Structure Isn’t Sexy, Until It Is
Nobody walks into a songwriting workshop wanting to talk about structure
People come to a songwriting workshop for the spark. The inspiration, the lift. For the moment a lyric lands. They come for the feeling in the room when someone plays something raw and real and everyone just gets it.
Over the past few months, I’ve been chasing that moment on the road – at the Sydney Guitar Show, the Whitsundays Songwriter Festival, and the City of Moreton Bay workshops. Different rooms, different cities, different people. But the same electricity, every time.
And then everyone goes home. And that’s where the spark usually dies.
Not because the inspiration wasn’t real. But because inspiration without structure is just a feeling. It’s the song you meant to finish. The voice memo you haven’t listened back to. The idea that felt urgent in the room and somehow dissipated within days.
But structure is what sustains
One of my superpowers is structure. I thought everyone had this, but over the years, I’ve realised it’s rare. I always judged my structure as unsexy – until I realised the power of structure.
It sustains people. It helps them bring that feeling into their everyday lives without the cost of giving up their life.
This is just one of the magical elements of my online songwriting courses. Along with other elements that make songwriting successful – accountability to finish, a group of people who get it, a mentor to hold the space and guide you, and lessons to actually move your skill forward. So the spark has somewhere to go.
Structure support you to DO not THINK
David came into our beginner course confident he didn’t need much of that. His words:
“I completely believed I could write an album without breaking a sweat. Before this course, my ambitions far exceeded my ability to actually sit down and do it.”
What changed it wasn’t talent. It was doing, not just thinking – with mentorship and lessons to guide the way, and weekly accountability to keep him moving. Once he got past that first mile, he kept surprising himself.
And here’s the part nobody talks about: the impact bled into his whole life.
“A willingness to take things on in life outside of music. Something I wasn’t expecting at all.”
Now he’s busking with his son and talking about taking originals on the road.
That’s what structure looks like when it’s working. Not rigid. Not restrictive. Just you, finally finishing songs.
And that’s the sexiest thing of all.
