Songwriting in 5 simple steps

Writing songs may seem like a daunting task and can oftentimes be overwhelming. Where do you start? Today I would like to discuss 5 steps I often follow when writing songs to keep me on track and focused on the task. There is no rigid method to songwriting but these steps aim to guide you in your process. You may find your songwriting style requires some tweaking to my method but at least you will have a reference point for how someone else may go about writing a song.

1.) Get started

The beginning process of writing a song is the simplest and yet most over thought step by most. All you need is one musical idea to start and still so many struggle to get started with that first step. So let’s simplify it.

If you don’t have a song idea and are starting completely from scratch then let’s go back to basics here. A great way to get the wheels turning is to just pick a chord progression at random and see if any emotions start to land with it. Try out a I - VI - V for instance and just start playing around with rhythms. Don’t like it? Try another progression or try the progression at a different tempo. I’ve done this countless times when feeling uninspired and it is usually enough to get the wheels turning. We are just looking for solid ground here to start expanding upon.

Another great way to get started is to put on a drum track and play along. Playing with drums incorporates feel and groove into your playing and can add life to any progression that previously felt stagnant.  I’ve had instant and strong reactions to some drum tracks that led to new rhythmic ideas I wouldn’t have considered without hearing them. For instance leaving space in your playing is usually a hard thing to do when there is nothing else to fill it and drum tracks will give you the creative freedom to NOT play every single beat.

You can also get started with a song with a vocal melody. Sometimes singing random stuff in the shower really does work! If you are lucky enough to have some word or phrase come to you in a vocal melody please by all means run with it. The trick is to figure out how to take that nugget of gold you found and get music behind it. I will usually pick up a guitar and try to find the key of the melody I am singing and go from there. Start simple with the music behind the melody so you can internalize the vocal hook and add complexity to the music once you’ve got great feel for it.

2.) Record it

No I don’t mean professionally start recording your idea but to simply get a recording of what you have so far. If you have a DAW to record your ideas with then great! If you don’t then take a simple phone recording of what you have so far. The purpose of this is two-fold. By recording your ideas regularly you will avoid forgetting your song ideas. I know you may think some of your ideas are so good they can’t be forgotten but I assure you they can and will be. I have lost countless songs to time and they usually never make their way back to your mind once they are gone.

The other purpose of recording you song ideas is it allows you to play them back and expand on the initial idea. Let’s say you have a 3 chord progression for a verse but it feels a little boring. Play back that recording and start playing some second guitar or keyboard tracks with it. Experiment, improv, and have fun with this portion of the process. Anyone can and has played the I -IV -V progression and yet we have 1000’s of different sounding songs with that same progression. That is because the possibilities of coloring a song are infinite with different guitar phrases, vocal melodies, rhythmic patterns,  or bass lines. Recording the idea is where you get to start having fun with songwriting.

3.) One part at a time

Often times what will happen is you will sit down, play a cool riff and then not know where to go next. Happens to all of us…ALL the time. The thing is we don’t have to figure out what is next yet, we can actually make this part sound better before moving on. If you have a verse idea don’t worry about the chorus yet, get the verse sounding just the way you want before moving onto the next section of the song. Take time to experiment, play with your recording and really hone in on your sound.

When the time comes to focus on the next section of the song don’t expect genius to strike right away. I often find myself completely unable to put together another great sounding section of the song without trying multiple iterations of different ideas. I will often go back to what we learned in step 1 and start trialing out different chord progressions. If my verse is I - vi - V I might try to play a ii - V - I and see how that lands.

The key is making each individual section of the song sound as great as you can on their own. You want to really take your time with each section, making every note sing. Once you feel good about the different sections of music you’ll need to write the one thing that makes every song good.

4.) Write the hook

Every great song has a great hook. It can be a traditional vocal hook in a chorus like you hear in every song on the radio or it can be an incredibly fantastic musical hook that just won’t get out of your head. A hook is just that, it’s what hooks you to the song compelling you to come back and listen again and again.

I will admit this is the hardest part of writing a song most of the time unless you are fortunate enough to have a golden idea from the start. This is where Step 2 of recording comes in handy though! By recording your ideas you can have countless takes and tries to perfect a vocal or musical hook to the song. Go ahead and listen on your commute to work, sing that song to yourself over and over again until you hit that hook just right.

What is important to remember is the hook is what brings the listener back to your song. Big belting choruses are awesome if you have the vocal bravado to pull it off but what most people want is something they can sing along with. Doesn’t mean you can’t flex your vocal prowess but when a chorus is one that anyone can sing along with it’s almost guaranteed to get someone to listen again.

Lyrics are another topic altogether but they can also go a long way to making that chorus a true hook. Words are powerful and can invoke lots of emotion or sometimes ruin the fun in music. Consider the difference in these two vocal lines.

“Last chance to catch this ride”

vs

“Last night my father died”

The first line doesn’t say a whole lot meaningful but has a rhythm to it even without music behind it. Now while the second line has more emotional impact it’s definitely not a lyric ANYONE would want to sing along with. No matter how catchy the hook is, singing about your father dying that “on the nose” just isn’t going to get someone to come back and listen again.

My last tip on writing catchy vocal hooks is to just grab an instrument and start playing lead lines over the progression. These lead lines aren’t to show off your soloing skills but are more to work out melodies that can be sung over the music. Often times a riff will sound cool on a guitar but it is actually better to drop the riff out completely and use it as your vocal melody instead. I have done this many times and am sometimes surprised at how well a cool sounding guitar riff transfers over into a vocal hook.

5.) Song arrangement

What do we have so far? We have multiple sections to our song and we have a hook. What’s missing is a complete song arrangement to make the song sound coherent and amazing. You basically have your first draft of the song and we want to get to your final draft of your song.

You can find formulas for song arrangement with a quick google search but here I want to focus on Tension and Release. When arranging your song you are taking the individual parts of your song and arranging them so that your song builds up points of Tension and then Releases into your hook. It is incredibly important to recognize that without tension a hook will fall flat or sound uninspired.

This is where a lot of going back and editing your song will occur. If your chorus or hook sounds small then the parts before it are most likely too big. If your verse is loud and big but your chorus is quiet and small then I am going to guess it just doesn’t sound that memorable. You have to go back and adjust your perfectly crafted parts to make each point of your song either be a part where you are creating tension or allowing release of tension.

This is really where the nitty gritty work occurs in song writing. There are a multitude of ways you can adjust the energy and vibe of a song but I would really recommend trying to focus on that tension and release aspect. This is going to really elevate the quality and memorability of your music over time.

Final Thoughts

At this point you may have realized that song writing is no short task! You may occasionally strike gold and have a song come to you within minutes or hours but this often won’t be the case. I have spent hours, days, weeks, and months working out songs. Just because it isn’t a short process doesn’t mean it has to be complicated though. Just get started with the simplest of ideas and start expanding outwards and upwards from there. Record the idea so you never lose it and can start working out more details in the song. Work on the individual parts first, find that hook in your song, and then arrange the music to get the most impact out of that hook to keep listeners coming back for more.

One last thing…Share that song you just spent all those hours crafting! Either play it for someone you know or share it online to the world. It is important to get the music out of you into someone else’s ears and mind. This is what brings a song to life, it no longer lives in your mind alone but is a part of the world of music forever regardless of how many listen. You put in the work now go show it to someone!