Songwriting Tips
My Top 10 Songwriting Tips for Budding Songwriters…
1. Write Every Day
Ever heard of the term “Practice Makes Perfect”? Well it’s not the worst law to live by! As you begin to write songs every day you will feel yourself improving all of the time.
2. Don’t Be Afraid of Making Mistakes
What you can initially think are mistakes can turn out to be inspired moments in your songwriting career.
Just listen to “Creep” by Radiohead, that quick harsh guitar strum that comes in before the chorus was actually hit out of frustration, and yet turned out to be one of the defining moments of that song and played a big part in what made that song such a hit.
“There is no better way to pick up your own songwriting tips than by making mistakes...”
3. Try new things
Don’t get stuck playing the same chords over and over. Make sure you try new chords, new vocal melodies and new tempos all of the time.
This will inspire creativity and prevent you from getting into a rut with your songwriting.
4. Listen to music
Listen to as much music as you can, and not just any music, music that inspires you.
Listen to songs that you love; fun or sad, epic or calm, all of this is bound to inspire some creativity for you to begin writing your own songs. Also make sure you listen to new music to see what’s coming out at the moment.
It’s always good to stay in touch with our time and not to find yourself writing very dated music.
5. Stay focused
Take this songwriting tip into consideration in all walks of your songwriting career. Bad songs are ones that lose focus of the point that they’re meant to be talking about. One point equals one song.
Also be aware of your focus as a songwriter, are you focused on being a songwriter or being an artist? Are you focused on writing songs commercially or just for yourself and friends?
Once you know what your focus is it becomes a lot easier to make a start on writing the kind of songs that you want to write.
6. Be Dynamic
Keep dynamics in mind when you write your songs. This is a great songwriting tip as this is one of the key factors in all great songs.
Your song needs to include light and shade i.e. quiet parts and louder parts. This is normally the separation between the verse and the chorus.
7. Genre – Forget about it!
Thinking about genre is only going to hinder your creative process and as a songwriter this is clearly a bad thing.
Let yourself write whatever you want, be free when songwriting. Genre is only a final marketing term to categorize your music, it shouldn’t be something that obstructs your songwriting in any way.
8. Co-write – Never throw out the idea of co-writing!
With the right blend of styles you can come out with some fantastic songs. Just look at Guy Chambers and Robbie Williams writing hits like “Let Me Entertain You”, which was no small success!
9. Give everything it’s own space
When arranging the instrumentation of your song, you want to make sure that each part complements each other and does not clash or cloud another part. Reggae is normally a great example of this. Know where to play around and where to keep it simple.
Give the vocal space with nothing too complicated behind it whilst it’s present, in any long gaps then let the instrumentation lead the way, choosing which instrument will take the lead and which instruments will play simply behind it.
10. Success is achievable
An important songwriting tip is to never think that you can’t make it as a songwriter, because you really can. It is a teachable skill and you will improve over time. Stick at it, work hard and you will reap the rewards.
