writing and adding lyrics to a swipe file.
When she's focusing her efforts on a song, she draws from the swipe file.
Efficient.
Go put a movie on, take a character's perspective, and add some lyrics to your swipe file.
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