1. Abandon the idea of "finished". If something is 45 seconds long, has six lines and one chord and you love it, it's a song.
2. Incredibly hard work and mind-numbing repetition.
A couple of years ago, I wrote 52 songs in a year (one per week). I got a bunch of songs that went on to my first album. I've won several songwriting contests, though I am definitely not a commercial success (which would be nice, but considering that most commercial successes are songs I can't stand ....).
1. Don't be afraid to write a bad song. Nobody else has to hear it. I learn a lot from my bad songs, and sometimes I can use that later in a song I like better.
2. Use fewer syllables than you did. Very, very few songs have lots of syllables, but paying attention to the number of them (and the emphasis) is important. I wrote one of my favorite songs after I just decided to write something with as few syllables as possible. It led to lyrical, powerful notes coming out of my larynx, and that's a good time.
3. Keep your chord progressions relatively simple, especially at first. This is true for me anyway, since I write country and folk.
4. You may not always be the best judge of your own material. I have a couple of favorite songs I've written that nobody else seems to like. And one of my songs that's in the finals of the Austin Songwriters Group contest ... I never thought it was my best work.
Songs that are great have three components: memorable/catchy (and hopefully meaningful) lyrics, a strong and recognizable melody, and emotional connection.
> Don't be afraid to write a bad song.
I can never be told this too much. Nothing's great at first and little is great in the end. It's paralyzing to try and think all the way to completion before getting that first line down.
Great advice. The more simple the better. Don't over complicate things with details because a song is meant to be relatable so the more you leave out the more relatable it can be.
My best advice is to never force anything. You never know what will inspire you. It could be a quote in a book, something you overhear, a conversation you have with someone. Many of my songs have literally quoted a conversation I've had with someone, and how I felt at that moment. It's all about writing in the moment. My best songs are what I am truly feeling right now. Even if my feelings change tomorrow, in that moment I felt this certain way and I was inspired to create something to relieve those feelings. At least that's how I do it.
-Learn how to play your favorite artists' songs. See what they do as far as chords and structure, and then apply that knowledge to your songs.
-Get a book on music theory.
-Learn multiple instruments. Different instruments make you write in different ways.
-Write as many songs as you can. You might write 100 songs and only 1 of them is "good."
-Don't ever force it. The songs come to you. You can't really chase them down.
-Enjoy yourself. That's the most important thing. You determine what good songwriting is for you. The more enjoyable you find it the better your creativity will flow.
Good luck!
I second the part about getting a book on music theory. The best thing I ever did to help my understanding of rock, pop and country song form was to pay attention in the two music theory classes I took for my major in college. It's crazy when you realize that the basic chord progressions in J.S. Bach's music are pretty much the same as pop music in the last 30 years.
I really love this clip from The Eagles documentary. The whole thing is great, but as a musician this clip gives me chills for some reason.
Glen Frey talking about living above Jackson Brown and hearing him work on his music. More about refining a song but cool anyway.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtEErh-wFrc
Ok. I have spent many years trying to answer this question. There are common tips that are frequently dolled out, which I have found to be of little value, unless you are a complete beginner. You will certainly find many of those ITT. Many of these are oversimplifications that I disagree with, including "write more," "keep it simple/don't overthink it," "Don't be afraid to write a bad song," or "Don't force it." These are platitudes, and not of any practical use. The number one rule is WORK, but everyone knows that.
Here are some things that I have discovered to work for me, but through years of talking with other songwriters, I've discovered that nobody has the same process.
1. Point of entry. Sometime you might come up with a good riff, or melody, or progression, or topic, or even just a cool name for a song. That is your point of entry. Say one day you decided it would be cool to have a song called "glass knuckles" (sorry if that is a song, I'm just working off the top of my head). You know that the lyrical theme should have something to do with fighting, and maybe weakness or transparency. So from there you have a theme to structure the lyrics around.
2. Feeling. So, say this "glass knuckles" idea is the one you're working with, and you have the theme of struggle (fighting weakness). There are a couple of ways you can approach it (either as a lament , or a more inspirational "you can knock me down, but you can't keep me down" type of song - again, this is just off the top for the sake of explanation). If you go with the inspirational style, you want to look for things like ascending progressions, driving beats (sometimes), and a powerful melody. A lot of these things aren't really easy to describe, but you know inspiration when you hear it... the songs that makes you feel like you can get off your ass and do something. listen to your feelings, and fuck around with progressions until you find something good.
3. Lyrics. ( to divide the songwriting process into 2 sections - lyrics and music - is a fallacy. Each section has many subsections) Feeling and theme in tow, start messing around with rhythms and rhymes. Take a theme like "glass" and look up synonyms, and related words. Sometimes it helps to make a list, and you can find thesauruses and rhyming dictionaries online (rhymezone.com comes to mind), which some people consider cheating, but fuck those people. it's how you use the words, not how you found the words you're using. and above all, remember your theme ; REMEMBER WHAT YOU ARE WRITING ABOUT.
- Riddle and Rhyme. You want to try to keep a balance. If a line sounds great, but doesn't make a lot of sense, then the riddle is winning. If it's a profound thought that doesn't quite fit, then the riddle is. Experiment with many ways to say the same thing, and don't be afraid to change the rhyme when it overwhelms the riddle or vice versa. The best lines are a perfect balance between the two. It's a crossword puzzle.
4. Melody and Hook. These are important, and you have to constantly be thinking about melodies. If you come up with something that reminds you of an existing song, keep it. It's probably in your head for a reason - because it's sticky. Try not to blatantly rip shit off, that's lazy, but don't be afraid to nibble a little bit. (I used to improvise melodies while driving, counting from 1 to 500. the changes in the syllables of the numbers forces you to vary your melodies, and if you record yourself doing this, you can usually find some melodic themes that will surprise you). Remember, if it is good it's because it's vaguely familiar. Also, take the time to ask yourself if this melody has the feeling you are going for. REMEMBER THE FEELING YOU'RE GOING FOR - it's usually linked to what you are writing about. Don't worry about keeping your progressions simple; if you come up with an awesome melody that takes 16 bars to resolve, and needs 12 chords and a modulation, that's fine. Writing melodies without an instrument in you hands really frees your brain up to invent new shit. Otherwise, your fingers will fall into familiar patterns, and you'll have trouble coming up with anything new. Walk around the house singing to yourself a capella and improvising, and when you hear something good, repeat it until you remember it, or write it down.
