Learn to Write Songs

Some people become so excited about the idea of becoming a famous songwriter that they forget about all the hard work and inspiration that's involved in writing a solid hit. While a certain amount of talent is needed to succeed, songwriting should be seen as a skill that should be learned before you can hope to accomplish much as a musician. While a good part of it ultimately lies with the creative process, first learning the ropes requires self-awareness and critical listening skills as much as anything else.

Steps

Learning to Write

  1. Learn the basics of an instrument. As a musician, an instrument is a way to express yourself. As a songwriter however, it's more of a tool. A songwriter will use an instrument to play out his ideas and hear how they sound to the human ear. Of course, as a prospective songwriter, this means you should at least know how to play the basics of an instrument. While advanced skill in one or more instruments will make it easier to handle some of the technical aspects of songwriting, most music can be written with simple chords and scales.
    • A guitar or a keyboard are the best instruments to use when writing music.[1] They're the most versatile, and can serve as both a rhythm and lead instrument.
  2. Take music lessons. Music lessons are a good way to pick up skills fast from a master of the craft. You can avoid picking up bad habits with a given instrument, and getting proper directions for your practice is a great way to stay motivated. In addition, most teachers for a given instrument will have experience in writing music of their own. They can offer you specific advice with each step of writing songs of your own.
    • If you want a private music instructor, you should check in the local newspaper in the classifieds as well as online ad sites like Craigslist and Kijiji. Professional music instructors post their availability and specialty in these ads. Depending on where you live, you may be able to find several and choose the one you think is best for you.
    • Most universities and high schools offer courses in music. Even if you only join the school band to play standard tunes, the experience you gain will carry over into everything you write later on.
  3. Analyze some hit songs.[1] Whether you like the music on the radio or not, there's no arguing with the fact that the hits are getting airplay because they succeeded in some way as songs. Put on a few of the top hits featured on the Billboard Hot 100.[2] Listen to these songs for the use of melody, rhythm, song structure and lyrical content. Regardless whether you enjoy the finished product or not, decide for yourself which things work or don't work.
    • Don't worry much about genre. A song is a song, and genre usually comes through in the way the music is played. Even so, if you have a certain type of music you would like to write in, you can analyze some of the hits of that genre if you choose. Keep in mind however that all genres will have something to potentially offer you as a songwriter. Keep an open mind.
    • Keep in mind that a lot of the big hits you hear on the radio sound so sharp because of the tens of thousands of dollars that have been invested into the production. While you're listening, you should try to listen for the basic writing tricks and structure.
  4. Attend a songwriting workshop.[3] Songwriting workshops are usually hosted by successful songwriters. For a nominal fee, you can join in and take part in a guided discussion where the songwriter will show you his tricks of the trade. While the worth of the workshop ultimately depends on the writer hosting it, it can be inspiring to convene directly with someone who does what you want to do for a living. As an added bonus, you'll also meet lots of other prospective writers. This can be good for social networking and potential writing collaborations in the future.
  5. Team up with another writer.[4] Sometimes, you may find you are a much better composer than you are a lyric writer; other people may find it vice-versa. You can compensate for your lesser skills by teaming up with another person who excels in the places you do not. Writing with another person can be an immensely inspiring process, as the ideas you think up will have an immediate audience, regardless whether they're actually used in the finished product or not.
    • Some of the most successful songwriting has happened as a pair. Elton John and Bernie Taupin have written all of the former's best-known songs, and take care of the music and lyrics respectively on their own.[4]
  6. Read up on basic musical theory. Music theory seeks to translate music into the more rigid language of a science. Although music theory cannot be relied on solely for songwriting, it's generally underrated by musicians who want quick success with their art. By understanding the technical elements of music, you'll have much better intuition of what notes sound best together. Music theory primer textbooks can be purchased at most music shops and bookstores.
    • Notation is an important part of theory. It is essentially how composers write down music. All things from rhythm, speed (tempo), pitch, harmony and volume are covered in notation.
    • Time signatures are vital for an understanding of music theory. If you read up on time signatures, you'll have an easier time writing sophisticated rhythms.
    • Scales are sequences of notes that sound right together. Chords are combinations of different notes. You'll be learning a lot of both in music theory.

