Song writing Process

[watchmeuke]

Well.. i really want to write a song...and I have ideas an all but...but I think my lyrics are sooooo darn cheesy...and i feel embarrassed about it...any suggestions???

hahah, i feeeeel you on that note!









www.youtube.com/anarkeemcpablog

[Danyo Cummings]

All these replies are awesome and it's great to read how different people go about songwriting. I've been writing for a few years and though i feel like i have much to learn i've found a system that tends to work great for me. I like to start with melodies. I keep a voice recorder handy (as much as possible) or i sing melodies to my voicemail whenever inspiration hits. From there, i like to make lists of concepts and ideas that seem like good ideas. I'll usually match the ideas with the melody that works and from there i like to mumble to find my phrasing. Then, i write (usually the hook first) and put lyrics to the mumbling. I used to fill up notebooks back in High School but thanks to technology i now write on my phone :P That's pretty much my songwriting workflow.

[Muugi]

Great inspiriation everyone!
I may have to keep plucking away and try writing a couple of songs.

[yodiepants]

Most of my song ideas come to me while I'm cycling, of all places. After a lot of frustration, I've started stopping to write down lyrics. Just two days ago, I actually made it all the way home repeating the lines in my head and got to write it down. But keeping a notebook and writing down lines of words, or just an interesting phrase, is most important for me.

Another fun way I've just discovered is to write out a detailed story, then section out where the major turning points are. Then compress it into its most poignant parts and make it rhythmic. When it is all laid out like that, you can add foreshadowing, reoccurring symbolism and other fun stuff. I'm was working on my first attempt at this tonight and it worked out rather well. Instead of thinking, "Where do I go next?" I'm thinking, "How do I make it sound more awesome?"

Something to consider is, perhaps, "What's the deal with this song anyway?"

Is it a song with a moral?
Does it describe how to do something?
Does it insult an enemy?
Is it for making washing the dishes go by faster?
Is it about how in love you are?
How the political climate is out of control?
Why dancing is so fun?
What your parent's taught you that is now coming in handy?
The liminal state between adolescence and adulthood?
Why you are the raddest guy in town?
Why is the universe trying to grind you in a mortar and pestle?

And once you figure that out, then ask, "How can I convince someone that this is the case?" And that's a whole 'nother grain of worms.

(Last suggestion: Take a selection of 100 pop song lyrics about a similar topic. Put them through a word frequency counter. After you cut out the "of"s and "the"s, find the words most likely relating to the topic. USE ALL OF THEM! Now, analyze the chord progressions. Find the most likely. Add an Aaug9 in the middle randomly. Sing in falsetto.)

[edit: Making a sound thesis statement could help too. Perhaps, "I enjoy going to the club and flirting with the boys because it is empowering and gives me a strong sense well being." Or something. And now that I think about it, I've got a lot of somewhat wacky ideas that will produce things resembling songs. ]

[GForce83]

a great online resource that I use quite a bit is rhymezone.com.

I was looking for some rhymes for "floor" and never in my wildest dreams would I have considered "iron ore", "specialty store" or "persian gulf war"

Fantastic resource.

[Dane]

If you take the music out of alot of songs they are just poems. I know people who write a poem first, and then try and put music to it.

[redsedge]

Many thanks to everyone who posted here. I'll be teaching a creative writing class in a couple of weeks and was feeling like a fraud because I haven't written anything much in years and have sort of lost interest. So, I thought I'd try songwriting. These posts have really helped get me started and best of all, have renewed my enthusiasm. Not doing anything wonderful (yet) but having so much fun! Cheers and big hugs to everyone.

[bornagainjeeper]

I almost always write the words first...to me they are the most important part (i called myself a poet at one point) I think to the lay person (non uke player) they are tuned to listen to the words first, as everyone as a voice, and that is easier to relate to. A smoking uke riff is impressive, but less so to someone who does not play the uke themself (my mom once said she doesn't care for jazz, which my dad does, because she is not a musician, All that fancy playing is easier to relate to if you take part yourself, i tend to agree with her opionion...my dad is a jazz drummer...)

because of this i put more time into my lyrics and write a chord progression that will suit the words and increase understanding in the words (this is fairly obvious...i realize, but if a song is about your parents dying it prolly shouldn't use C A7 D7 G7...)
Just a thought....

[GrumpyCoyote]

but if a song is about your parents dying it prolly shouldn't use C A7 D7 G7...
Just a thought....

Oh that's just a challenge young man... I so want to write that now.

[sebi]

If you take the music out of alot of songs they are just poems. I know people who write a poem first, and then try and put music to it.

Dane made a great point. If you can read the lyrics of a song and like them without listening to the music, they're usually great lyrics.

My approach:

Words come to me when I'm inspired. I write a poem, which doesn't have to be perfect at all. Then, I try to combine those words with a few musical patterns I've been messing around with and eventually will find the right music for the right poem. Once you start matching the music to the words (or the other way around) you get more ideas of what to include and how and where.

Obviously this sounds easier than it actually is, and sometimes it simply doesn't work at all. But that's the beauty (and challenge) of songwriting. You don't really know what your song is going to sound like. I see a song like a good wine, that gets better with time. The more you play it, the more you see the details which you can emphasize.

Have fun writing and composing!