It Takes Time
The journey to becoming a better songwriter requires diligence, patience and resilience. Songwriting is a creative outlet for most songwriters and allows us to express what we want to talk about through song. It takes years of practice but is also something that should happen freely and spontaneously. There are different templates you can follow to structure your songs when you are songwriting but the most effective that I’ve found is just going with what feels right.
Helpful Tips
Starting out, it might help to have a structure to follow to show you how to build your song. Most songs are verse 1, chorus, verse 2, chorus. There isn’t an exact formula to becoming a better songwriter. Collaboration with other songwriters and producers is a great way to bounce ideas off of each other and help take the song to its greatest potential. When collaborating with other songwriters and producers, you may start to notice where your strengths are. You might find that you are better at coming up with ideas for melodies or new sounds. Or you might be a better lyricist than hearing fresh melodies. This is a great way to strengthen your songwriting capabilities and stretch yourself. Working with others always shows us are strengths and weaknesses. Taking advice from other people who are songwriters will always help us grow as a songwriter. Practicing at home when an idea comes to you is another great way to become a better songwriter. Listen to some new music every day to help you hear new ways to create. Most of the time you will find yourself coming up with new ideas from listening to new music from other artists! Sitting with your instrument of choice and just throwing around ideas helps too. It’s not enough to just sit down and write lyrics. Think about something that you want to talk about or something that has moved you recently and try to put it into lyrics and play it on your instrument.
Have Fun!
Try not to over think and be too hard on yourself when songwriting. Songwriting should be something that we are passionate about and is fun! It’s easy to get caught up in what sounds right and what rhyme should go where. If you find yourself getting stuck on a word or lyric, take a break and walk around and then come back to it later. Songwriting can sometimes feel like a job but it should always be something we are passionate about and allow creativity to breathe new life into us and to create something fresh and new is always exciting and is a privilege!