You don’t have to have a degree in literature or music theory, to know how to write a good song. I don’t have a degree in literature or music theory and I think I do “ok”. If I can do “ok” well, I have faith in you, to do “ok”. It is important to have an open mind when writing a song, because it prevents writers block, but allows you to put the lyrics before the song, which is extremely important. Whether you are extroverted or introverted, remain optimistic because this will allow you to write more and develop wisdom through writing. The key is motivating yourself to construct your song.
When it comes to writing a song, you must know that every great song must have an origin (a story or message), a premise (the idea or reason behind the story or message), and a meaning (perhaps the meaning of the idea and the reason). It must be original and possess universalism. You don’t want your song to be boring and meaningless nor do you want your song to be cheesy and extreme, as it will not sell.
Today, I have developed three main approaches to writing a good song that I am going to share with you.
The first approach is “brainstorming from a title”.For instance, the title of the song is “Love Actually” (we’ll use that as an example). When you think of the song title “Love Actually” what do you think of? List all of your thoughts on a piece of paper. Try to act quickly, but not too quickly that your brain will explode. This could take a day, a week, a month, or even a year. Just let your brain react naturally to your thoughts. In your thoughts, they can be anything from just one words to phrases to sentences to even paragraphs. After you have written as many thoughts as you could, start constructing your song.
Think of how you want the first and second verses to go, without sounding too unoriginal or corny. After you have created the lyric verses in the song, think of your phrases (or a phrase), you want use for the chorus. You then want to think of where you want to add your breaks in the song. Most songs have breaks towards the middle-end of a song (Let’s Go Crazy by Prince is an example), however; some songs have breaks in the beginning and none towards the end (Cold Heritage by Lacuna Coil is an example) It’s best to use a breaks towards the ending of the song, but that is entirely up to you. Remember, when it comes to thinking of a title of your song, you want something that highlights the song, relates to the title, and generally, just makes sense.
The second approach is “song completion before title”. Write down what is on your mind. It can be anything from the day you had, to a past experience, to what you think will happen tomorrow, ETC. As you gather all of your thoughts together, start constructing your song. As you construct your song, think of just the chorus first. It is also great to build your bridge and allow a break in the song. Perhaps, decide where the breaks should be added. Remember, a song is not consisted of just lyrics all lumped together. There has to be some break between them and some composition (to which, you will work with in collaboration later). As you continue, you want to focus on the first, second, third, i.e. verses. After you have completed and you are done constructing your song, you then, want to think of a title that best fits your song. Something that shapes your lyrics and brings them to life.
The third approach is “creating a chorus before title and lyrics”. There are instances where I find myself singing along to songs. When I do this, I tend to mostly sing the chorus part of the song. I often wonder, if I can sing something, I created, from the top of my head, it just may turn into something genius. This can be developed by several mediums. The most important is to think of a few thoughts that go together and create sentences from them. Something that is original and NOT banal. Something that is addicting to sing and something you think others would sing over and over.
It has to be a chorus that sticks. If the words sound great together, test them. Sing them and see if they work. After you do this, you want to start constructing your lyrics and building your song. It’s best to start with the lyric verses and then create your breaks. After this, you can come up with a title. However; it’s not required to come up with a title before creating your lyric verses or even breaks. You can create a title before you create the lyrics for your verses and insert breaks.
The lyrics do NOT have to rhyme nor should they be associated with each other in a thesaurus kind of sense. Although, some people can use lyrics like “I’ll be” and “I’ll see” together or “Gorgeous beautiful” which is acceptable, but NOT required when writing a song, especially a good song. Also, keep in mind, that songwriting and poetry are two different writing systems. Saying they are the same is like saying column writing is the same as novel writing. Completely different. Writing poetry and trying to turn it into a song, will NOT work.
The ultimate key is quality. Do NOT rush, when writing a song because you need time to connect to the lyrics. Also, stay in your element. You have to beable to sell the song to an audience. You want to construct the song before the emotion. Remember, the emotion will develop naturally, later on, through the composition and the human instrument. You must beable to project. You must also write something that makes sense. If you really want your song to take off, it’s best to target as many audiences as you can. The song must also be adaptable and flexible. When writing lyrics, they have to make sense.
Once you are finished writing your song, you should copyright it immediately. In fact, it’s very important to do so. You also have an option to pass the song around, but make sure you have your name, date, and other important information with the song; so in case someone tries to steal it, you can proceed with legal action. After you copyright your song, you can then work on collaboration.
Good Luck!
