So You Want to Write a Song

by

Michael Grady

It is inevitable. As surely as you wanted to learn to play an instrument; and as surely as you love listening to your favorite musicians play and sing, you have realized that you want to write a song. Now what?

There are lots of things you can do to become a good songwriter. Perhaps the most important thing you can do is listen. Listen to the songs you love. Listen to what the words are saying. Listen to the way the music supports the words. Listen to the way your heart pounds when you realize the song is all about YOU!

Then read. Read the lyrics. Read the reviews. Read the interviews. Read articles and magazines about songwriting and songwriters. Read poetry.

“But I just want to write a song!” you say. “Where do I start?”

Nearly every interview with a great songwriter I’ve ever read, heard, or seen included the question, “Do you write the music or the words first?” The answer is always the same. “It depends on the song, it’s always different.” The songwriter is not trying to avoid the question. He or she is trying to make the interviewer, and ultimately the reader, understand that the process of writing a song is as different and individual as each song itself. Songwriters know that every song presents itself in a different way. If you listen, you’ll hear it.

So start with a great Idea, and listen to it. It doesn’t have to be the theory of relativity, or the answer to all the world’s problems. Stick with what you know. Something that makes you feel strongly when you think about it. It can be musical or lyrical. It can be ridiculous, fantastic, stupendous or stupid. Just be clear what the idea is, hold it tight, and let the idea grow. One of my youngest students writes wonderful songs about her cats. Purrrfect!

What did it feel like when you first had the idea that you could write a song? It felt great didn’t it? That’s the feeling you want to pass along. You want everyone who listens to you song to feel that great. Keep that feeling. It will keep you from getting frustrated when you don’t know what to do next.

What To Do Next.

If you don’t already have a musical idea, choose a chord to start on. If you have some music flowing, choose a note to start singing. From there everything is either up or down. Stay with what you know. If you chose a G chord, try a C chord next. If you have a melody in mind keep singing it and playing different chords until one makes your melody sound right, then keep trying chords until you find ones that make your melody sound great. EXPERIMENT! Don’t despair, the right chords are there, the right melody is there. Play and sing nonsense if you have to until it sounds good. It might take hours, days, or years but IT”S YOUR SONG!

There are a thousand ways to get to where you want to be, but the best way is to move toward what sounds good to you. If what you’re playing or singing doesn’t sound as good as you’d like, so what? Change it a bit and keep trying. The more you do it, the more natural it will become. Trust yourself, you know what sounds good. You’ll find it. It just takes time.

I have read in many different places that some songwriters sing nonsense words in places they haven’t written lyrics for yet. This is a very good idea because it helps you keep the flow of your song while you’re trying to write it. Imagine that you want to write a song about how much you love your home state, because some other songwriter just “dissed” it in one of his songs. You don’t know what you’re going to say yet, but you have a great idea to start with. You start with your three favorite chords, D, C, and G and you play them over and over (and over) Then you sing;

“Sweet Home Alabama!  Do de dee do de dooo… Sweet Home Alabama,… doo doe do doo de doo.”  The groove is so good that you sit around singing it for days. You add words and verses as they come to you. After a while you have a song that’s all yours.

To Recap

Start with a great idea. Stick with what you know. Expreiment! LISTEN! Don’t despair.

If all else fails, come on in to The Gitterpicker for a lesson and ask one of our highly-qualified instructors to listen to your song (or to help you get it started). We live for this stuff. Happy Writing!