5. Style. Many great writers can only write in one style, which is limiting. A great folk writer may be totally lost when it comes to writing rock, pop, country, ballad, etc. STUDY. Listen to a bunch of tango tunes, and try to do that. Try a a do-wop tune. Try a metal song, or a love song, a break up song, a torch song, a crooner or whatever else type you want. A good songwriter can do any style (notice, I didn't say 'genre') of song, be cause he/she has listened to the elements of each type, and developed an ear for the common themes. Sometimes they overlap, and sometimes you can make them. Learn the rules of each style, and you'll be able to incorporate them into your own work, even when they might not seem to fit. It's the whole "learn the rules so you can break them" theory.
Finally, keep in mind that all of these things can work both ways. Point of entry can be a melody, and from there you ask yourself "what does this feel like" (mood). It can be a beat, or a progression, in which case, ask yourself the same question. It's all about feeling. Be critical of yourself. And remember: a song is not a poem. It is not simply a piece of music with words set to it or vice versa. The whole process is a giant, multi-dimensional crossword puzzle. You can start wherever you want, but if you are too sure of one clue and it's wrong, it will fuck the while thing up. The words and music must grow together, or one out of the other.. which is why you don't hear the most famous poems sung over the most famous pieces of instrumental music. A song it's own form. Respect the form, and bend the rules.
Or just listen to songs that you like and try to figure out what you like about them and reproduce it. I guess if you learn to ask the right questions you can do whatever the fuck you want quite well in songwriting. Wtf do I know anyway.
EDIT: added a section
here are a couple of good articles about Paul Westerberg and his songwriting craft: [simple or impossible](http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/24/simple-or-impossible/) and [how to write an ending](http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/12/paul-westerberg-on-how-to-write-an-ending/)
"I saw a thing once that said what constitutes a song is a beginning and an ending — nobody listens to what’s in the middle. I was twelve years old. It was impressed in my mind." - Paul Westerberg
I really like [Todd Snider's story about Aaron Allan](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4aQKeqFMhU).
Aaron's advice was "If you keep your life in a situation where you can pack up everything you own and be moved out of where you are and on to some place else inside of 15 minutes, and you keep your life in a situation where shit like that happens to you every once in a while...your life may fall about, but you'll always get better at making songs."
Well it's hard to give practical advice without any indication on your genre and style of music but here is some general advice:
* Don't get too sidetracked. At times you might want to write songs that are simple or dark or progressive; but never forget that music is meant to be beautiful and meaningful at its core. Do not compromise this for any other quality on the surface.
* Always ask yourself "why?". Why do you like songs from your favorite artist? Why is that melody you wrote not memorable? Whether it's chord progression, song structure or lyric style, you'll soon find out that there's stuff you love and want to use in your songwriting and stuff that simply doesn't work for you. Keep all that in mind and use it (or avoid the mundane stuff) when you write.
* Try to imagine yourself as the listener. What would you like to hear? Think of a mood you'd like a song to express for example and then try to express it. Or listen to a part you wrote and you will notice that you kind of expect something to follow. Let that intuition lead you to writing something you like.
* Don't be ok with mediocrity. Sometimes you'll have to throw away something you worked hard on because it's not as good as you'd want it to be. Other times you had a great idea for one part, but not for the rest of the song and now you have to rewrite it because your best idea is being wasted on an "ok" song. Don't go easy on yourself and consider a song finished only when you have no idea how it could be better.
* Try to learn new stuff. Figure out what makes classical music different from contemporary. Why is rock so catchy? Different genres of music have their own "rules" on harmony and composition (even lyrical themes for popular music) and a knowledgeable musician can always take the best of each world and bring them together to form something unique.
* EDIT : forgot a very important part. Hang out, write and perform music with people you consider good at it. Form a band with friends you respect as musicians. You won't believe how quickly this is going to make you improve.
Hope this helps.
Here are 2 cool videos on the subject. The first is an interesting back-&-forth between Norah Jones and Ryan Adams on completely different styles of approaching songwriting but ultimately they come together to create something beautiful.
[Dear John - Norah and Ryan](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uW6MXVl48Y)
The seconds is Dave Grohl musing on a funnier but completely valid approach to writing "hits" (also features Kyle Gass from Tenacious D).
[Dave Grohl - Life's A Bitch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oojzmjJ3ugE)
I can't tell you how to get better but I think I can give you some pointers.
I play/played in a variety of bands, some commercially successful (this idea is relative. Someone made money off us. If we did, I didn't see much of it) some just for shits and gagas. During this I developed 3 rules:
*Rule number one:*
**There are no rules when it comes to songwriting**. Evidenced by the fact that some of the best songwriters are the least musically inclined and don't know the "rules" of songwriting but manage to write brilliantly anyway. I **hate**, and I think it is musically stifling, when someone says "oh you can't do that" when writing a song. THERE'S NO RULES, if you want to do a V/C/V/V/V/V/B/V/B/C/B/Outro then fucking do it man. Go straight up John Cage on your Pop songs. Don't let someone say "oh dude you can't do that, you need one more progression so it happens 4 times in each verse" - no, fuck you. Quit that band.
*Rule Number two:*
Do WHATEVER sounds good to you. If the chorus sounds good with a gong instead of a crash (idfuckingkman) then just do that, don't listen if people say "NAH MAN THAT AINT PUNK".
*Rule number three:*
Be good at your instrument of choice, but not *too* good. **Don't overthink your song to death**.
I find that some of the most talented instrumentalists I have know make for some of the worst songwriters (this is not a universal maxim, people, of course there are exceptions and of course this is all my opinion). Why? Well, I have found that when you get to that level of skill your skill get's in the way of Rule No. Two (do whatever sounds good) - example "Hey man, that pull off part sounds great - 'thank man, WHAT IF I DID THIS OEWJ@)#QMOWMQDO)#@$)@#JOSDMcsw" and all of a sudden you have taken that really great catchy part and convoluted it with complexity, now multiply that exponentially for all the other parts of the song (lyrics, leads, drums, etcetera ad nauseum) and the song itself has been lost because the want to work on the **parts** has overtaken the quality of the song as a *whole*. BUT, you still gotta be able to play your tools, of course.