Finding Inspiration

  1. Sit down with your favourite album. A lot of the music you create is going to be a product of the music you've enjoyed the most in your life. Keeping this fact in mind, you can kickstart your own creative inspiration by taking an hour aside to sit down and intently digest one of your favourite albums. Even if you've heard it a hundred times before, you'll approach it in a different way if you have your own songwriting on the mind. Keep an ear out for tricks the musicians use to get their feelings across.
    • Don't worry too much about being a copycat or plagiarizing. Although you should want to be seen as an original artist, there's never such a thing as true originality. The best artists will allow their music to be influenced by the music that's excited them the most, then let their personality fill in the blank spaces for a unique piece of music.
  2. Reflect on important life experiences. Many of the best songs revolve around personal life experiences on the part of the person who wrote it. If you're suffering a case of writer's block and the act of songwriting isn't coming naturally to you, you should sit down for a bit and think about some of the life events that have most shaped you as a person. Love, loss, death and everyday life are common topics for pop songs. If you look hard enough, you'll find interesting stories that have popped up in your life.
    • Even something mundane, like going to get ice cream, can be turned into a poignant song if it's written with enough wit. Starting out however, it's recommended you stick with easier, more important topics.
    • Don't just consider the experiences; consider the way they made you feel as well. For example, a break-up may be usually seen as a negative thing or a source of heartbreak, but you can end up seeing it as a good thing if that break-up led you to finding the partner of your dreams. This ironic feeling could make a solid basis for a good song.
  3. Analyze great lyrics. Lyrics are the opportunity for a songwriter to give a specific indication what the song is supposed to be about. Lyrics will stick in a listeners head as much as the music in some cases, and the importance of having good lyrics cannot be underrated. Before you even sit down to write lyrics of your own, you should keep your ear open for great lyrics while you listen. Listen to the Beatles' Yesterday or the Beach Boys' Surf's Up and analyze the way the songwriters use wordplay, rhyme, metaphor and timing.
  4. Go for a walk. If you're ever feeling down or frustrated that the creativity isn't coming to you, going for a walk is a great idea. Getting outside and putting your body in motion will help encourage creative thought. If you end up walking for long enough, you might hear or see something that sparks a new surge of inspiration.
  5. Listen to a new genre of music. If we're lazy as artists, it may be because we are lazy s consumers of art. You are recommended to check out a wide range of music if you want to succeed as a songwriter. The music we listen to is often the main contributor to your own songs. Listening to new genres of music will flood your brain with fresh stimulation. If you hear something that inspires you in a new way, it could be the start for a new line of inspiration.
  6. Try writing at different times of day.[5] The human brain is naturally more creative at different times of day. Ironically, when you're more easily distracted, it may be easier to focus on making something artistic. If you're generally a morning person, try working on making music at night instead. The vice-versa works if you're a night person. t may not seem as intuitive to be working on something when you're at less than your best, but it may help you approach your would-be material from a fresher lens.

Composing Music

  1. Jam with an instrument. If you know how to play an instrument, you should become comfortable with playing your instrument "just because". If you're noodling on an instrument without imposing any strict goals, you'll allow yourself to relax and let the creative side out to play. Even if you're not trying to write songs explicitly, you might end up coming up with some of your best ideas through casual experimentation.
    • Jamming is best when you have a friend to bounce ideas back and forth from.
  2. Outline the basic outline for your song. When it comes time to get serious about writing your music, you could still do with guidance. Coming up with a concrete structure can be helpful in order to learn the ropes of songwriting. Write out the parts of a potential song on a piece of paper. To begin with, you could even listen to a great song you already love, and copy the structural skeleton. Here are the basic pieces of a song you might be working with:
    • The intro. The intro is the first bit of a song that introduces the listener to the tone, leading into the verse.
    • The verse. Verses are the body of a song, focused around the lyrics. This is where you tell your story.
    • The chorus. The chorus is the "biggest" part of the song, where the catchiest melody is repeated. The same chorus is repeated several times between verses, although some changes to the chorus can happen by the song's end.
    • The bridge. A bridge isn't always in a song, but it's essentially a break away from the typical verse-chorus structure, usually two thirds into a song. This offers a bit of a surprise to the listener, and it serves as a wakeup call to anyone who thought like they had already figured your song out.
    • You may want to come up with a song title before even getting to the music itself. Generally speaking, a title should grab your attention in a few words or less.[1]
  3. Take advantage of ideas that come into your head throughout the day. Creativity is tricky because it never comes when it's convenient. Some of your best creative ideas will emerge when you're far away from an instrument. In this instance, you should record yourself humming the melody or tapping out the rhythm.
  4. Use a notation program.[6] Especially if you're not skilled with an instrument, a notation program like GuitarPro can be invaluable. Instead of playing out a song with a live instrument, you can input the notes and textures into a computer program that will play your vision out for you. This is very helpful because it gives you a chance to hear how sounds combine with one another.
  5. Add harmonies to the existing structure.[7] Harmonies are a technical way to improve a song by adding complementary notes atop one another. One common way of doing this is by having two vocal parts sing different pitches at the same time. Properly adding harmonies to your music requires some knowledge of music theory, but it's easy to do once you get the proper hang of it.
  6. Revise your material over time. If you're still learning the process of songwriting, it's important to note that the songwriting process is never truly over unless you choose to set it in stone. If you're playing your song and think something might sound better done differently, go ahead with it. Better yet, play your ideas out for someone and see what he thinks. The more versions of a song you crank out the closer you'll get to something you're truly happy with.

