Welcome to the songwriting 101, how tough are ya?
No matter how simple or complex a song may be structured, it takes a lot of work and effort in order to have the "oomph" to capture your audiences attention. Like all kinds of artists looking for inspiration, songwriters suffer blocks that hold them back from creating new and more importantly, interesting work. I've developed a series of questions to ask yourself when wanting to write a song in order to help someone get started, based on attributes of other contemporary songwriters' songs.
Question #1: What do I want to talk about, or what am I trying to say?
This is the first, and arguably most important part of the song writing process. If you have lyrics in your song, you need something to say. However, songwriters have figured out hundreds of different methods you can utilize to make a set of engaging lyrics for your own piece.
First you'll need to decide what perspective you're writing from. Are you writing something about yourself, or in the first person? This may be the most common form of songwriting, as it's the most personal and therefor draws the easiest inspiration. Almost anytime you look at the #1 spot on the billboard top 100, it will be a song written in the first person perspective.
This song is wonderful too.
But there are, like I said hundreds of ways to write lyrics, and some of the best have been written in third person, a story teller like song. I touched yesterday on the era of singer-songwriter musician and the story teller music they are known for, some of them being the most respected songwriters of their era. This type of songwriting also extends into decades beyond with acts that write/wrote observational pop.
Blur's early work is frequently described as observational based Britpop.
Question #2: What instrumentation am I working with?
Knowing how to flesh out your song is critical to the songs' success. While most songs are written on an acoustic guitar or piano, most don't stay that way. But wait, many songs are just those instruments and a voice alone, so what's wrong with that?
A "White Guy With Acoustic Guitar" song done right. Short. Sweet. Powerful.
Theoretically, nothing is wrong with that kind of songwriting, BUT, if a song is barebones it has got to make itself sound unique from the millions of other songs like that. It's much more impressive to the general public if you can compose a piece that has a lot of sounds going into it without sounding muddy or overproduced. A great composer can turn a simple 4 chord song into a lush and exciting environment.
Sufjan Stevens is a singer-songwriter from Michigan, known for his lush compositions in his songs.
This kind of thinking can be easily applied to not only organic instruments, but also synthesizers, loops and samples. Some of the most well composed modern pop songs from from Hip Hop, R&B, Electronica, and Pop.
This piece by Kanye West mixes organic instruments, synthesizers, loops, beats, and an orchestrated variety of pop and hip hop vocalists.
Question #3: How should I structure my song?
Something important that many songwriters seem to forget is that there are no set rules on where to have the verse, the chorus, the bridge, or that you don't even need any of these things. Some bands place their main hooks in their verses rather than their chorus.
In this song, Oasis places two verses, causing a larger buildup to the chorus.
Question #4: Are my ideas cliche?
Probably the trickiest thing to figure out is if your chord progressions, key changes, guitar solos, or melodies themselves are too overdone. There are a few steps a songwriter can take to avoid sounding different from the same saturation many songs go through during the recording process.
- Avoid heavy use of audio processing effects like reverb, delay, or dynamic range compression
- Heavy multi tracking during the chorus (like adding synthstrings)
- Throwing a keychange one or two half steps up during the last chorus
- Loud drums in the mix for radio play purposes
- Heavy use of time signature correction, pitch correction, or quantization
- Letting a producer impose a certain style they use on your recordings. Fight for your sound.
While all of the above can be used tastefully, the most important thing is that you do not use these things to hide your lack of talent.
Question #5: Am I proud of what I've made?
You should look at the work you've put into a song and be completely satisfied. I'm not saying to throw out a song if you don't think it's your best work, only toss it if you feel like you did not put your all into that specific song and made it the best you could have made it. Better yet, try to find the problems, and fix them. You have your whole life to write music, don't release something for the sake of releasing something.
But what do you think it takes to write a song? Let me know by shooting me an email or a message on Facebook or Twitter!
- Miles Taylor Winchester, The Citrus Sawtooth
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