Letter No. 40 [tips for songwriting]
Dear Friend,
As you probably already know, I’ve been doing a 100 day songwriting/composing challenge for…well, more than 100 days. I am finally at day 75 as of yesterday, but it’s been slow going. Still, it’s taught me a few things about staying creative and finding different methods of inspiration for songwriting, and I wanted to share those. I think it’s easy to get into a rut with any creative pursuit, and when I feel like I’m getting that way, I mix it up with one of these methods.
Text: You can use lines from poetry (or entire poems) to inspire your music. Many songwriters read poetry every day. You can also use scripture, scenes/ideas/characters from your favorite novel, or journaling. Sarah Sparks wrote an entire album inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia, and I’ve used verses from Shakespeare plays before to inspire my songwriting.
Music: choose a favorite instrumental piece or soundtrack and base a song off of it. Some of my favorite soundtrack composers are Thomas Newman, Dario Marianelli, and Alexandre Desplat. You can also take a popular/favorite song and change things about it to make something for yourself (like key, major/minor, intervals, rhythm, harmonies, and chord progression).
Learning a riff or the chords/melody/strumming pattern of a favorite song can also inspire since this will expand your playing knowledge and lead to new melodies/chords/riffs made from bouncing off of this newly learned music.
You can also start with a beat and then build your song from there.
Writing for a certain tempo and mood also really challenges me, and I’ve found myself creating music I would have never created otherwise.
Chord Progressions: There’s a website called autochords.com that will generate chord progressions according to instrument, key, major/minor, and general feel (sad, happy, etc.). I’ve used this many times when I’m out of ideas for new chord progressions. I enter a progression, start playing around with it, and usually come to a song within a couple different progressions.
You can also create a simple chord progression and then go to a chord library (or just play around on your instrument) to find variations of those chords that will make it more interesting and add elements of surprise for the ear.
Technique/Pattern: If you feel like your playing and songs are starting to all sound the same, it’s time to learn a new technical skill on your instrument. This includes learning new scales, new ways of playing something (like different kinds of staccatos on a piano), writing in keys you don’t usually write in, and using new patterns (like strumming or fingerpicking patterns on the guitar).
It might also be time to switch instruments for a while (if you usually compose on one versus another) or to add another instrument to your collection.
Lyrics: I don’t do this very often because the music usually inspires me first, but you can write your lyrics first. Sometimes I’ll go to the lake and just write about what’s been happening in my life, or I write lyrics based off of poetry, and then put music to them.
I have to work harder at this because the words don’t always flow naturally when I start with lyrics first, but for many, it could be easier to start with the lyrics.
You can also choose the lyrics of a favorite song, print them out/have them ready, and then create a song for them. You can then turn this into a cover, or write new lyrics to the melody you just created.
Melody: Consider creating the melody first—alone without any accompaniment. Practicing this has actually been one of the best things I’ve done, because it isolates the melody and forces me to create something that sounds interesting. When I have all the accompaniment, I can sometimes get away with writing melodies that aren’t the best they could be, or I get distracted and focus on the accompaniment.
This method is also great for when you can’t access your instruments. I’ll pop in my earphones, open up the voice memos app, and get to singing. You of course don’t need to record the melodies, but I like to, since I’ll listen to them later and make changes.
I also like to start with the melody and then only add vocal harmonies and see what happens/what kind of sound it produces.
Analysis: Analyzing music is one of the best ways to learn from the experts. I love analyzing classical pieces, but you can do this with your favorite songs as well. Analyze the chord progressions, key signatures/changes, time signatures, themes, phrasing, historical background, composer background, form of the piece—and see how these all contribute to the piece to make it what it is. Now you have a rich understanding of that piece, and techniques to employ on your next piece/song.
Notation also does the same thing. I have a book by Elaine Gold called Behind Bars. It’s like the Bible of notating techniques/rules, and I have it handy while I’m notating music so I can look up anything I have questions about (which is a lot right now!).
Also—knowing how to notate music is like knowing how to write. You can break the rules, but you have to know the rules first, and those rules are a powerful tool once you’re fluent in them.
Now get to writing (me too!)! :)
Tara