Songwriting Tips

Songwriting Basics

songwritingtipshelp — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:14:27 +0000

Don’t obsess Too Much, Just write
A good way to begin your songwriting efforts is to write about a story you’ve seen on the news on television, or read about in a newspaper or magazine. That way you can concentrate on the wording and rhyming of the lyrics without having to worry about thinking of a storyline. Once you have written the first section or verse, repeat it using different lyrics. Now examine your song to follow this with a chorus, which should be the catchiest part of the song and it should deliver the main theme or point of the story, the message you are driving home to the listener.

If you are writing without too much of a storyline in your head, once you are writing and the ideas are flowing, don’t stop to critique or question what you’ve written or played, this can be done later, keep it flowing and just write!

Find someone to work with
It can be a good idea to find someone to work with, two heads are better than one, and songwriters very often do this. Sometimes you find that one person contributes more to the music and another to the lyrics, it doesn’t really matter who does what, it just gives you twice the inspiration, ideas and input. Just when you are stuck in a rut and can’t think of any way to move forward, the other person may be on a roll and ideas are abundant, and vice versa.

Keep the song fairly short
A very common mistake that amateur songwriters make is creating songs that are too long! If you listen to current songs in the charts, you will find that most are approximately 3-4 minutes long. This may be important when starting out in the industry because time constraints will be an issue with regard to airplay, when trying to get your song heard.

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Some Ideas To Help With Inspiration

songwritingtipshelp — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:04:27 +0000

Every song has а story behind it. You have hаd something so fantastic or something so tragic οr depressing happen in yοur life аt some point. Well, try remembering one οf thοse occasions and it should trigger some poignant lyrics from you. It doesn’t have to be a whole song or even whole verse or chorus, just note down the lines as they come to you. You can rearrange them later, and at that point you can say well I have a great line there… for example

“I can’t go on without you, it hurts so much”

Now what could precede that, what led up to this feeling? How did something so good go so wrong, did you or they make a mistake? You get the idea… just start writing and it will begin to flow. Take some time to reflect on your own experiences аnd you may come up with something decent.

If you can’t seem to be able to draw on your own experiences, see what the popular trend is with current songs that appeal to you. Listen to other eras and genres to see what has been a recurring theme throughout the years. Do this often and hearing other songs may spark some ideas and get a good melody or lyric springing to mind.

Try writing something every day, just a few lines each and every day, this will very quickly build up and give you lots of material to think about and rearrange. Don’t throw any of it away! What you don’t use this time may fit perfectly into your next masterpiece! It doesn’t have to be perfect first time, you can keep going back and editing it regularly. You might find that you need or want to change the lyrics to fit in with the music (or vice versa). Whatever happens, don’t give up – the more you practice writing songs the better you will become.

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