Writing Lyrics

  1. Carry a lyric journal. A lyric journal is a good way of keeping your creative ideas flowing. Keep a book of lined paper in your pocket. If you end up thinking of an interesting lyrical image or observation about life, write it down. Even if you don't even end up using a lot of the stuff you write down, it will put your brain into a mindset where you'll find yourself inspired more of the time.
  2. Express feelings thorough imagery.[4] Images and metaphors can say a lot in just a few words. Depending on your existing skill as a wordsmith, your initial mileage may vary. As you're still just learning how to write songs however, you shouldn't be worried about creating poignant ideas from the start. Take a lined sheet of paper and write as many images as you can think of that relate to the same mood. For example, feeling sad could bring to mind a rainy day, or a lone snowman melting in the sun.
    • Using poetic devices in your lyrics is a key part of impressing your listeners.[8] Metaphors, alliteration and similes can be a major benefit to your song, so long as you don't overuse or force them in.
  3. Avoid clichéd and forced rhyming.[4] The most common mistake for starting songwriters are to overcompensate for their inexperience by making their lyrics by making the emotions as bold or dressy as possible. Without a proper knowledge of lyrics, new lyric writers will use a lot of the most overused metaphors everyone else has gotten sick of. Do your best to be less obvious with your feelings. Make your lyrics more specific to your own situation.
    • The same issues apply to rhyming. Rhyme schemes are important in songwriting, but you shouldn't be writing a song purely to match it. Meaning is ultimately more important than any sort of poetic device.
  4. Organize your lyric ideas into a proper structure. If you've been keeping up to date with a lyric journal or lyric exercises like an imagery brainstorm, you should amass a considerable amount of ideas in relatively short time. From there, it's time to combine these ideas into something more substantial. Take your ideas and try to pair lines up with others that seem to have a lot in common tone wise. From there, you should modify them to be more consistent.
  5. Trim your lyrics to suit the music. With the majority of songs, the music should ultimately take the precedent over your lyrics. Lyrics can be written without s much regard for the metre and timing until they're fused with the music. The music (especially the verse section) will determine how many syllables you're allowed to fit. As you're trying to combine the two, it may take several runs-through before you start getting lyrics that sound like they match the song. Take care not to rob the lyrics of their meaning by cutting them down too much however. A great idea can be evoked in as few words as possible with the right inspiration.

Video

Tips

  • Genre doesn't matter a great deal hen you're writing the song itself. A lot of genre has to do with the way a song is played rather than the song itself. This is proven by all of the "new genre versions" of songs posted online on places like YouTube.[9]

Warnings

  • Don't try to sound too much like someone else if you're trying to write music. Even if you have a lot of respect for the artist, you'll only ever be your best when you're in tune with what you have to offer uniquely as a musician.[1]

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 http://robinfrederick.com/learn-how-to-write-a-song/
  2. ↑ http://www.billboard.com
  3. ↑ https://www.berklee.edu/summer/songwriting-workshop
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/soldonsong/guide/song_lyrics.shtml
  5. ↑ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/your-best-creative-time-not-when-you-think/
  6. ↑ https://www.guitar-pro.com/en/index.php
  7. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/soldonsong/guide/song_harmony.shtml
  8. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/soldonsong/guide/song_rhyme.shtml
  9. ↑ http://www.youtube.com
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