Whether you’re a musician and would like to broaden your talents or a singer who aspires to start writing your own material, songwriting is an asset but not easy to do. This article will cover the process of writing a song with music from start to finish. Some of the tools necessary when writing a song are:
1. Pencil & paper
2. Voice recorder
It’s not necessary to use an expensive recorder; you can get them at Best Buy for $14.95
3. The will & desire to create music
4. Peace, quiet and all alone time
5. All the talent you can muster
This doesn’t mean you have to posses Mariah Carey’s vocals or Jim Morrison’s ability on the guitar. Just bring your true creative niche and confidence in it.
6. A computer & internet access is helpful if you need to do research on a particular style or would like to look up various lyrical formats. But, you can just as easily pull out some of your favorite artist’s CD cover folds.
There are ways to prescribe to the chorus, verse, chorus, bridge formula and simply “fill in the blanks” with some of your old diary entries or paraphrased radio pop lyrics. Simply adhering to his method will work and there are many ways to infuse your own style into the conventional prototype of a song. The only downfall to employing this method alone is its lack of all around creativity, and that it won’t stand out amongst the many millions of songs being created throughout the world.
The other way to write a song is to analyze and follow your appreciation and interpretation of music at its most raw moment:
What type of music touches you emotionally?
What type of artists/songs do you listen to when no one else is around?
With the many different genres of music, each meant for a different emotion or some specific occasion, it’s easy to mistake “what sounds good” with “what is good.” Just to clarify, what is good to one person may not be good to another. Realizing the style of music you truly enjoy is the first step in writing a song. Listen to some of your favorite artists, sing with the music (even if you aren’t the best vocalist) and try manipulating the lyrics to go with the sound compilation as you hear it. Imagine the song as an oil painting, colors placed carefully, but not quite dry yet. Smear your style all over the canvas and let your imagination take over. This should get your creative juices flowing.
The next two steps are interchangeable, one may come before the other, but essentially they are the second two steps in this creative process.
Decide on a Tone
This can be as as simple as interpreting your current mood or channeling a deep emotion that you have felt recently. The deeper emotions are generally thoughts of sadness, loneliness or loss; but try and focus on what lies below the surface of these broad examples. Find something in your life that matters, and try to look at it from another’s point of view; what someone on the outside might perceive of you and the situation as a whole. Then, compare this objective view with how you feel about it, personally. This method allows you to find unique ways of communicating the situation so that it is fully received by the listener.
Brainstorm Singing
“Brainstorm Singing” is when you start putting different types of sounds together with the lyrics that pop in your head and begin by just belting it out. You have your mood, so run with; it helps to have a guitar or piano to guide you in finding key notes for your song, but without these instruments it is still possible to envision how you want it to sound while singing. *This is the part where you should utilize your voice recorder.
The main objective of the “Brainstorm Singing” process is to get a particular melody that you’re going to use within the rest of your song. This isn’t necessarily important as far as the lyrics are concerned, but you can start to develop the pattern you want to use within your lyrics by experimenting with longer words, smaller more choppy words, rhymes and the way that certain words sound. Continue to “brainstorm” until you have a nice hook or sound recorded that inspires you to elaborate on it.
Lyrics are Key
This is probably the most difficult part about writing a song. The integration of lyrics to the music you are creating. It is beneficial to look through old poetry that you’ve written diary entries or various types of written work you have. It’s not always necessary to draw completely from a finished piece, but try and focus on some of the themes you’ve used in your writing, and delve further into that as you experiment with particular phrases and word choice. This can serve as a base of your song.
At this point, you should decide on a phrase or word that sums up the goal of your song. Within the formula of a song, this is also referred to as the “Hook.” For Avril Lavigne, it was “Complicated,” for Lenny Kravitz it was “Fly Away,” Fiona Apple chose “Criminal,” and Michael Jackson claimed, “Billy Jean is not my lover.” This carefully chosen word or phrase doesn’t need to be the title of your song. It’s your creation, so you get to decide on the title, and on the key word or phrase. But, more times than not, it will make sense to parallel the “hook” with the title. Try and devise something witty, sweet, dirty, angry, anything that will illustrate an emotion to the listener without boring them. One example might be to try to think of words with double meanings, but possess the same sound. Some examples of these could be “Rain/Rein” or “Weather/Whether.”
Word choice is very important in a song, because the words not only communicate meaning to the listener, but also make an impact on the actual sound of the song. Imagine Michael Jackson singing “Andrea Thompson is not my girlfriend.” Doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it? The word “lover” eases the listener onto the next line, and the “r” in the word is almost silent. Jackson’s voice melodically smoothes the lyrics out so that the song flows nicely. If words with choppy sounds similar to an “f” or “thomp” are splashed into the middle of the line, it not only sounds more unpleasant, but also creates the illusion that the phrase is much longer, and makes it more difficult to follow. Choose your words wisely; the best way to judge a pleasant sounding word within your song is to check if singing it feels good within context.
Is it an effortless progression of dialect?
Is it difficult to get all of the words out with taking a large breath?
Formatting your lyrics
As I mentioned earlier, there is a “Chorus, Verse, Chorus, bridge” standard way of constructing a song. And it is helpful to reference this fact while constructing and formatting your music. The words are chosen, you have a creative sound to go with your ‘mood’ and your lyrics. Now, you need to put it together to create a full fledged lyrical masterpiece. There are many parts of a song, and I’m using Avril Lavigne as an example again, because I’m fairly positive you’re familiar with this track.
Each Part of the Song is Labeled accordingly, and held inside brackets:
INTRO
{Uh huh, life’s like this
Uh huh, uh huh, that’s the way it is
Cause life’s like this
Uh huh, uh huh that’s the way it is}
VERSE
{Chill out whatcha yelling’ for?
Lay back it’s all been done before
And if you could only let it be
you will see
I like you the way you are
When we’re drivin’ in your car
and you’re talking to me one on one but you’ve become}
REFRAIN
{Somebody else round everyone else
You’re watching your back like you can’t relax
You’re tryin’ to be cool you look like a fool to me
Tell me}
CHORUS
{HOOK {Why you have to go and make things so complicated?}
I see the way you’re acting like you’re somebody else gets me frustrated
Life’s like this you
And you fall and you crawl and you break
and you take what you get and you turn it into honesty
and promise me I’m never gonna find you fake it}
TURNAROUND
{no no no}
{2nd VERSE}
There are other parts that I can’t illustrate using this example. These is the “RIFF” and the “Middle Eight.” The “Riff” is a short musical interlude within the song, usually after the verses and chorus have been played once through. It’s the guitar, piano or drums solo within any given song. Avril didn’t have a “Middle eight” within this song, but it is the part of the song that sounds vastly different from any other part, standing alone to add variety and a change of pace. This usually occurs before the chorus is sang for the second or third time.
You can format your lyrics however you see fit, and it is always a good idea to look online for different styles of lyrical formatting so that you can create something that stays within the genre of music, while maintaining a tone that is all your own.
Some good sites to see your favorite artist’s lyrics are in the resources section of this article.
Writing a song can be a lot of fun and it can also be very rewarding once you have finished and ready to present your lyrical art to the world. But it is a difficult process as well, it involves thinking about all the various elements that come together to form a completed piece. These steps should assist in guiding you through the song-writing process, but always strive for creativity, individuality and personal style while writing your music.
