By John Capek.

John Capek has achieved international acclaim as a composer, songwriter, keyboard player, producer, and arranger and scorer for feature films, television and platinum-selling artists such as Rod Stewart, Cher, Diana Ross, Joe Cocker, Toto, Chicago, Olivia Newton John, Little River Band, Heart, Manhattan Transfer, Bonnie Raitt and Amanda Marshall.

The Most Common Misconceptions

1. A hit song is easy to write; all you have to do is 'dumb down' and sell out.

2. It only takes a few minutes to write a song.

3. Any musician can write a song.

4. Britney Spears can't sing, Hillary Duff has no talent and Jessica Simpson is a pretender.

5. Lyrics don't matter, nobody listens to lyrics.

6. Songwriting cannot be taught, you either have it or you don't.

7. The established music industry, comprised of music publishers and labels, are in a global conspiracy to prevent my songs from being heard.

8. There is an audience for my inner pain and songs are a vehicle for my self analysis - a form of psychotherapy.

9. Il Divo, Andrea Bocelli, Rod Stewart, Michael Buble, Josh Groban and Barry Manilow are achieving their enormous commercial success as a result of some aberration or force that does not reflect what audiences actually want to hear.

10. The only reason that I am not achieving the success that I aspire to is because I do not have the right contacts, or 'can't get my foot in the door'.

11. It's OK to hate everything that's out there right now.

12. Song demos are simply demos and require only a minimum of production and performance.

13. If only the money, the time, the right singer, the right musician, a better studio, engineer or mixer, a more forgiving partner were available, then everything would be OK and success would be achieved.

14. This sound system sucks. If you could hear my song on a better system you would
like it.

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1. A hit song is easy to write, all you have to do is 'dumb down' and sell out.

My best friend in my songwriting is the waste paper basket and the erase button on my computer. The vast majority of great copyrights, the songs that last through the ages were written by highly skilled craftsmen and women. Songwriting is a craft as well as an art.
I and my peers spend days, weeks and months looking for the perfect combination of lyric and melody, editing, discarding and crafting what we do. The task is time consuming and meticulous. Each note and each syllable must count.

Presenting an idea in its simplest, most accessible form is not 'dumbing down'. It is in fact a Zen-like process where we as artists/crafts people want our work to be accepted by as large an audience as possible. We speak the language of song and want to be understood.

I have often marveled at how some songs and songwriters are accused as having 'sold out' to get a hit. I believe that this is impossible. 'Selling out' would imply that there is some special formula that one can follow to guarantee a hit song. If such a thing existed then, of course, everyone would be writing hit songs and making zillions of dollars.

The songwriters who have been accused of 'selling out' are following their own truths. We are not all complicated people with philosophical depths to expose or Verdi-like melodies to share. Some of us are content to write a simple sexy love song that can share a common feeling with a large audience. This is not selling out. It is actually extremely difficult to do.

The great songs of musical theater from the 1940's, written by Cole Porter and George Gershwin, have tremendous beauty in their simplicity. The early Beatles songs were simple and successful. James Blunt has spoken his truth; he did not dumb down and sell out.

2. It only takes a few minutes to write a song.

Some of my songs did in fact 'write themselves' in a few minutes. However, it took about ten years and a thousand songs to get to that point. In fact, my more successful songs have taken weeks and months to complete.

3. Any musician can write a song

Skill with a musical instrument is totally unrelated to the ability to compose a song. Many legendary songwriters had limited instrumental skills or none at all. It is said that Michael Jackson does not play an instrument, and Irving Berlin could only play in one key.
Many great classical virtuoso instrumentalists have no composition skills at all.

4. Britney Spears can't sing, Hillary Duff has no talent and Jessica Simpson is a pretender.

Most of the artists that are often considered to be 'too commercial' have developed major skills since their childhood. Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera were professional actors, dancers and singers as children with Disney's Mickey Mouse Club long before they became internationally famous. They certainly have tremendous abilities, skill and talent in all areas of songwriting and performance.

5. Lyrics don't matter, nobody listens to lyrics.

Lyrics have changed the world: consider songs like 'Imagine', 'If I had A Hammer', 'Give Peace A Chance' and 'What's Going On'. Even if we, as an audience, are not immediately conscious of lyrics, they will always have a subliminal effect on us. When they are not correctly placed, when they are not engaging, when grammar and syntax, gender and tense is not correct, and when lyrics and melody do not work together, we do not respond to the song.

6. Songwriting cannot be taught, you either have it or you don't.

I will contradict myself with this subject. I actually believe that songwriting cannot be taught academically. That means, if we dwell on the deconstruction of hit songs and analyze all of the elements, I do not believe that this will necessarily help us to write our own hit song. In fact there are only a couple of rules: 1. Don't be boring, and 2. Keep it short.

I do believe, however, that songwriting can be taught in the form of games and exercises as outlined in my book "HOW TO WRITE A HIT SONG WITHOUT REALLY TRYING".

Attending seminars and workshops is also helpful and hearing the stories shared by successful songwriters can be inspirational.

7. The established music industry, comprised of music publishers and labels, are in a global conspiracy to prevent your songs from being heard.

The industry receives thousands of demos each week. The vast majority of them are poorly crafted, boring, badly recorded and irrelevant.When I write a great song, it will find its way. The industry is in fact desperate for great songs.

8. There is an audience for my inner pain and songs are a vehicle for my self analysis - a form of psychotherapy.

Nobody is really interested in my inner pain. An audience wants to hear a good story. Human beings share their existence on this planet via the telling of stories. If that (song) story can share a commonly held feeling, then we are successful. We are, however, required to tell our stories in a concise, interesting way. That is the most challenging part of being a successful songwriter.

9. Il Divo, Andrea Bocelli, Rod Stewart, Michael Buble, Josh Groban and Barry Manilow are achieving their enormous commercial success as a result of some aberration or force that does not reflect what audiences actually want to hear.

Audiences love a great tune. They always have and they always will.

10. The only reason that I am not achieving the success that I aspire to is because I do not have the right contacts, or 'can't get my foot in the door'.

In fact, if I'm not reaching anyone with my songs, it is simply because they are not good enough. That is a painful truth. Live with that truth or live in denial.

11. It's OK to hate everything that's out there right now.

If I hate all contemporary music, it is probably time to consider another career. Having a passion and love for popular music is essential in order to move forward as a songwriter.

12. Song demos are simply demos and require only a minimum of production and performance.

With today's technology, there is no such thing as a demo. All recordings are now potential masters.

13. If only the money, the time, the right singer, the right musician, a better studio, engineer or mixer, a more forgiving partner were available, then everything would be OK and success would be achieved.

I do not send anything out into the world unless it is perfect to me. I use a self editing tool that I call the 'cringe factor'. When I listen to my work and there's a feeling of 'I wish I did this or that thing' or, 'If only I could', then it's not ready to go. I simply wait for the time and the opportunity to make it perfect.

14. This sound system sucks. If you could hear my song on a better system you would
like it.

The art of a great mix is in making the music sound good anywhere. If I am not skilled as an engineer or mixer, I work with someone who is. I test my mixes on different speakers, different systems and in the car. If the song is strong enough, the vocal performance exciting enough and the mix engineer skilled enough, my work sounds good anywhere.