If you've been making a living for 35 years, there's likely nothing Pat Patterson can teach you anyway. Not being argumentative because I agree with all you wrote in your comment above in principle but not in practicality. With more than three decades of writing, I can guarantee you've written better songs than have been published on 100% of record albums/CD's commercially released. You've written great songs that no one other than maybe a family member or close friend has ever heard. I'll counter your notion that just anyone can't write a song with I believe everyone has written at least one song in their lifetime! Music is as innate to humanity as tracking/sniffing is to a dog. It's built into our psyche. Music affects our moods, helps us maintain focus and is universally enjoyable. Everyone sings in the shower or when they're alone and all of them, each and every one, has made up a song spontaneously. They've written a song and they sing it out. Your remarks seem to confuse commercial songwriting with songwriting. They're not the same and you are absolutely correct than not everyone can turn out a hit. Most commercial artists have never recorded a number one song much less written one. It's a rarity and largely controlled by the music industry itself. Millions of artists have written songs of a quality to be number one but the song never even entered the contest. There are people who would be judged to have no musical ability or talent and have written a single song, and it was a hit. Thousands of examples in which an artist writes, records and releases a song and it is a commercial failure only for the song to be selected by another artist, redone (sometimes nearly indistinguishable from the original) and it becomes a huge hit.

Songwriting is a teachable skill. It's no different than being an architect, doctor, lawyer, engineer, etc. Most of these people are in careers that their success is measured the same as most songwriters - They work and produce their product daily without world wide fame and monetary success. For instance, lawyers by the tens of thousands work their trade for 35 years and they never have a single case garner national attention that brings them fame. It's just the same for the songwriter that's never had a hit. Most of the world's work product is mundane.

Pat Patterson is no different than any high school teacher or college professor teaching tens of thousands of students daily for years day in day out and never produce a #1 best selling author.

BIAB 2025:RB 2025, Latest builds: Dell Optiplex 7040 Desktop; Windows-10-64 bit, Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz CPU and 16 GB Ram Memory.