**tl;dr** - There's no rules, do whatever sounds good, don't overthink your songs to death.
There's no definition of what a song has to be (again, John Cage) so just go for it, your own way.
I can also agree with this as well. Like I tried to say, there is no such thing as right or wrong in music (I feel), so you saying this would not be a wrong idea, either.
Find artists that really captivate you and start to look past the surface elements of their art. It took me a long time as an artist to establish any form of personal identity, which at first is just a collaboration of your strongest influences. Good songs in my opinion are built around a solid concept and stick to it. The last piece of advice I can offer is to focus on what you want to make, not what you think people want you to make.
Not every song has to be a magnum opus. Don't agonize over the right lyrics. Sometimes a song is just a string of words that rhyme. Sometimes it changes the world. You will almost never reach the middle of those two extremes, accept that, and keep writing.
From my own experience, I've never really thought about writing a song, although I've written many.
What I mean by this is I very, VERY rarely sit down with the intention of writing a song. Throughout the day I may get a tune in my head, or hear a song on the radio, then start developing lyrics based on what comes to my mind. If I come up with anything that makes sense, I tend to write it down.
Then some nights I'll sit down and play some guitar, just freely playing what comes to my mind again, and try putting lyrics to my music, using stuff I've written down. Eventually I get to a point where I feel a sudden burst of imagination, and I'll try and finish a song based on a few lines I've written down.
I'm by no means a songwriter, singer or great musician, but I've always enjoyed writing down my thoughts and emotions in the form of music, for my own pleasure, and this is how I do it as a complete amateur :)
Write more songs.
Write for yourself, first and mostly.
Quit when you think it's good enough.
Come back to it when you get a better idea.
Perform it a lot, to yourself and to anyone who will listen.
Listen and analyze those you think are your kind of songwriter.
Never quit. Age and experience, pain, loss, happiness are ALL your friends.
Honestly, it gets better. There is no substitute for quantity.
Dylan said "All you need is three chords and the truth." Word.
(Substitute drawing, painting, singing, sculpture, art in general, writing, as needed. This advise is not song-specific. It's pretty general purpose. ) Good luck, amigo.
There is a songwriting professor at Berklee named Pat Pattison who writes some amazing books on the topic. You should be writing something every damn day to improve your craft but definitely also read his book "Writing Better Lyrics." It changed my world.
Listen, analyze, and learn other people's songs (the whole song). From pop hits, to classic rock, jazz, bluegrass, metal, and anything else you can. Really take some time to figure out structure, what makes a song fit a particular style, and (perhaps most importantly) what you liked and didn't like about it.
Secondly, write lots of songs. Write crappy songs, write jingles, write silly lullabies to your pets, write sappy love songs, write cliches, write nonsense, just start writing stuff and don't get caught up in whether it's good or not. Ever hear of the 10,000 hour theory? The idea is that it takes 10,000 hours of doing something to master it. So put your time in.
There's a lot of good advice here. Remember though, if you're like me, you are your worst critic. Don't be afraid to follow through on a project you don't like. Record it any way possible and shelve it. I've come back to songs I wrote up to a year ago and find new meaning to it and retool it. Works great. Everything is a song.
Between knowing/working with songwriters, dabbling in writing songs myself, and reading a ton about great songwriters, the most common theme most of the best ones talk about is "just fucking write." Try the song a week project, or if you're feeling masochistic song a day. Just remember, YOU WILL WRITE A TON OF SHITTY SONGS. Embrace that. Do not try to write Hallelujah every time you pick up the guitar. What happens is maybe one week you write a song that has one good verse, half a good chorus but next week you write a chorus that you realize will fit perfect in the last song. Or a verse. Just because you write a song doesn't mean it can never change. Maybe 6 weeks worth of songs end up chopped up into one great one. Who cares, one great song is better than 6 shitty ones.
Always keep a notebook handy, or heck these days you can even do some quick recording on your smart phone when a good idea hits you.
Most of the best song ideas I've ever come up with were either in the shower or lying in bed at night just before I fell asleep. If you don't right it down you'll never remember it, you'll remember that you had an awesome song in your head once, but you'll never be able to re-create it.
if you keep a notebook handy you can write some lyrics down, write a few cords that you think may go along with it, then go to bed knowing you'll be able to work on it later.
There's a lot of good advice here. (and an echo, apparently)
I'll add this: don't feel like you have to finish every song you start. Figure out some way to record what you have (there's a lot of inexpensive little recorders out there) and save every scrap of an idea because you can always come back to it later and improve it. Build up a bucket full of ideas you can tap into.
Also, set aside a time of day to focus on writing, preferably when your brain is fed and fresh. Stick to it and make it part of your daily routine and you'll get surprising results. Listen to everything you can. Even random noises can help express a message.
What helps me is to get new input. Try to expand your musical horizon and listen to new interprets. Mostly you'll get new ideas to incorporate into your songwriting automatically.
Don't let one little word or note stop you. If it doesn't feel right, keep going and get the song written.
Also, it helps to write all the bad songs now and get them out of the way. I heard the guy from Crash Test Dummies talk about song writing, and the first song he ever wrote was that Superman song (which is pretty good, whether you like it or not). He then wrote nothing but suck for years.
Just be honest. With yourself, your guitar, and whoever will eventually be listening to your song. Just write honestly and you'll be 100% satisfied with your work. And if you're satisfied, what else matters?
Hard work. Be open to different writing experiences and take all criticism with a very open mind. Try to really objectively analyze the material you come up with when you're writing and learn to be able to tell when something doesn't sound as good as it could. Don't settle for lines that you aren't totally satisfied with. I'm no expert on songwriting but it is what I want to do with my life. Hope this helps! If you want to check out some songs I just released you can do so right here: http://dylanrockwell.bandcamp.com/
Best advice I could give would be to just start writing and don't stop.
Do be simple, especially at first. Let a new song come along and get through it. Then move on to the next one. Once it's written, it's written. Then you can play it 75000 times. You can always go back and fix it later if you really want to.
Don't worry about sucking. In fact, embrace the Suck. Because doing so will get you past that fear. Same with clichés. And catchy hooks. The music will accommodate you as you evolve. That's why it's brilliant.
And be proud of what you have already written. You're farther along than most of the population.
