Songwriting Primer for Budding Songwriters

This is a tool that I use to teach people to learn very fast.

Once they know the basic chords in the first position, I show them how to use those same chords sliding up the neck, following the "dots" on the neck, then I tell them there are no rules

As soon as they have a couple of basic progressions down, I turn on the casio, and run thru a lot of different drum patterns, some slow and some fast,...they very quickly begin to get it.

My next step is to teach them how to write their own song, just pick up a newspaper,there's a story on every page

Posted by don at 05:41 AM

Songwriting with the 90/10 rule

The best tip I ever got was from an incredibly clever lecturer from my university. He advised me that the most 'successful' music tends to be 90% familiarity, 10% originality.

This helped me to stop worrying about trying to be revolutionary with every rhyme, rhythm and chord change (which, by all accounts, seems to be impossible these days in the wake of so much progress).

I got back to a songwriting style that was more about expressing an idea I believed in, or an emotion I needed to offload, and let the originality come from the fact that it was me saying it. (Ego-alert!).

Also, the online rhyming dictionary kicks arse!

Posted by don at 08:02 AM

Zen arts as songwriting

The late Harlan Howard had a songwriting tip to take an existing melody and rewrite the words. Then using the new words rewrite the melody. This is similar to the Zen arts where students model the forms of masterworks.

The good news is that those masterwork forms--after much familiarity through repetition--become embedded in the subconscious. And the subconscious, if you let it do its job, will naturally recombine and alter the forms. This is the long way to say it’s probably a good thing if your work resembles other work you admire. How could the Zen arts and Harlan Howard be wrong?

Posted by don at 03:02 PM

Learn the rules of the songwriting game

You probably think that since you can come up with a nice theme, that your are on the right track ...WRONG ;). It is true that songwriting has no specific rules, but here you are looking for "Ten Steps To Improve", eh?!!.

A song is music + words...

As much as you can, learn music theory and the basics of lyrics/poetry writing. Learning never stops and it's a fact that as you learn more about the rules of the game, you become more skillful bending those rules..!!

And never forget that creating catchy melodies and smart lyrics requires lots of practice.

Posted by don at 09:55 AM

Build a bridge in your songwriting.

Think of the bridge as the "development section" of a sonata - where is it taking you that's different from the verse/chorus?

Posted by don at 05:28 PM

Songwriting structure and music theory

Forget about keys and chord relationships sometimes; things that are completely un-related musically can really work together in the right song and make it startlingly interesting and fresh.

Posted by don at 05:25 PM

What to do with your unfinished songwriting efforts

If you have two unfinished pieces you're stuck on, see if they fit together (I do this a lot). You may have to change keys.

Posted by don at 05:24 PM

All roads lead to the hook

Make sure that everything in your song points to the 'hook' (the idea, the story). Each verse, each line, each word of the song has to point to where you're trying to lead the listener - with the payoff being the chorus.

Posted by don at 04:11 PM

Use contrast in your songwriting

Create contrasting sections. Lyrically, line length is one of the most effective tools to create contrast. Create contrasting sections using one or more structural elements, i.e. contrasting ideas, number of lines, rhyme schemes, etc. Ask yourself, "What have I got? What's different than that?"

Posted by don at 04:06 PM

Rhythm and melody tips

The rhythm of your melody and the rhythm of your lyrics should match. Rhythm has strong and week beats. So do words. When you speak to someone, you use conventional stresses – found in the dictionary – to communicate your ideas as efficiently as possible. If you spoke with the ac-CENT on the wrong syl-LA-ble, people would have a hard time understanding you. Yet this happens over and over again in lyric writing. Match your stresses and your listeners will get what you mean.

Posted by don at 04:05 PM

Other Songwriting Tips Categories

General Advice/Tips
Inspiration
Lyrics Tips
Melody Tips
Song Structure Tips
Song Title Tips
Songwriting Exercises