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Guitar chord forum - chordie → Songwriting → Getting Started with Songwriting
Hi guys..
I am quite proficient on acoustic and electric (but not lead) and I have been considering writing my own song. Getting started is the hardest part I am told. How would you recommend someone writing their first song, should begin please?
Many thanks
Jason
Hi Jason and congratulations on wanting to create songs. Everybody's preferred method is unique, but this is what works for me. Observe and listen to life carefully. Jot down interesting words, phrases, & things - anything that 'resonates' in your imagination is raw fuel for your creative fire.
Start out by using basic structural templates borrowed from existing songs. Base your first creations on basic chord structure, lyrical meter, and overall form of your template songs. I would suggest traditional folk or country-type songs as being excellent basic templates.
Keep it simple - don't feel like you have to create the world's most meaningful and orginal song. Pick an idea that seems interesting, ponder it from a few different angles and jot down your thoughts/images. If one idea is not progressing, start on another or another.
Very simple ideas can be nurtured into songs - complex ideas typically need to be distilled down into a simpler form to be used in songs. Most songs are about one simple idea that has been lovingly polished and nurtured.
Practice recognizing ideas - and practice expanding upon those ideas. Have a notebook where you can keep all your scribble scraps and working ideas together. Ideas that don't work today may be perfect for another day.
If you want to get good at anything you need to do it every day - do it when you feel like it and do it especially when you don't feel like it. For me, songwriting is like a puzzle that is never finished - there are always new ideas that need nurturing. Hope this helps - James
FIRST, I would read Jame's advice because he's much more of a vet than me, then maybe look into what I can tell you lol
My advice would be to write about something you understand, something you've been through. (It's been my experience that you're best days make good memories and mediocre songs, but you're worst days make painful memories and dang good songs. Just one of life's little jokes I guess....)
anyway it doesn't have to be somehting sad but it should be about something you know and have lived (or maybe lived through?). For instance I wrote a lot of songs about being homesick last year when I moved off to the city, and even now little traces of that find thier way into my lyrycs.
ALSO like James said, don't TRY to be deep. I find that when you just say whats on your mind, some will come out sounding really cool and deep and some will be short and simple, but its all good cuz you need both.
now lastly as for actually starting, I find it helpful to strum along a simple chord pattern and see what just kind of comes to me to sing. If I'm really stuck sometimes I find it helpful to listen to a lot of music that has lyrycs you appreciate. For me Kris Kristofferson, some of Johnny Cash's later stuff, A lot of blues....
Anyhow just kind of go with the flow,don't try to force anyhting just let it come as it will
James, last_rebel
Firstly, thank you both so very much for your meaningful thoughts. I appreciate the time you both took to divulge your experiences and thought processes. It is interesting.
I do have experiences (as do we all) that I would like to write about and I am determined to get some of them down. My struggle, is that when I have tried applying a few chord progressions, I end up reverting back to sequences I already know and use in well known songs and it ends up, therefore, sounding the same or similar.
Some of the simplest songs have been the best and the most successful and even with using well known chord progressions, the melody sung to, over and above the chords is what makes the song work - and specifically, it is this that I have struggled with. As I mentioned, i have a tendency to revert back to songs I know.
I will take on board your advice and try again...
Thanks guys..
Jason
Hi Jason - I know exactly what you're talking about regarding coming up with an original melody to go with 'common' chord sets.
Try this - play with the lyrical meter, in other words chop the chord changes into different rhythmic segments and phrases. Fool around with your lyric to shorten or lengthen or parse out the wording such that the 'same' chords are used differently.
hi Jason,
this is a pretty common problem for me too.( keep in mind that there are probly a bazillion songs that go G,C,G,D,G or something like that, but what really makes them different is the tune you sing with them and the words you say.)
try using a few little tricks like slipping in the appropriate minor chord somewhere (when I say appropriate I mean for instance when you're in C you can play Am and When you're in G you can play Em), switching from natural to seventh chords, or even using some little hammer ons and pull offs when you change chords. Try changing the order of the chords a little bit and seeing what that sounds like.... or if you're brave you could use a step up (or down) and do a key change.
Rythym has a lot to do with it too, and for that I think James gave the best advice. Lots of luck Jason
Hi last_rebel, James
This is great advice and I will bear it in mind. I am going to give this song writing a shot and I am quite excited by it too...
Thanks again, much appreciated and good luck with your endeavours too !
Jason
Guitar chord forum - chordie → Songwriting → Getting Started with Songwriting