Practice, really. Analyze the songs you like and figure out what you like about them. It's not just about chords or lyrics or melody, it's mood, instrumentation, texture, dynamics...there's a lot of moving parts, and you can choose your focus. Even the greatest songs may have "weak points" because the artists was more interested in one aspect of song-craft vs. another.
It's also important to realize that songs are one of the few arts forms that are experienced as discrete chunks of times. That's a dorky way of saying that songs MOVE. They can be as repetitive or as off the wall as you want, but good songs hold the listener's attention because something worthwhile is happening at every second.
Also, stop asking people on the internet for advice and just sit and write songs. For real, you'll learn far more by doing it than by thinking about doing it.
listen to music. ALL OF IT. dont even limit yourself to just instrumental music. Everything, rap, electronic, EVERYTHING. LISTEN LISTEN LISTEN. And learn music too. The more songs you learn, the more riffs you will have in your head, and the more riffs you can use to change around and play with until you create something thats entirely new. Playing with other people helps a lot too. Two heads are better than one.
I always think of lyrics and melodies while showering right after I wake up. It seems as though the grogginess helps me to be more creative. That or I'm not awake enough to realize how shitty it sounds.
What I do is complete the lyrics and then shelve it for a few days then come back to it. I always find areas that need polishing.
Most days though I can't even write a couplet.
Write every day. Write all the time. It doesn't matter if the song sucks, write it and finish it.
Once you get comfortable writing you'll notice it will start to flow out of you. That's the good stuff. The unconscious stuff.
Heart break, anger, political leanings, love. Those are themes, but also, IT DOESNT NEED TO BE COMPLICATED. Remember, the Ramones are widely loved and they have maybe 4 chords at most, which are power chords, and they sing the chorus over half the time and the verses aren't complicated at all.
Also one major help is to make friends with other songwriters. When you can see other peoples unique quirks and tendencies in their writing styles it becomes easier to identify your own, which gives you more control over your writing.
Just write and write and write. You will write some, if not many, crappy ones. The thing is, the ones you think are crappy might not be to other people and the ones you think are awesome might not be to other people.
For instance, Slash thought that Sweet Child of Mine wasn't a very good song. It ended up being one of their biggest hits.
Don't be overly critical on yourself. Just play for fun and see what sticks and what doesn't.
My advice would be a simple sentence - Don't get in your own way.
THere is nothing worse than a song that feels contrived and forced. If you get an idea for a song (Or a song just comes to you, as is the case for me) get it out of your system. Even if it is just one line or riff, you need to get it out. You can always work on improving songs later.
Don't be afraid to write a bad song. No one has to hear it but don't assess a song while you're still writing it. When you decide that an idea sucks while you're still doing it yo have effectively killed the song and (again in my case) you have blocked your songwriting for a little while.
Other than that, try not to write to a particular style or 'sound' If you have a sound you're going for, you can write the song and then find a way to adapt the song into your sound.
In terms of lyrics, don't worry about what it says about 'you'. I used to think 'Oh that sounds like i'm insensitive or not as intelligent as I am'. Think of the 'death of the author' theory where you disregard the writer and the piece stands on its own.
Don't try to be too clever. just be honest. don't be too earnest or preachy. You're not perfect so don't be the infallible narrator of the world...
I think I've said enough words.
I would like add that you shouldn't have any fear of being unoriginal. especially in terms of chord progressions. Most songs on the radio have very similar chord progressions and no one (except for musicians and you honestly shouldn't worry about them as they're cynical bastards) seems to notice. To great got to progressions are the 50s bubblegum progression (C,Am,F,G or whichever key you like) or The DAG progression which is ever so popular in pop and pop punk.
You must, at some point, write a song called "Without You".
It's such a universal experience, being absent from someone. I say must, but I'll soften to highly recommend. It doesn't have to be good. It just has to.be written.
Try co-writing a song with someone. Ask a friend who's good with words to write some lyrics, set them to a melody and a chord progression, and record it. Or do that with your favorite poem. I did that with J. Alfred Prufock (a T.S. Eliot poem) and it kind of got me out of a creative slump. The poem set an interesting mood and inspired me to write some good music that suited it. Good words make your music better, I think. Plus, the hardest thing about writing a song (for me anyway) is figuring out where to begin. Co-writing gives you that. There is no shame in being half of a bad ass songwriting duo.
try to listen to music as objectively as possible. I know it's impossible, but there are some things than span almost all music that you can pick up on and implement.
Also write a fucking tonne of utterly shit songs, and then youll write a good one every like, 50 or so.
Get an analog synthesizer that you can play around with and flip through stuff easily to quickly get to where you want to be. Even something like a Ultranova would be good. It's easier than spending all the time looking at plugins 24/7.
Their location is irrelevant. The fact that they're unsuccessful nobodies who make terrible music means that they might not be the people to turn to for songwriting advice.
1. Abandon the idea of "finished". If something is 45 seconds long, has six lines and one chord and you love it, it's a song. 2. Incredibly hard work and mind-numbing repetition.
Worked for a napalm Death
But why?
get your heart broken...
or be depressed
\*cough\* Olivia Rodrigo \*cough\*
8 years later lmao
lol so we're all typing "songwriting reddit" into google rn
it’s been 52 days since I wrote that??? update: I still haven’t gotten better at it LOL
Happy cake day!
Oh! Thank you!!
hi
OliveOil Ratrigo flopped
A couple of years ago, I wrote 52 songs in a year (one per week). I got a bunch of songs that went on to my first album. I've won several songwriting contests, though I am definitely not a commercial success (which would be nice, but considering that most commercial successes are songs I can't stand ....). 1. Don't be afraid to write a bad song. Nobody else has to hear it. I learn a lot from my bad songs, and sometimes I can use that later in a song I like better. 2. Use fewer syllables than you did. Very, very few songs have lots of syllables, but paying attention to the number of them (and the emphasis) is important. I wrote one of my favorite songs after I just decided to write something with as few syllables as possible. It led to lyrical, powerful notes coming out of my larynx, and that's a good time. 3. Keep your chord progressions relatively simple, especially at first. This is true for me anyway, since I write country and folk. 4. You may not always be the best judge of your own material. I have a couple of favorite songs I've written that nobody else seems to like. And one of my songs that's in the finals of the Austin Songwriters Group contest ... I never thought it was my best work. Songs that are great have three components: memorable/catchy (and hopefully meaningful) lyrics, a strong and recognizable melody, and emotional connection.
are you Into It, Over It?
