The other day our son, Ben, had a special guest in his Applied Creativity class at Belmont University. The special guest was a music business professional who has been a singer/songwriter, touring musician, and producer of national acts. Amongst many other things Ben learned from this industry professional was a technique he uses in songwriting.

Instead of starting his songwriting with a concept, idea, poem, or even musical riff, he starts with titles. He’s always got a notebook with him, and when a title comes to him he writes it down. He has a whole catalog of titles so that when he does a songwriting session with another songwriter he says, “Which one of these titles would you like to write a song about?”

At one point, the guy was writing songs for a band made up of teenagers which was obviously going to be marketed to teens and pre-teens. So he went to the magazine rack at the local bookstore, started flipping through the teeny bopper magazines, and came up with a whole slew of titles for the band. From there it was easy for him to write the songs.

Are you stuck with a current project? Why not try starting with a title?

Do you need ideas for poems, songs, sermons, classroom lessons, or any other kind of project? Why not start your own catalog of titles.

It may just be the spark you need when you find yourself in a creative funk. Those titles will talk to you and give you a boost.

Why not write a creative title in the comment section below? I’d appreciate it very much!