My Advice for Songwriting
A friend recently asked if I could teach songwriting. After writing songs for over 20 years, I had never considered sharing my version of the “secret sauce.” Here’s my attempt:
Try it. Seriously, this is step one. No fluff. Literally, just try! If you don’t do anything else on this list, do this one. I once heard Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine say that he assigns his new students their first homework after the first lesson: to create a song using only the two chords he teaches them. Why many of us don’t try: trying to make up a song requires thinking about something we don’t often get permission for. Push past this resistance. No matter your skill level.
Lyrics: Write what frustrates you. Write down ten things that bother you most about life, the world, gaps in your life. What heartaches have you had recently? What core memories from your life make you most sad? Most happy?
Lyrics: Write what hope you have. Write down ten hopes you have. Where did those hopes come from? What do you hope is the outcome of those frustrations?
Genre: Choose your weapon. What genre or art form expresses this best within your skill set (no matter how skillful you are)? The genre provides the natural limitations needed to force your creativity. Do the genre that feels most natural.
Build it! Pick two or three combinations of notes. Pick a song structure that makes the most sense for you (ex. intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus). Regurgitate and repeat what sounds the coolest to you (it’s ok if you don’t know why it sounds cool). If you don’t like what you’re hearing, throw it out.
Practice + Share it. Don’t bypass this step! Practice and share. Practice and share. Practice and share. Use a voice memo app to record yourself to remember it.
Congrads. You’ve just written a song.
“Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten. Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them with books on algebra etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the creative bug is just a wee voice telling you, “Iʼd like my crayons back, please.”