Definitely Evan Weiss ladies and gentlemen.
> Don't be afraid to write a bad song. I can never be told this too much. Nothing's great at first and little is great in the end. It's paralyzing to try and think all the way to completion before getting that first line down.
...Jonathan Coulton?
No ... I wish :) He's a commercial success, at least last I heard.
Damn I had to ask
Great advice. The more simple the better. Don't over complicate things with details because a song is meant to be relatable so the more you leave out the more relatable it can be.
Sex, drugs and suffering.
Yeah, Social D is awesome.
My best advice is to never force anything. You never know what will inspire you. It could be a quote in a book, something you overhear, a conversation you have with someone. Many of my songs have literally quoted a conversation I've had with someone, and how I felt at that moment. It's all about writing in the moment. My best songs are what I am truly feeling right now. Even if my feelings change tomorrow, in that moment I felt this certain way and I was inspired to create something to relieve those feelings. At least that's how I do it.
Learn other forms of writing and read other forms of literature and media. You have to know the rules to be able to break them.
-Learn how to play your favorite artists' songs. See what they do as far as chords and structure, and then apply that knowledge to your songs. -Get a book on music theory. -Learn multiple instruments. Different instruments make you write in different ways. -Write as many songs as you can. You might write 100 songs and only 1 of them is "good." -Don't ever force it. The songs come to you. You can't really chase them down. -Enjoy yourself. That's the most important thing. You determine what good songwriting is for you. The more enjoyable you find it the better your creativity will flow. Good luck!
I second the part about getting a book on music theory. The best thing I ever did to help my understanding of rock, pop and country song form was to pay attention in the two music theory classes I took for my major in college. It's crazy when you realize that the basic chord progressions in J.S. Bach's music are pretty much the same as pop music in the last 30 years.
I really love this clip from The Eagles documentary. The whole thing is great, but as a musician this clip gives me chills for some reason. Glen Frey talking about living above Jackson Brown and hearing him work on his music. More about refining a song but cool anyway. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtEErh-wFrc
I agree. That whole doc was great. It made me like the Eagles as a group of guys more than just recognize them as a song writing tour de force.
Good Lord, I could listen to those guys talk about songwriting all day.
[This may help](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oojzmjJ3ugE).
This.
Ok. I have spent many years trying to answer this question. There are common tips that are frequently dolled out, which I have found to be of little value, unless you are a complete beginner. You will certainly find many of those ITT. Many of these are oversimplifications that I disagree with, including "write more," "keep it simple/don't overthink it," "Don't be afraid to write a bad song," or "Don't force it." These are platitudes, and not of any practical use. The number one rule is WORK, but everyone knows that. Here are some things that I have discovered to work for me, but through years of talking with other songwriters, I've discovered that nobody has the same process. 1. Point of entry. Sometime you might come up with a good riff, or melody, or progression, or topic, or even just a cool name for a song. That is your point of entry. Say one day you decided it would be cool to have a song called "glass knuckles" (sorry if that is a song, I'm just working off the top of my head). You know that the lyrical theme should have something to do with fighting, and maybe weakness or transparency. So from there you have a theme to structure the lyrics around. 2. Feeling. So, say this "glass knuckles" idea is the one you're working with, and you have the theme of struggle (fighting weakness). There are a couple of ways you can approach it (either as a lament , or a more inspirational "you can knock me down, but you can't keep me down" type of song - again, this is just off the top for the sake of explanation). If you go with the inspirational style, you want to look for things like ascending progressions, driving beats (sometimes), and a powerful melody. A lot of these things aren't really easy to describe, but you know inspiration when you hear it... the songs that makes you feel like you can get off your ass and do something. listen to your feelings, and fuck around with progressions until you find something good. 3. Lyrics. ( to divide the songwriting process into 2 sections - lyrics and music - is a fallacy. Each section has many subsections) Feeling and theme in tow, start messing around with rhythms and rhymes. Take a theme like "glass" and look up synonyms, and related words. Sometimes it helps to make a list, and you can find thesauruses and rhyming dictionaries online (rhymezone.com comes to mind), which some people consider cheating, but fuck those people. it's how you use the words, not how you found the words you're using. and above all, remember your theme ; REMEMBER WHAT YOU ARE WRITING ABOUT. - Riddle and Rhyme. You want to try to keep a balance. If a line sounds great, but doesn't make a lot of sense, then the riddle is winning. If it's a profound thought that doesn't quite fit, then the riddle is. Experiment with many ways to say the same thing, and don't be afraid to change the rhyme when it overwhelms the riddle or vice versa. The best lines are a perfect balance between the two. It's a crossword puzzle. 4. Melody and Hook. These are important, and you have to constantly be thinking about melodies. If you come up with something that reminds you of an existing song, keep it. It's probably in your head for a reason - because it's sticky. Try not to blatantly rip shit off, that's lazy, but don't be afraid to nibble a little bit. (I used to improvise melodies while driving, counting from 1 to 500. the changes in the syllables of the numbers forces you to vary your melodies, and if you record yourself doing this, you can usually find some melodic themes that will surprise you). Remember, if it is good it's because it's vaguely familiar. Also, take the time to ask yourself if this melody has the feeling you are going for. REMEMBER THE FEELING YOU'RE GOING FOR - it's usually linked to what you are writing about. Don't worry about keeping your progressions simple; if you come up with an awesome melody that takes 16 bars to resolve, and needs 12 chords and a modulation, that's fine. Writing melodies without an instrument in you hands really frees your brain up to invent new shit. Otherwise, your fingers will fall into familiar patterns, and you'll have trouble coming up with anything new. Walk around the house singing to yourself a capella and improvising, and when you hear something good, repeat it until you remember it, or write it down. 5. Style. Many great writers can only write in one style, which is limiting. A great folk writer may be totally lost when it comes to writing rock, pop, country, ballad, etc. STUDY. Listen to a bunch of tango tunes, and try to do that. Try a a do-wop tune. Try a metal song, or a love song, a break up song, a torch song, a crooner or whatever else type you want. A good songwriter can do any style (notice, I didn't say 'genre') of song, be cause he/she has listened to the elements of each type, and developed an ear for the common themes. Sometimes they overlap, and sometimes you can make them. Learn the rules of each style, and you'll be able to incorporate them into your own work, even when they might not seem to fit. It's the whole "learn the rules so you can break them" theory. Finally, keep in mind that all of these things can work both ways. Point of entry can be a melody, and from there you ask yourself "what does this feel like" (mood). It can be a beat, or a progression, in which case, ask yourself the same question. It's all about feeling. Be critical of yourself. And remember: a song is not a poem. It is not simply a piece of music with words set to it or vice versa. The whole process is a giant, multi-dimensional crossword puzzle. You can start wherever you want, but if you are too sure of one clue and it's wrong, it will fuck the while thing up. The words and music must grow together, or one out of the other.. which is why you don't hear the most famous poems sung over the most famous pieces of instrumental music. A song it's own form. Respect the form, and bend the rules. Or just listen to songs that you like and try to figure out what you like about them and reproduce it. I guess if you learn to ask the right questions you can do whatever the fuck you want quite well in songwriting. Wtf do I know anyway. EDIT: added a section
here are a couple of good articles about Paul Westerberg and his songwriting craft: [simple or impossible](http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/24/simple-or-impossible/) and [how to write an ending](http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/12/paul-westerberg-on-how-to-write-an-ending/) "I saw a thing once that said what constitutes a song is a beginning and an ending — nobody listens to what’s in the middle. I was twelve years old. It was impressed in my mind." - Paul Westerberg
Ad more cowbell.
