Do Not Read This Page Unless You Are
EMBARRASSED ABOUT YOUR
LACK OF SONGWRITING SKILLS
...and unless you want to do something about it, like, right now
Because I'm about to take every self-doubt and self-proclaimed “reason” B.S. excuse for why you think you aren’t cut to be a songwriter…
And nuke ‘em out of existence!
Then I’ll show you how you can begin writing your own songs starting today… using methods so simple, it’s borderline criminal other guitar teachers have not shown them to you.
Because here is the thing…
If You Know Just A Handful Of Open Chords, Can Play A Scale Or Simple Riff At A Moderate Tempo In Time, Then You Can Write Your Own Music With My Methods
Let me prove it to you using these 4 chords:
Believe it or not, you can use these 4 chords to write hundreds of songs, simply by:
- Changing how you strum them.
- Playing the chords in a different order
- Playing simple melodies (any beginner can play) on top of them.
And you can do all that without spending months studying brain-melting music theory… reading music or spending thousands dollars on fancy recording gear!
Just listen to these examples:
I made these on Guitar Pro 7 on a 15-minute break between teaching my songwriting classes.
Now, obviously you aren’t going to win songwriting competitions with this, but…
Many of the world’s most popular songs were written using ideas no harder than what you just heard!
Can you get more advanced? Of course.
But before you can learn the advanced stuff, you better open your mind to the possibility, that
You can become a really, really good songwriter too
And getting you to believe that is the hardest part.
Question: What do Dave Grohl (from hard rock bands Nirvana & Foo Fighters) and Ed Sheeran (pop music star) have in common besides their commercial success?
Answer: Their belief that you start from the bottom of the songwriting barrel and you work your way up.
Whether you personally enjoy either of these musicians or not, the following documented conversations taken from both of these musicians serve as a good foundation of where you can start with song writing.
Ed Sheeran use the analogy of turning on a tap at an old house. When you first turn on your songwriting tap, muddy water comes out and you might write some shit songs.
But as you learn new skills, gain new experiences and write more songs, the muddy water slowly disappears and the clean water comes out which are the good songs.
Eventually you will have a steady flow of good songs, you might get a bad song every now and then but you don't let it get you down because you will have the confidence to know you can write some more good songs.
Dave Grohl says,
What I say, Both of these musicians have helped to explain one of the most important pieces of songwriting in different ways, which is to have the attitude to begin at whatever stage you are at and persevere through your song writing and performance challenges until you have refined your craft.
Obviously, it is not as easy as these two contrasting stars make it appear to reach the levels of success that they have, but the good news is...
As Your Songwriting Skill Increases, So Will Your Confidence, And This Is Something You Can Work With
If at this point, you are still skeptical to the point that you aren't willing to consider for a moment that you might have more potential than you know. I can't help you, you can leave the website now as there is nothing that I can do for you.
Let me tell you a quick story about Rob Wilkes from Narrikup.
That's this guy with his thumbs up and the big smile.
Otherwise, I'd like you to meet Rob
Rob Wilkes was 49 when I first met him, his loving wife bought him a guitar as a surprise birthday present and man, was he surprised.
It was not planned, Rob had no idea that his wife had intended to buy him a guitar nor that she had organized some guitar lessons to get him started.
Rob had never played guitar before, had (and still has) self described "sausage fingers" and was chuckling to himself in our first introductory session at the idea of himself playing a simple song.
You see, Rob was not naturally gifted and at this point, writing songs was not even on Rob's radar. He just wanted to play some music and make the guitar sound like, well, a guitar.
After a few short months, I had helped Rob pick up some basic technique, he could play some simple melodies and a few open chords that admittedly, sometimes drove him crazy because not all the notes would ring clear.
To give you a clearer picture, some chords, like the A major, he played by using one of his supersized "sausage" fingers to hold down two strings at the same time instead of the two fingers (one for each string) that would typically be used.
One lesson, we were working on learning some rhythms together and I had encouraged Rob to use chords he had learnt with different strumming rhythms that he was also learning.
This was one of the turning points for Rob as he realized that by changing the chords in the progression and changing the strumming patterns he was CREATING, instead of just practicing other peoples music.
Over the following weeks, Rob would be excited about new chord progressions he had put together that he thought sounded pretty good.
