Thursday, October 13, 2011

Some Advice For Writing Great Songs

By Diane Potter


Do you feel frustrated or unsatisfied with the songs you have written? Do you think your songs have to conform to a certain standard before they are any good? If this is so what precisely are you comparing them to? You may find you have got an impractical expectancy of yourself or what you're of the opinion a song is or should be.

If you are displeased with the songs you have written or think your songs aren't what they ought to be, examine these three songwriting guidelines to focus your attention on clarifying what you think you need to gain from your songs.

1. Why Do You Need To Write A Song?

What do you need to communicate? Don't dismiss this, answering this question is more important than you think. If you know why you're doing something, your trail will be a lot clearer. For example, do you see yourself performing on some late night TV rock show with the spectators going wild for more, or are you wanting to write a romantic love song to galvanize your other half? Or maybe you need to perform an acoustically based set down at the local bar? The answer will influence your behavior and your writing style.

2. Write About What You Know And Do What You Know.

Did you know the right way to put chord progressions together on the piano and improvise ott or did you know how to link drum machines and turn tables together to a whole flood of midi apparatus to pump out the largest, baddest beats this side of Georgia? There is no difference. Your song will have more style and impact if you can find the bravery to be yourself and use those skills you have today, not in what you believe you should be doing, or what your song should sound like.

3. Develop Your Habit Of Songwriting.

How are you coming up with your ideas? Repetition increases the likely hood of repetition, that implies the more that you do something, the more you are probably going to do it. The more that you get into the practice of writing down lyrics in a notebook that you carry with you at every point, the more probable you are to write down words in a notebook that you carry with you at all times. Get into the practice of putting down your thoughts when your inspiration strikes because concepts always strike when you are not expecting them.

Your inspiration may be in the form of a lyric, a sound you heard in the street, a bizarre chord change you heard on the radio or a rhythm your mum was drumming out on her coffee cup. By doing this, you can talk to your own knowledge as and when you need it. These are the gems which will determine your style and show you your way forward.

Disciplining yourself to these three songwriting tips will give you confidence in yourself and your music. Notice that to write a song, you do not need to be anybody other than who you are, beauty is in the iris of the beholder. Whether or not you are thrashing out a rhythm on two spoons or bowing an upright punk guitar accompanied by somebody tap dancing in a different time signature, songwriting is subjective. Someone somewhere will love whatever you do, somebody somewhere will absolutely trash it as the most unbelievable pile of garbage to ever appear on the music scene in the history of music. The most important question you must ask yourself at the end of the day is, do you adore it?




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