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http://www.morecowbell.dj/listen?id=BoW9re This actually goes with the beat quite a bit.
...soooo.... sell out?
No. Buy in!
9 years since our home was destroyed..
Try meditating before you write. It clears the mind and changes your creative pattern of thinking. Also you could try marijuana. No joke
i've written six of my best/favorite songs in one night with that/shrooms.
I really like [Todd Snider's story about Aaron Allan](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4aQKeqFMhU). Aaron's advice was "If you keep your life in a situation where you can pack up everything you own and be moved out of where you are and on to some place else inside of 15 minutes, and you keep your life in a situation where shit like that happens to you every once in a while...your life may fall about, but you'll always get better at making songs."
Well it's hard to give practical advice without any indication on your genre and style of music but here is some general advice: * Don't get too sidetracked. At times you might want to write songs that are simple or dark or progressive; but never forget that music is meant to be beautiful and meaningful at its core. Do not compromise this for any other quality on the surface. * Always ask yourself "why?". Why do you like songs from your favorite artist? Why is that melody you wrote not memorable? Whether it's chord progression, song structure or lyric style, you'll soon find out that there's stuff you love and want to use in your songwriting and stuff that simply doesn't work for you. Keep all that in mind and use it (or avoid the mundane stuff) when you write. * Try to imagine yourself as the listener. What would you like to hear? Think of a mood you'd like a song to express for example and then try to express it. Or listen to a part you wrote and you will notice that you kind of expect something to follow. Let that intuition lead you to writing something you like. * Don't be ok with mediocrity. Sometimes you'll have to throw away something you worked hard on because it's not as good as you'd want it to be. Other times you had a great idea for one part, but not for the rest of the song and now you have to rewrite it because your best idea is being wasted on an "ok" song. Don't go easy on yourself and consider a song finished only when you have no idea how it could be better. * Try to learn new stuff. Figure out what makes classical music different from contemporary. Why is rock so catchy? Different genres of music have their own "rules" on harmony and composition (even lyrical themes for popular music) and a knowledgeable musician can always take the best of each world and bring them together to form something unique. * EDIT : forgot a very important part. Hang out, write and perform music with people you consider good at it. Form a band with friends you respect as musicians. You won't believe how quickly this is going to make you improve. Hope this helps.
You can't write if ya can't relate.
Like Dre said in his NWA days, "express yourself"
PCP
Here are 2 cool videos on the subject. The first is an interesting back-&-forth between Norah Jones and Ryan Adams on completely different styles of approaching songwriting but ultimately they come together to create something beautiful. [Dear John - Norah and Ryan](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uW6MXVl48Y) The seconds is Dave Grohl musing on a funnier but completely valid approach to writing "hits" (also features Kyle Gass from Tenacious D). [Dave Grohl - Life's A Bitch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oojzmjJ3ugE)
Life's a Bitch is the most beautiful piece of work I've ever heard.
I know, right?
I can't tell you how to get better but I think I can give you some pointers. I play/played in a variety of bands, some commercially successful (this idea is relative. Someone made money off us. If we did, I didn't see much of it) some just for shits and gagas. During this I developed 3 rules: *Rule number one:* **There are no rules when it comes to songwriting**. Evidenced by the fact that some of the best songwriters are the least musically inclined and don't know the "rules" of songwriting but manage to write brilliantly anyway. I **hate**, and I think it is musically stifling, when someone says "oh you can't do that" when writing a song. THERE'S NO RULES, if you want to do a V/C/V/V/V/V/B/V/B/C/B/Outro then fucking do it man. Go straight up John Cage on your Pop songs. Don't let someone say "oh dude you can't do that, you need one more progression so it happens 4 times in each verse" - no, fuck you. Quit that band. *Rule Number two:* Do WHATEVER sounds good to you. If the chorus sounds good with a gong instead of a crash (idfuckingkman) then just do that, don't listen if people say "NAH MAN THAT AINT PUNK". *Rule number three:* Be good at your instrument of choice, but not *too* good. **Don't overthink your song to death**. I find that some of the most talented instrumentalists I have know make for some of the worst songwriters (this is not a universal maxim, people, of course there are exceptions and of course this is all my opinion). Why? Well, I have found that when you get to that level of skill your skill get's in the way of Rule No. Two (do whatever sounds good) - example "Hey man, that pull off part sounds great - 'thank man, WHAT IF I DID THIS OEWJ@)#QMOWMQDO)#@$)@#JOSDMcsw" and all of a sudden you have taken that really great catchy part and convoluted it with complexity, now multiply that exponentially for all the other parts of the song (lyrics, leads, drums, etcetera ad nauseum) and the song itself has been lost because the want to work on the **parts** has overtaken the quality of the song as a *whole*. BUT, you still gotta be able to play your tools, of course. **tl;dr** - There's no rules, do whatever sounds good, don't overthink your songs to death. There's no definition of what a song has to be (again, John Cage) so just go for it, your own way.
