Tips to Improve Your Songwriting

Have you ever wanted tips to improve your songwriting? Listed below are some tips to improve your songwriting.

Write Songs Often

It is easy to get this idea that your first song should automatically be amazing. But sometimes you need to work through a few really rough songs in order to find that song that is awesome. When you write songs regularly it gets you the opportunity to continue to develop your craft and fine tune your skill.

Write Uninspired

I remember once working with a professional songwriter when I was a teenager. My father had arranged for me to spend the weekend learning to write songs with a few songwriters and then record the songs we wrote together. The thing that I was amazed by is how incredibly fast they were. Before my brain could even wrap my head around what the next lyric should be they had already moved onto the next line. If write block started to hit they would begin to look at articles about the topic in order to basically beat the song into submission. Instead of sitting back and just accepting there was writer’s block they basically beat the song into submission.

It was then that I realized that while at first you might get inspiration for a song it’s really what you do with the song when you aren’t inspired that separates the amateur from the professional.

Become Familiar with Excellent Song Structure

Now I’m not saying you can’t break the rules. Because there are definitely times to break the rules. But you really need to understand the rules first before you break them.

For instance, a verse is often 4-8 lines long and is usually in a lower range. It usually has a couple line melody that repeats in order to hook you into the song.
The Pre-chorus often comes next which is often two lines that helps to bring the melody of the song up to the chorus.
After that you have the chorus which is usually higher. This is also usually where you will have the title of the song. You want the song title to repeat a couple of times. When your song is played on the radio then the listener will know what the song title is.
This is followed by a verse 2 and chorus followed by a bridge. The bridge usually takes a slightly different spin on the song through melody, cords structure and lyrics.
A final chorus is then played at the end.

Now of course, you can break these rules but it is good to know the rules intimately so that when you choose to break a rule it is done with intention.

Set Yourself Up to Capture Your Songwriting Inspiration

As a songwriter you never know when inspiration will hit you. Always be prepared for when that inspiration will come. Make sure you always have your phone on you to record little ideas that come to mind. You can also have a nice note book for writing song ideas. Use sticky notes to divide the notebook into songs so you can easily find what you are working on.

Set Up a Songwriting Routine to Keep you Focused

Having a consistent routine with your songwriting can help to keep you consistently focused on the work that is happening right in front of you. For instance, maybe you have a goal of songwriting after school or work for a couple hours. By having a routine and a solid goal of a song or two a week you will start to develop your songwriting muscle.

Write Down Everything You Can Imagine About the Topic

When I first started to write songs I was reading any book I could get my hands on. I remember once scouring my father’s bookcase to go through all of his songwriting books when I was younger. I remember finding this skinny red book called “How to Write a Hit Song” by Molly-Ann Leiken. It was probably one of my favorite songs about songwriting because it made it so simple and straight forward. In the book, she has an exercise where you are supposed to write everything you can think about an house for a few minutes. In that exercise you had to ask yourself all kinds of questions.

What was the color of the house? How about the roof? Were their shutters?
Where was it located?
Who lived there? How many in the family? What are their names and ages? Did the family have pets?

The list went on and on. The funny thing is that when I did that exercise I was amazed by how much I could think of. And it made me realize that sometimes we can be so judgmental as songwriters about our lyrics. It actually stops us from going into depth on our lyrics because we get crippled by our own judgement. We obsess about the line being perfect and stop the flow of creativity by judging the lyrics before it is done. Instead, I encourage you to try this exercise and when you write your song start off writing first absolutely everything you can think about the topic free-from; no judgement.

Then after you’ve written everything down including the scent of the air and the color of the trees then you can go back and put together the lyrics. All of a sudden you will find your lyrics will be more poetic full of rich detail.

Write in Couplets and Use Idioms to Make Your Songwriting Lyrics Conversational

Couplets are when you have a line of two lyrics that run together to form a sentence. In between these two lines you will have them both rhyming. By using a couplet rhyming structure it will sound more like a conversational instead of having a bunch of individual sentences that don’t connect to one another.

Another thing that can help your songs feel more conversational is by using idioms. The idioms are phrases used in everyday language like, “raining cats and dogs”. It is actually not raining cats and dogs but that phrase is used in the English language and means that it is a very hard rain. Another example, is “you can say that again”. This doesn’t actually mean you want someone to say it again but it is saying “That’s true, I agree”. When you use idioms in your songs it helps your songs to sound more conversational.

You can get books that have a list of idioms that are quiet helpful for songwriting. Also a rhyming dictionary and thesaurus can also be very helpful in putting together your lyrics.

Be Authentic

When you write songs it is important to be authentic. This doesn’t that you have to experience that exact emotion you are writing about. But it does mean that you have to connect to the heart of the song on a basic emotional level. For instance, you could be writing a song for a client about a father passing away and you may have not personally had this moment happen to you. But you could still bring the emotion and trauma from another similar experience into the song. You need to at the very least be able to imagine yourself in that situation to write about it. If it is something that you can’t imagine or feel in spirit then it might not be the best topic for you to write.

Be Aware Your Rhythm

Also when you are writing you need to think about where your rhythm and melody is going. All speech has rhythm when you speak. When you put your lyrics together you typically want your first and second verse to match in your rhythm. There are of course exceptions to the rule but 99% of the time you want to have the same syllables and rhythm repeating in your verse 1 compared with verse 2.

Also you want to think about where your words are landing in the rhythm. Are you holding a note and is that the best vowel to have you note ring on. For instance “Ah” and “Oh” vowels ring really well in a held out note. However, “M”, “N”, and “R” are harder consonants for held out notes. It’s important to know how words feel in the mouth compared to the rhythm to make sure it is nice and singable.

Melody in Your Songwriting

For melodies, you want to think about where the melody is going. Where is the peak of the notes and where are the notes moving lower. Typically a Chorus is sung higher then the verses but that doesn’t mean that always has to be the rule. By creating a melody that is singable and has a well defined hook you will make it easier to grab someone’s attention.

Together all of things help to create a really well balanced sound to your songwriting that will help to make it catchy.

I hope you enjoyed today’s music tip on how to improve your songwriting. Check back often for more music tips for your musical adventure.

Linnea Loves Music