Posted by Joe Day

Having been in bands for more than half of my life, some good, some not, I’ve learned that the difference between being a good band and a crappy band comes down to one thing: songwriting.

Why? Because songwriting is how a band connects with its audience. Sure, there are other things you can layer on top of that, but neglect songwriting, and you’re on the short train to nowhere.

Songwriting cultivates your audience

The basis for building an audience is writing songs that move people. If you don’t write good songs, the only people coming to your shows are those who love you unconditionally. We’re talking real, selfless, and partially inebriated kind of love. No matter how cool you are, how awesome your hair is, what instruments you’re playing, if the material isn’t good, then you’ll most likely experience a plateau very, very early.

Good bands write good songs that cultivate their audience into an engaged community. Bad bands don’t, and lose their audience.

Good songs are about one thing

Songs have a structure that can be arranged in many ways. Detail is key, because if the arrangement is out of balance, the ability for the song to move the listener is diminished. The great songs leave you satisfied, yet wanting more as you repeat the hook over and over again, sometimes for days.

A good song is about something, usually one thing. Generally, the verses expand it and the chorus brings it back into focus. This relationship is complementary and helps the song come to life. Songs that meander are harder to follow and all but the devoted listener will jump ship, press skip, and move on. They might delete it. Worse, they’ll never think of it again. They certainly won’t be singing it.

Reach vs. influence

Part of what makes a song great isn’t how many people hear it, but how many are moved enough to sing it with you. Those who hear your song form your audience. But those who are engaged enough to sing along with you are your community, and those are the people you’re writing for.

The lesson here, of course, isn’t just for bands. It’s for anyone who has a message they’re trying to communicate. If you’re only interested in expanding your reach, you probably won’t spend much time cultivating your audience into an engaged community. That’s why it’s not enough to measure how many names are on the mailing list. You need to know who is singing along with you, and to do that, you need tools that allow you to engage with them.

Communication is songwriting

When writing a blog post, a tweet, a church bulletin, even preparing a phone call, it’s helpful to think of communication as songwriting. What’s the chorus? How will you structure the verses? If your song is poorly structured, if the chorus is not memorable, if a listener doesn’t walk away with one thing, then a rewrite is in order. If it isn’t going to move someone from passive audience member to engaged community member, then you need to rethink what you’re trying to communicate.

Think about it the next time you’re listening to that song that moves you enough to sing along.

Don’t settle for being a crappy band. Or church.

You can always improve. Bands that are serious can do many things to get better, not the least of which is investing in better songwriting. They do that by inviting critique from other songwriters they respect. They ask their audience what they think the band does well & what they don’t. They use technology to measure their influence. 

Church leaders can do all of this, and they’ve never had more tools at their disposal. They can set up a team to assemble a communication strategy and assess its effectiveness. They can network with other churches and multiply efforts. They can utilize the resources of social technology to engage with their audience, and measure almost everything using exception-based reporting. They can know who is singing along with them, and that’s the measure that truly matters.