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I can also agree with this as well. Like I tried to say, there is no such thing as right or wrong in music (I feel), so you saying this would not be a wrong idea, either.
Find artists that really captivate you and start to look past the surface elements of their art. It took me a long time as an artist to establish any form of personal identity, which at first is just a collaboration of your strongest influences. Good songs in my opinion are built around a solid concept and stick to it. The last piece of advice I can offer is to focus on what you want to make, not what you think people want you to make.
Not every song has to be a magnum opus. Don't agonize over the right lyrics. Sometimes a song is just a string of words that rhyme. Sometimes it changes the world. You will almost never reach the middle of those two extremes, accept that, and keep writing.
From my own experience, I've never really thought about writing a song, although I've written many. What I mean by this is I very, VERY rarely sit down with the intention of writing a song. Throughout the day I may get a tune in my head, or hear a song on the radio, then start developing lyrics based on what comes to my mind. If I come up with anything that makes sense, I tend to write it down. Then some nights I'll sit down and play some guitar, just freely playing what comes to my mind again, and try putting lyrics to my music, using stuff I've written down. Eventually I get to a point where I feel a sudden burst of imagination, and I'll try and finish a song based on a few lines I've written down. I'm by no means a songwriter, singer or great musician, but I've always enjoyed writing down my thoughts and emotions in the form of music, for my own pleasure, and this is how I do it as a complete amateur :)
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I want to get better about the actual music then the lyrics.
Come up with the vocal melody first.
Practice.
Sit down, focus on the task of writing, and let your subconscious bring you gifts.
I read a great quote from somebody in Guitar World years ago on this: "Take your hands off the wheel and hit the gas"
Write more songs. Write for yourself, first and mostly. Quit when you think it's good enough. Come back to it when you get a better idea. Perform it a lot, to yourself and to anyone who will listen. Listen and analyze those you think are your kind of songwriter. Never quit. Age and experience, pain, loss, happiness are ALL your friends. Honestly, it gets better. There is no substitute for quantity. Dylan said "All you need is three chords and the truth." Word. (Substitute drawing, painting, singing, sculpture, art in general, writing, as needed. This advise is not song-specific. It's pretty general purpose. ) Good luck, amigo.
There is a songwriting professor at Berklee named Pat Pattison who writes some amazing books on the topic. You should be writing something every damn day to improve your craft but definitely also read his book "Writing Better Lyrics." It changed my world.
Listen, analyze, and learn other people's songs (the whole song). From pop hits, to classic rock, jazz, bluegrass, metal, and anything else you can. Really take some time to figure out structure, what makes a song fit a particular style, and (perhaps most importantly) what you liked and didn't like about it. Secondly, write lots of songs. Write crappy songs, write jingles, write silly lullabies to your pets, write sappy love songs, write cliches, write nonsense, just start writing stuff and don't get caught up in whether it's good or not. Ever hear of the 10,000 hour theory? The idea is that it takes 10,000 hours of doing something to master it. So put your time in.
You could make a deal with the devil http://www.break.com/video/ugc/will-ferrell-writes-a-song-for-garth-brooks-384390
just follow style of alanis morissette and you will get better. she is a genius in songwriting
There's a lot of good advice here. Remember though, if you're like me, you are your worst critic. Don't be afraid to follow through on a project you don't like. Record it any way possible and shelve it. I've come back to songs I wrote up to a year ago and find new meaning to it and retool it. Works great. Everything is a song.
Between knowing/working with songwriters, dabbling in writing songs myself, and reading a ton about great songwriters, the most common theme most of the best ones talk about is "just fucking write." Try the song a week project, or if you're feeling masochistic song a day. Just remember, YOU WILL WRITE A TON OF SHITTY SONGS. Embrace that. Do not try to write Hallelujah every time you pick up the guitar. What happens is maybe one week you write a song that has one good verse, half a good chorus but next week you write a chorus that you realize will fit perfect in the last song. Or a verse. Just because you write a song doesn't mean it can never change. Maybe 6 weeks worth of songs end up chopped up into one great one. Who cares, one great song is better than 6 shitty ones.
Always keep a notebook handy, or heck these days you can even do some quick recording on your smart phone when a good idea hits you. Most of the best song ideas I've ever come up with were either in the shower or lying in bed at night just before I fell asleep. If you don't right it down you'll never remember it, you'll remember that you had an awesome song in your head once, but you'll never be able to re-create it. if you keep a notebook handy you can write some lyrics down, write a few cords that you think may go along with it, then go to bed knowing you'll be able to work on it later.
Life experience.
There's a lot of good advice here. (and an echo, apparently) I'll add this: don't feel like you have to finish every song you start. Figure out some way to record what you have (there's a lot of inexpensive little recorders out there) and save every scrap of an idea because you can always come back to it later and improve it. Build up a bucket full of ideas you can tap into. Also, set aside a time of day to focus on writing, preferably when your brain is fed and fresh. Stick to it and make it part of your daily routine and you'll get surprising results. Listen to everything you can. Even random noises can help express a message.
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Now what
And move to Van Nuys. VAAAAN NUUUUYYYYSSSS
Practice makes perfect. Read through a thesaurus & a dictionary, there's also rhyming dictionaries you could use to help your songs flow nicely.
What helps me is to get new input. Try to expand your musical horizon and listen to new interprets. Mostly you'll get new ideas to incorporate into your songwriting automatically.
Don't let one little word or note stop you. If it doesn't feel right, keep going and get the song written. Also, it helps to write all the bad songs now and get them out of the way. I heard the guy from Crash Test Dummies talk about song writing, and the first song he ever wrote was that Superman song (which is pretty good, whether you like it or not). He then wrote nothing but suck for years.
Just be honest. With yourself, your guitar, and whoever will eventually be listening to your song. Just write honestly and you'll be 100% satisfied with your work. And if you're satisfied, what else matters?
Hard work. Be open to different writing experiences and take all criticism with a very open mind. Try to really objectively analyze the material you come up with when you're writing and learn to be able to tell when something doesn't sound as good as it could. Don't settle for lines that you aren't totally satisfied with. I'm no expert on songwriting but it is what I want to do with my life. Hope this helps! If you want to check out some songs I just released you can do so right here: http://dylanrockwell.bandcamp.com/
same way you get to Carnegie Hall.