Flash forward, after 12 months of improving his knowledge of music and technique. It was Rob's 50th birthday and he had already written several complete songs of his own (guitar and lyrics) which he sang with an adrenaline and nerves cocktail to some of his fellow students.
In just 12 short months, Rob, who had no idea he would even like to write songs, had written and could play several original pieces, including a song written for his wife made from the words he proposed to her with.
If You Live In Albany (Or Can Get Your Way To Albany),
I Can Help You To Build Songwriting Skills And Realize Your Dream
Of Making Music You Can Be Proud Of
I am looking for some electric guitarists from Albany to transform from “I don’t know if I can write music”, song writing dreamers, into “I never thought that I could make music like that”, case studies.
Case studies such as these;
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"I am able to express myself more creatively on guitar and I can feel myself gaining victories every day. The way Daniel teaches allows me to be more expressive, enjoy what I play and when I listen to it, I think it sounds good. Since the first lesson he has encouraged me to develop my musical creativity and I’m finding I haven’t played music from a guitar tab in months, instead I spend more and more of my time creating or improvising my own music. Basically, he has helped me unlock my potential as a musician” – Sonny Po
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“I’ve picked up skills that allow me, to be able to make music. When I was teaching myself, I never got to make music, I only ever copied things that I had seen on YouTube. Daniel showed me a way to make my own music which is a very inspiring thing. Being able to see different ways of connecting things to make music, I think I have never been able to do that before, it’s an amazing feeling being able to construct something. I understand music a lot better. I think it gives me pride and excitement because I never fathomed learning that in such a short time.” – Tim Henderson
Student Jeremy Keeffe
The Truss Songwriting System is 3 step cycle that helps you to continuously write better music
1. I teach you songwriting skills
2. I train you to apply these skills to make new songs
3. I provide feedback on your songs so that you can refine your skills
You then continue to gain new skills and learn more from experience through your previous songwriting, which reinforces your next songwriting endeavor with higher quality music.
On Top Of This Support System You Will Also Get To;
Learn and understand how music works without kill-me-now music theory
Most of the time, you get to take ideas I share and almost immediately be able to apply it to your instrument, have fun and hear for yourself what works and sounds cool.
Complete your songs and get parts of your music that don't fit together to connect, sound good and transition smoothly
Learn how to escape square peg / round hole syndrome by learning creative problem solving to connect, replace or refine music that doesn't work into ones that do.
Slowly, but surely, learn to master dozens and dozens of different song writing tools with my methods...
so that you don't get stuck depending solely on unreliable stab-in-the-dark, experimentation to create new ideas.
If you want to, I help you to remove creative limitations by improving your guitar playing technique
I am running Guitar Lessons Albany, after all. Only if you want to, I can help iron out the kinks in your guitar playing to write the quality music you wish you were playing.
Here Is How You Will Become A Great Songwriter With My Simple Truss Songwriting System
Nursing Student, Sonny Po
"I have had some really major breakthroughs.. I can express myself more creatively on guitar now. It allows me to enjoy what I play and when I hear it, it sounds good. Practicing the way Daniel has taught me has seen my skills increase rapidly."
If I could help you to finally complete a song that you were proud of. would you be willing to talk to me about what you dream of doing with your songwriting?
If we are a good fit, I will invite you to a free introductory session where we can talk about the projects you are working on (or would like to be working on) and how I can help you have more fun writing quality tunes.
Start by clicking the big red button below where you will be taken to a page where you can tell me about what interests you.
Still not sure if you are ready to start writing songs?
Right here in the great southern,. I work with students face-to-face, nearly every single week to help them with their song writing, creativity and ability to improvise so that they can get the help they need straight away to make some killer music.
Anything that might be holding you back in terms of your knowledge, technique or creative ability I can personally answer and help you with, unlike most online "gurus" and courses.
As a small first step, if you tell me a little about yourself, we can find out together what it is that you might need to do for your song writing next.
If in fact, we find out together that you are way too green to start with songwriting, I can still help you to build your guitar playing skills up to the point where you can write songs in the fastest time possible. I have learning pathways I teach at my local studio for all the essentials you will need.
Otherwise. If it looks like we are good to go you can come meet with me for a free introductory session to assess how you might use what you know already to start crafting your first song.
Click the big red button below to get started.