The great thing about opinions is that everyone is allowed (or should be allowed) to have one, or many. I respect yours, and you expressed your position in a very fair and reasonable way. I just happen to completely disagree with you, and to that end, we'll simply have to agree to disagree. By the way, I believe I did say something to the effect of "if you get something out of his books, that's great". I do think he makes some decent points - as I said, I more take exception to the notion that he's some sort of song whisperer. I absolutely wouldn't suggest anyone here has said or implied that, but it is absolutely something I've encountered a great many times over the years.

Let me circle back to the point I thought I was making, and probably didn't do well. I've been extremely fortunate that I've had a great many songs recorded over the years. The first was in 1985 by Tanya Tucker, I was barely 23 years old. At that time, I had never read a book, taken a class, or been given any instruction whatsoever on how to write a song. In those days in Nashville, you had to pretty much sink or swim on your own creatively....the only instruction anyone was willing to give was business-related. There was no such thing as a song critique...it was either "yeah, we might be able to do something with that", or "meh, that's a piece of crap, what else do you have".

Nobody taught me how to write songs, I just figured it out on my own. My first publisher was a songwriter who had a 6th grade education and was dyslexic, and yet he had hundreds of songs of his recorded, and well over a dozen big hits. His comment "I ain't got no craft, I'm gifted" kind of sounded egotistical to me at the time he said it, but over the years I've come to understand where he was coming from. He couldn't tell you how he wrote songs. He couldn't tell you where the ideas or melodies came from. He just sat down and did it.

That is simply not a "taught skill". It's a God-given talent. No different than a kid that picks up a baseball and throws it 100mph.

Now, where you are spot-on correct is when you pointed out astutely that I was speaking about commercial songwriting. I view writing through that lens, because it's my vocation, and perhaps it's an unfair perspective to apply as broadly as I do. I do a lot of workshops and seminars for NSAI (I was a mentor for the Advanced Song Camp just last week), and part of what I do on occasion is to listen to aspiring writers songs and try to help them "fix" them or make them better. I can listen to a song and make suggestions and/or changes - but I can't explain the WHY, it's just instinct. As I said, I was never taught how - I just did it, and wound up making a career out of it.

Lastly, I'll say this. I would agree that a lot of people could write something resembling a song, or a fragment of one at least. But my father, as an example, was completely and utterly tone-deaf. He couldn't tell Mozart from two trash cans lids banging together. He couldn't have written a song if you had given him books and sat him in classes for a hundred years. He did graduate college in 3 years and went to both law school and medical school, so he was a very educated man. But he wasn't capable of grasping music, at all. So no - I don't believe it's a learned skill. I believe it's a talent. Again, I hope we can respectfully agree to disagree - I enjoy reading your posts!

http://www.rogerbrownsongs.com
http://www.nashvillesongwriters.com/roger-brown