3 Tips To Becoming A Better Songwriter
Originally Posted on S&R Blog on February 27, 2017
Let’s talk about writing baby, lets talk about chords and melo-dies. Whether you like the 1991 Salt-N-Pepa’s hit single Let’s Talk About Sex, its undeniable to say the hip-hop tune is anything less than a catchy song. The song has a funky groove, a super catchy hook (more on that in a later post), verses that spit fresh 90’s rhymes and makes you feel good. It’s a well written song.
So you want to write the next Rolling in the Deep, MMMbop, Hungry Like the Wolf, Hotel California or Tangled Up in Blue? Maybe you already have and want to add that extra secret sauce to solidify your name on the writers guild’s hall for all eternity. Maybe you are tired of being a cover band or a lone acoustic guitar hero playing covers in the corner of a bar. Well here are three tips to better songwriting!
They Are:
Write more
Write in a broader range of musical styles
Collaborate with other musicians
Write More.
Write. Write some more. Continue writing until you’re tired of writing and then write more.
I haven’t written a song that reaches the top of the charts (yet), but ask anyone who has and they will tell you. The secret to writing a hit song, or a song you are proud of, is to write as much as possible! Gregg Allman said during an interview once, “I wrote [Melissa] in 1967 in a place called the Evergreen Hotel in Pensacola, Florida. By that time I got so sick of playing other people’s material that I just sat down and said, ‘OK, here we go. One, two, three – we’re going to try to write songs.’ And about 200 songs later – much garbage to take out – I wrote this song called Melissa.”
The first song I ever wrote was absolutely garbage. I am sure of it. I do not know what it was about or how it went, but I know now if I heard it, I would probably weep at the bush league rhyme and whiney pre-teen complaints that filled my adolescent mind. But that is exactly what it takes to become a successful song writer. You have to start somewhere.
Looking back, over time my song writing improved. It wasn’t over night, but there was progress every time I laid down a new rhyme. There were probably 10 bad songs for every decent one I’ve written, but thats the nature of the game. There will be good songs and there will be bad songs, just keep writing.
I encourage you to finish a song in its entirety before deeming it a well or poorly written song. Some songs you may write the first few verses and a chorus and realize its not for your, and others you might fight the song for days upon weeks and finally write your magnum opus, but the key is to try to finish every song you begin to write to familiarize yourself with writing a song in its entirety.
So if you want to improve your songwriting skills, pump out as many songs as possible!
Listen and Write Different Styles of Music.
What styles of music do you mainly listen to, what about play? Chances are, the music that you most listen to, is also the same or similar style you play. Guess what? Its probably the same one you write as well. When was the last time you listened to something on the complete opposite side of the music spectrum? Fancy yourself a metal player? Try country. Are you normally a blues player? Add some jazz to your Spotify playlist.
Now, write a song in a completely new genre. If you are always playing southern rock, try writing a jazz song. All you play is pop? Try writing a metal tune or a folk song. It will make your mind think about the DNA of the genre of music and train your brain to think outside of the box in which you normally compose music.
Want to take it even step further? I suggest listening to other cultural music as well. Listening to music from different countries than what you usually listen to can greatly affect your musical style. Try throwing on some music from Latin America, East Asia, Southern Africa and India and watch your music knowledge morph and expand.
If you want to diversify your songwriting, listen to and write songs in different styles of music!
Write with people who have different musical backgrounds
In the past 6 months, I have written a few songs with a few people who have completely different music backgrounds than me. One grew up listening to Metallica and Avenged Sevenfold and the other grew up listening to Rage Against the Machine. Sure, I listened to a few of those band’s songs growing up, but it wasn’t my go-to artist and certainly wasn’t anywhere close to the music I was trying to make.
But that is the neat thing about collaborating with people who don’t have the same musical background as you. When writing with these people, they add a uniqueness about their musical styles to the mix. A song that was originally all heavy rock turned out to be a fashion of metal, rock with twangy bending solos. It was a cool process and upon examining the final product, one can definitively pick out who added what to the song. It was unique, just as each of our musical backgrounds.
Another thing to think about is where your writing partner’s mind is heading during the writing process. I was writing a song with a new writing partner a while back and we had two completely different ideas of where the song was heading. We both understood the song was oceanic in theme, but her thoughts were describing the ocean while mine was heading towards 17th-century pirates searching for treasure.
Couldn’t have been further from one another if we tried. Though with our two outlooks on how the song should progress, we came out with a pretty cool song that described an adventure out on the open sea – a middle ground somewhere in between our two separate ideas.
If you want to push your songwriting into something truly unique, collaborate with others who have different backgrounds!
Writing your own music is rewarding. Hearing your chord progressions and the lyrics you invited being played back to you after your recorded them, whether that a voice memo on your phone or in a professional studio, should make you feel proud and give you chills knowing you created something from nothing. Though sometimes, a collection of self-written songs may sound all the same. It makes sense, they all were written by you. If you are trying to break out of the mold, try one (or all) of these tips next time you sit down to write a song, the results will likely surprise you.
Let us know what you think down in the comments. If you have any tips of your own, feel free to share as well. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
-Until next time, let the music play!
-S&R