As a songwriter and producer, I have written a lot of songs during my career in music. When I first started writing as a teenager, I remember listening to all of these amazing bands like Nirvana and the Stone Roses and sitting down by my tape deck every Sunday to tape the UK Top 40 so I could listen to it over and over again and drive my poor parents nuts!
Back then I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I had an old spanish guitar and tatty old chord book with Keith Richards on the front. I thought all I had to do was learn a few chords, jump up and down, grow long hair and I would be as good as these guys. I mean, how hard could it be, right? Well, it’s safe to say that I had a big shock and was kicked down a peg or two, but that didn’t put me off. In fact, it made me even more determined to make music, just like my favourite artists did, and work in an industry doing something I love as much as the air I breathe.
Here are some tips that I have learned over the years to help you save some time, develop your skills and put you on the right path to writing some great songs.
1) Rules? What rules?
There are no hard and fast rules to writing great songs or any songs for that matter. Sometime you just have to go with the flow and let your feelings and emotions take over. That said, the more you understand about how music works, the more tools you’ll have in your toolbelt, and the better you’ll be able to capture the emotions you’re trying to express through song.
2) Write everyday.
Write every day. Even if it’s just for 15-20 minutes, the more you write, the better you will become. I watched an interview with Ed Sheeran and he said something that really hit the nail on the head for me. “Writing is like a old tap, when you first start running it, you get filthy, muddy water, but after a while, all the bad stuff runs away and you’re left with clean water”. That’s what songwriting is like. You have to write every day to get all of the bad songs out of you, and as you progress as a songwriter, the songs will start to flow stronger and smoother and sound much better.
3) Build a songbook.
Keep a notepad or songbook with all of your ideas in it. Make sure you write everything down, good or bad. If you do this every day you will soon accumulate a lot of ideas that could eventually piece together to make that hit song you are looking for. I have written random ideas down and looked back over them during times of writer’s block. Still to this day, I have no idea where the lyrics or ideas came from during that time but more often than not, I’ve had something there that worked and got my creative flow happening again. So, the ideas you write down today may not fit what you are working on now, but at a later date they might just be the missing piece to the puzzle you are putting together.
4) Record everything!
Make sure you record all of your song ideas for future reference. I personally use my phone or iPad, as nearly every phone on the market has a voice recording feature or an app that can do this for you. I love listening back over ideas and picking up where I left off. There have been so many times where I have written songs or had ideas and didn’t record them and then completely forgotten what chords I used or how the melody went, etc. when I came back to it. Now, I will play and record the idea and then, at the end, I will say what chords I’m using, if I’m using a capo, etc. so it’s much easier to go back to my audio notes and carry on working. If you don’t have an instrument but the idea is flowing then whistle of hum the idea and go back to it once you are ready.
5) No distractions.
One of my big rules when I am sitting down to a writing session is to make sure there are no distractions. No phones going off. No TV. Nobody interrupting halfway through. This can easily be achieved by putting your phone on airplane mode or silent, turning the television off, and, if you have people or family over, telling them politely you need however many minutes of privacy with no distractions. Being distracted or interrupted when an idea is fresh and flowing can really throw you off creatively, and potentially even ruin the moment, ending with you losing the creative spark and feeling very frustrated.
6) Re-visit, rewrite.
As you grow and become a better writer, don’t be afraid to re-visit old songs to rewrite them. You will be surprised how easy it is for us once we have written a song to move on and leave it in the dust, never to be looked at or listened to again. But that one song that didn’t quite make the cut the first time round could potentially be an even better song, huge hit or even a movie theme tune after a more experienced rewrite. This has happened to a lot of major artists that scrapped songs, writing them off, but then revisiting them at a later date only to turn them into huge hits.
7) Collaborate.
Find other writers to collaborate with. As the saying goes, “two minds are better than one”. This is especially true when it comes to songwriting. I personally love writing with other people I enjoy bouncing ideas back and forth. It’s a really exciting process when you are looking for a particular lyrical line or chord to take you into a chorus and then your buddy comes up with something magical or vice-versa. It’s just an awesome feeling. and the collaborative process will teach you a lot about yourself as a writer.
8) Hard work and patience.
Be patient. The best things in life are worth waiting for, and it’s the same with writing great songs. Just keep telling yourself that the more you write, the better you will become. As the old saying goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, and neither was a great musician or songwriter. All of the great bands and songwriters that inspire you to do what you do will have put in a serious amount of work, time and effort to be where they are. Be patient, work hard and good things will come your way.
9) Listen to new music.
This is a great way to come up with new song ideas and style. Try to listen to as much new music as possible. Study this music. Listen out for the time signatures, the chords they are using, the tempo, lyrics, time changes, etc. You can learn a lot about songwriting by playing along to other people’s music. Try looking for the guitar tablature or chord charts. If you play piano, sheet music. Just get lost in the songs. It will help you to use and explore new chords and tempi (tempos) amongst many more elements that you might not normally use in your usual day-to-day writing.
I hope you find these tips useful. I really do encourage you to use them on a daily basis and incorporate them into your songwriting sessions. Songwriting should always be a fun and enjoyable experience, so kick back, get inspired and let the music flow.