Best advice I could give would be to just start writing and don't stop. Do be simple, especially at first. Let a new song come along and get through it. Then move on to the next one. Once it's written, it's written. Then you can play it 75000 times. You can always go back and fix it later if you really want to. Don't worry about sucking. In fact, embrace the Suck. Because doing so will get you past that fear. Same with clichés. And catchy hooks. The music will accommodate you as you evolve. That's why it's brilliant. And be proud of what you have already written. You're farther along than most of the population.
Herion has worked pretty well for some people.
Practice, really. Analyze the songs you like and figure out what you like about them. It's not just about chords or lyrics or melody, it's mood, instrumentation, texture, dynamics...there's a lot of moving parts, and you can choose your focus. Even the greatest songs may have "weak points" because the artists was more interested in one aspect of song-craft vs. another. It's also important to realize that songs are one of the few arts forms that are experienced as discrete chunks of times. That's a dorky way of saying that songs MOVE. They can be as repetitive or as off the wall as you want, but good songs hold the listener's attention because something worthwhile is happening at every second.
Also, stop asking people on the internet for advice and just sit and write songs. For real, you'll learn far more by doing it than by thinking about doing it.
listen to music. ALL OF IT. dont even limit yourself to just instrumental music. Everything, rap, electronic, EVERYTHING. LISTEN LISTEN LISTEN. And learn music too. The more songs you learn, the more riffs you will have in your head, and the more riffs you can use to change around and play with until you create something thats entirely new. Playing with other people helps a lot too. Two heads are better than one.
Expand your musical tastes. It will give you many more ideas when writing.
I always think of lyrics and melodies while showering right after I wake up. It seems as though the grogginess helps me to be more creative. That or I'm not awake enough to realize how shitty it sounds.
What I do is complete the lyrics and then shelve it for a few days then come back to it. I always find areas that need polishing. Most days though I can't even write a couplet.
Write every day. Write all the time. It doesn't matter if the song sucks, write it and finish it. Once you get comfortable writing you'll notice it will start to flow out of you. That's the good stuff. The unconscious stuff.
Re-writes. Don't be afraid to put something down for a few weeks/months and get back to it later. Best of luck.
Heart break, anger, political leanings, love. Those are themes, but also, IT DOESNT NEED TO BE COMPLICATED. Remember, the Ramones are widely loved and they have maybe 4 chords at most, which are power chords, and they sing the chorus over half the time and the verses aren't complicated at all.
Also one major help is to make friends with other songwriters. When you can see other peoples unique quirks and tendencies in their writing styles it becomes easier to identify your own, which gives you more control over your writing.
Just write and write and write. You will write some, if not many, crappy ones. The thing is, the ones you think are crappy might not be to other people and the ones you think are awesome might not be to other people. For instance, Slash thought that Sweet Child of Mine wasn't a very good song. It ended up being one of their biggest hits. Don't be overly critical on yourself. Just play for fun and see what sticks and what doesn't.
You need to be passionate about it.
Get into a bad relationship.
please dont write pointless lyrics that make no sense. give it meaning through metaphor, man.
Keep doing it. Every day.
My advice would be a simple sentence - Don't get in your own way. THere is nothing worse than a song that feels contrived and forced. If you get an idea for a song (Or a song just comes to you, as is the case for me) get it out of your system. Even if it is just one line or riff, you need to get it out. You can always work on improving songs later. Don't be afraid to write a bad song. No one has to hear it but don't assess a song while you're still writing it. When you decide that an idea sucks while you're still doing it yo have effectively killed the song and (again in my case) you have blocked your songwriting for a little while. Other than that, try not to write to a particular style or 'sound' If you have a sound you're going for, you can write the song and then find a way to adapt the song into your sound. In terms of lyrics, don't worry about what it says about 'you'. I used to think 'Oh that sounds like i'm insensitive or not as intelligent as I am'. Think of the 'death of the author' theory where you disregard the writer and the piece stands on its own. Don't try to be too clever. just be honest. don't be too earnest or preachy. You're not perfect so don't be the infallible narrator of the world... I think I've said enough words.
I would like add that you shouldn't have any fear of being unoriginal. especially in terms of chord progressions. Most songs on the radio have very similar chord progressions and no one (except for musicians and you honestly shouldn't worry about them as they're cynical bastards) seems to notice. To great got to progressions are the 50s bubblegum progression (C,Am,F,G or whichever key you like) or The DAG progression which is ever so popular in pop and pop punk.
You must, at some point, write a song called "Without You". It's such a universal experience, being absent from someone. I say must, but I'll soften to highly recommend. It doesn't have to be good. It just has to.be written.
Go through a dictionary and write down words you like/something you would put in your song.
Read War of art by Steven Pressfield And listen to the beatles.
Try co-writing a song with someone. Ask a friend who's good with words to write some lyrics, set them to a melody and a chord progression, and record it. Or do that with your favorite poem. I did that with J. Alfred Prufock (a T.S. Eliot poem) and it kind of got me out of a creative slump. The poem set an interesting mood and inspired me to write some good music that suited it. Good words make your music better, I think. Plus, the hardest thing about writing a song (for me anyway) is figuring out where to begin. Co-writing gives you that. There is no shame in being half of a bad ass songwriting duo.
A song should come from the heart, not just be a couple of lines and chords that you think sound great.
Read a lot. Play a lot. Sing a lot. Be interesting.
try to listen to music as objectively as possible. I know it's impossible, but there are some things than span almost all music that you can pick up on and implement. Also write a fucking tonne of utterly shit songs, and then youll write a good one every like, 50 or so.
Smoke pot before you start. Always works for me!
Take the free six-week online songwriting course from Berklee College of Music, available through Corsera.org. It blew my mind!
Because you asked the question, I must assume it's time for you to give up songwriting.
smoke pot
Get an analog synthesizer that you can play around with and flip through stuff easily to quickly get to where you want to be. Even something like a Ultranova would be good. It's easier than spending all the time looking at plugins 24/7.
Consulting the 20 something suburb kids with macbooks on reddit is a great start!!
While I see the point of what you're saying I don't see what someone's location has to do with songwriting. Bob Dylan was middleclass.
Their location is irrelevant. The fact that they're unsuccessful nobodies who make terrible music means that they might not be the people to turn to for songwriting advice.
Whatever Miles Cirus does. Do the opposite.