Writing a song can be either the most difficult or easiest thing you do, depending on how you approach it and how creative you are.
The 10 songwriting tips below can help make writing a song a bit easier.
1. Do a Little Research – You are not the first person to try writing a song, so you should take advantage of the people who came before you. Listen to different songs that you like and pay attention to how they’re structured and what makes them sound good.
2. Read Interviews – This goes along with the first of our songwriting tips: read interviews with your favorite songwriters where they discuss the process they use when writing a song. This will give you a good idea of what writing a song is like and how the process progresses.
3. Apply Similar Techniques – Writing a song is a combination of writing music and lyrics, so use related techniques, like those of poetry, to make the process easier.
4. Read Guides – There are a lot of guides out there, step-by-step videos and books which will guide you through the process of writing a song from first step to last. One of the best songwriting tips we can give you is to make use of these resources. They will help you find a place to get started as well as get you through “sticking” points in the process.
5. Don’t Be Afraid to Imitate – Learning an art like songwriting begins with imitation. Don’t start writing a song from scratch if you can instead start with the template of another song. It’s one of the most overlooked songwriting tips, but you can really have a lot of success by mirroring songs that you like in structure, harmony and scheme.
6. Know Your Content – If writing a song is important to you, there must be a reason: what do you want to say in your song? Knowing what you want to say can help you figure out how to say it. If you want a playful song for children, coupled rhymes and a ‘bouncy’ harmony are better than complicated lyrics and chords.
7. Just Get Started – Probably the best of the songwriting tips is this: do it! You will never have any success in writing a song until you sit down and start writing a song. You need to be self-motivated to succeed in songwriting, so your first step will probably be forcing yourself to write.
8. Then Keep Going – Writing a song is difficult, and when you get stuck you’ll be tempted to give up. Don’t.
9. Get Criticism/Advice – As soon as you’re satisfied with your song, play it for others. Although your friends might not be sages of songwriting tips, they can definitely offer you the perspective of the average listener and tell you where you can improve. Just don't believe everything they say. Don’t underestimate the value of having someone else hear your song!
10. Learn Your Process – Everyone creates in a different way. If none of these songwriting tips seem to work for you, that’s OK: be patient with yourself and try to think about times in the past when you’ve created something, anything, that you were proud of. What were the conditions like? Try to mimic past creative successes.