“Songwriting is like … being possessed. You try to go to sleep but the song won’t let you.”
~ John Lennon ~
Being a Songwriter
A songwriter is someone who is passionate about music the same way a writer is passionate about their stories or an artist about their paintings. They like how the words flow with the melody and how the chord structure gives the song direction and feel. They love how verses tell a story and how the chorus drives the message home. They feed off of emotion and express themselves through words, melody and music.
Songwriting is a craft that you have to continually work at and develop. There’s a saying that in order to write books, you have to write a lot and you have to read a lot. The same principles apply to being a songwriter, but instead of reading a lot, you have to listen a lot in order to hone the craft.
Good songwriters are people who can write in different styles just as great actors can act in different roles. Songwriters see different styles of music as a challenge to grow. They don’t set up mental barriers in their mind and remain open to draw upon whatever inspiration they are given.
Where Do You Start?
There’s no magic on to how to start writing songs. It’s something you constantly have to work at, honing your skills. In today’s world, where everything is instantaneous, it won’t be the same with songwriting. Unlike learning an instrument where you can sit down and practice for an hour a day and get better over time, it doesn’t work that way. Writing songs is all about inspiration. You need a melody and if you don’t have a melody; you don’t have a song. Sounds a little harsh, but that’s the way it works.
This doesn’t mean that you don’t practice writing lyrics all the time or playing your instrument, coming up with neat chord progressions or riffs, because you do.
There are three components that make up a standard song; words, music, and melody. Each of these three components not only compliment each other but in fact blend together. As an analogy, like the different ingredients that go into making a cake. The dry ingredients could be the lyrics, the wet ingredients, the music and the icing on the top is the melody. Everything comes together delightfully, which makes the cake so darn good.
Is there any specific way to write songs? No, not really. You might suddenly come up with a melody while walking down the street. It doesn’t have words or music, it’s just like something came out of the ether and inspired this nice melody in your head. The same could be true for words and music. You might have this really catchy lyric in your head or a really great riff. Sometimes they all come at once. Everyone’s inspirations are different and that’s what makes music so unique.
No matter what inspires you first, the most important thing that you must do is capture the idea right away. The beauty of smart phones these days is you can capture your inspiration immediately as it strikes you, by singing the melody or the riff you have into your recording app or writing the lyrics in your notepad app.
These inspirations can come out of nowhere at any time; while cutting the grass, driving in the car, sitting at your desk at work. Whatever your circumstance may be, capture the idea right away or it will be gone. Trust me on that one. You think you might remember it a few hours later when you’re sitting at the piano, but chances are you will forget it by then. There are just too many distractions that will cause you to lose focus.
The other aspect that will determine where you start has to do with your experience as a musician or a writer. You don’t have to be both. That’s the beauty of songwriting. There are many successful collaborators where one person writes the music and the other person writes the lyrics. There are amazing musicians that couldn’t write a decent set of lyrics to save their lives, so for all you writers out there, being a lyricist is just as important.
When learning how to write songs, a good place to start is by learning your favorite songs. Learning songs will teach you so many things that you draw upon for your own songs. It will teach you the different chords the songwriter used for the verses and the chorus. What rhyming schemes they used in the lyrics. How they used melody to draw distinct characteristics between the verses and the chorus.
It’s important to stay positive when you start learning how to write because your songs will probably suck at first. What sounds great in your head doesn’t always translate when the song is finished. Sometimes they just don’t work. Expect as you become a more accomplished songwriter that one out of every five songs might be good. The other’s not so much. But rather than regarding them as terrible, think of them as stepping stones to the good ones.
As you get comfortable writing, you’ll develop your own style and way of doing things. You will also likely write similar songs to the bands you listen to, so don’t get too caught up with trying to be unique. Most of the great songwriters copy a certain sound that is popular at the time. Put it this way, there are not too many lone wolves out there.
There are no hard and fast rules on where to start when learning how to write songs, and there are definitely no rules whatsoever when it comes to writing melodies or where they come from, because they are driven directly by inspiration.
This article was taken from my ebook All About Songwriting available for pre-order at the following digital stores or immediately available on Amazon.