How to Be a Good Songwriter

Good songs have an effect on people, moving them emotionally. Whether you're trying to write a catchy pop song, a country rocker or a soulful ballad, there's no doubt that expressing yourself in song, and having other people connect with it, can be an intensely rewarding, creative experience. Songwriting can also be a frustrating exercise, especially when writer's block rears its ugly head. While there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to songwriting, and everyone has their preferred way of working, there's always room to improve your songwriting skills. Here are a few steps you can take on the road to becoming a good songwriter.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Musical instrument of choice
• Notebook
• Pen
• Digital multitrack recorder
• Microphone

1. Listen to songs you love with a critical ear. Scrutinize their structure, taking note of how verses, choruses and bridge sections flow. Play along with these songs on your instrument of choice and focus on following their arrangements. This won't deliver a magic formula or template for writing a great song, but it will help you tune in to successful song structures and help demystify the songwriting process.

2. Take note of any interesting words or phrases that you hear in passing. They may be part of an overheard conversation, a snippet from a newspaper column or a quote from a TV talking head. Instead of letting the moment go, write it down in a notebook for future use. If you do this as a matter of habit, you'll soon build up a collection of lines that you can peruse when looking for inspiration, either as a starting point for a song, or for those times when you're trying to fill in a gap in a song you're working on. It's a really rewarding experience when a line you scribbled in a notebook later proves to be the perfect fit for a lyric you've been struggling with.

3. Invite other budding songwriters to sit down and try to collaborate on song ideas. Every writer brings something different to the table and you just might find someone whose writing style complements yours perfectly. Even if you don't stumble upon a great songwriting partnership, it can still be a mutually beneficial exercise, since there's always something to learn when you bounce ideas off other writers. Consider it an opportunity to get some constructive feedback from a good source.

4. Record all of your song ideas. They don't have to be complete songs; they may just be sketches of an idea for a chorus, a verse, or even just a musical phrase or chord progression. Be sure to listen to your recordings often so you can root out the worthwhile ideas and develop them when inspiration strikes. You don't need an elaborate recording studio set-up to do this. Portable, all-in-one digital multitrack recorders are intuitive to use, and will allow you to plug in a mic and quickly record song sketches and demos of considerable quality. Listening back to recordings makes it easier to assess their strengths and weaknesses, which can only help you improve your craft.

5. Join a songwriters online forum. Most forums allow members to post links to MP3s of completed songs, or in-progress works, and have other members critique them. This is a great way to get constructive criticism about your songwriting efforts from your peers. It's also useful for networking with fellow songwriters about all facets of the industry.

6. Experiment with trying to write outside of your usual musical style. Challenging yourself by leaving your comfort zone can broaden your appreciation and understanding of the craft of songwriting. Dabbling in different styles can often help you break out of a rut, especially if it helps you bring a few stylistic touches common to other genres into your songwriting process. This might just be something that makes your song stand out from the crowd.

Tips & Warnings

• If you're just beginning, you may be hesitant about starting to write for fear of making mistakes. Don't let this stop you. Making mistakes is all part of the learning process. Sometimes mistakes can even sound good in unexpected ways and lead a song into a new, unanticipated direction. It's best to embrace this sense of discovery, rather than fear it. Practice, practice, practice! The more songs you write, the more you'll hone your craft. Understand that even if your first songs have some merit, you'll write better songs as you gain experience. There'll probably come a time when you'll look back and be amused, or even a little embarrassed, by your first efforts. Embrace this opportunity to learn and improve by writing every chance you get. If you're suffering from a little writer's block, shake things up a little by trying a different approach. Look at a piece of sheet music of a song you've never heard; write down the chords used in the piece and play them in the first rhythm and tempo that springs to mind. Then, make up your own melody as you play the chords. Since you don't know the original melody, tempo or feel of the song in question, you'll be coming up with something completely new over a musically sound progression. If any parts of this exercise work really well, take them and work on them, and scrap the rest.
• Don't throw any song ideas away. An idea that just doesn't seem worthwhile may inspire you somewhere down the road. Maybe the melody has potential but the lyrics feel forced, or maybe there's a worthwhile hook in the lyric that just needs the right musical vehicle. Sometimes, an old musical idea can take years before it finds a place in a new song that you may be working on, but when it happens, it's all the more rewarding.

References

• Ultimate Songwriting

Resources

• Online Songwriting Forum
• Video: Jesse Harris Songwriting Tips Interview
• Songwriting Tips & Tricks