Songrut Songwriting

I'm going to assume that you want to

A. Write a song

and

B. Have no idea what to write about

If you DO have some idea of the subject or ideas that you want to write about, you can skip this part and go HERE. (erm, when I've written the next part for you to go to)

However, if you have never tried to write a song before, or have tried before but always seem to be stuck in front of a blank sheet of paper, read on.

YOU and your PERSONAL TASTE IN MUSIC

Whether you're aiming for a number one smash hit or just want to write songs for yourself, the songs you write will always be better when they're written coming from a place you know. Even if you've never written much before, the chances are that you want to write songs in the same style as the ones that inspired you enough to get this far in the first place.

If you just ask yourself these simple questions beforehand, you will start to get an idea of what it is you want to do.

1. What are your favourite songs?
2. Who are your favourite artists?
3. Who are your favourite bands?
4. What kind of songs do you like the most?
5. Are there any songs that you wish you'd written?

It's easy to answer these questions, but important. Your own taste in music will influence the way you write. Decide to write in a style that you like and would like to be known for. Decide to write songs that you think your favourite band or artist would like, or even consider covering.

The reason I say this is because if you can actually VISUALIZE somebody you admire singing your potential new songs, then they will start to take shape a lot quicker. This idea can also be fairly INSPIRING.

You may decide to be 'the greatest singer-songwriter who ever lived' or even just 'someone who writes rock songs', but this general style will be the overall flavour of your songs that you decide to write.

You and your MOODS - one of the first songwriting pitfalls

Many novice songwriters say that they can't write unless they're 'in the mood'. Ideas won't come unless they're really depressed or upset, and when they're happy they can't write. Well, there's a lot of truth in that, but that's because they only have ONE WAY of writing songs, which often doesn't lead to the best lyrics in my experience. If you only write lyrics when you're in a certain mood, you are in danger of always writing the same songs. I have certain moods which ALWAYS bring me back to saying the same old kinds of things. If I wrote them all down every day, this wouldn't be songwriting. It would be called keeping a diary!

We all have memories. We can remember back to times when we were happy or sad. You don't necessarily have to be in a certain mood to write about those memories. In fact, it can be better to have some distance between you and the emotions you want to write about.

Emotional and creative people are attracted to songwriting. To write great songs though, being simply emotional and creative is not enough, and also has its pitfalls.

Pouring your heart and soul onto the page is all very well, and is a worthwhile exercise in free writing, but it is not songwriting. It may LEAD to a song, a few of the emotional IDEAS you may write down could become a line in a song, but still, this isn't songwriting. This is called WRITING DOWN HOW YOU ARE FEELING. It may be great therapy and make you feel better, but on the whole if you have ever done this for any length of time you may find that it leads nowhere.

What I have just described is NOT a form of communication. Songs need to communicate with people, like stories or jokes. Writing your emotions down on paper is not enough. The reason I'm going on about this now is because I have seen so many people get stuck in this trap.

Songwriting is usually more to do with DESCRIBING how you feel about something in a way that people want to listen to, translating your feelings on a subject into interesting words and music. It's good to be able to refer to notes where you describe exactly what you are feeling at any given time but, if you want someone else to truly experience the same state of mind as you were feeling when you wrote those words, you need to translate them into language that other people can relate to, with as much impact as possible. And you want to be understood, don't you?

Many people are afraid that if a song is written any other way apart from when their emotions are running rampant, then their song will be meaningless. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

If you are reading this because you have found it difficult to get past this 'emotional outpouring stage' in your songwriting, then think of it this way:

Write a song about something that people will understand, and fill it with your emotion.
YOU are writing the song, and if you're an emotional person who wants to be understood, that will be evident in your songwriting, in fact IT WILL BE OBVIOUS.

This is where the craft of songwriting comes in. You need to create something that people can digest and understand, while you slip your emotions in through the back door. If you don't do this NO ONE WILL EVER UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU'RE ON ABOUT.

If you want to argue about that whole last section, then I urge you to reconsider your views on what you THINK it takes to be a songwriter. Scrub any ideas that your favourite songs came into being by your favourite artists simply staring into space waiting for divine intervention to strike. That is 99% not true. Yes we all have divine moments where songs are handed to us from on high, but it's rare, even for the most talented songwriters. It's really hard work to write a good song.

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