My Best Songwriting Tips (first thoughts as a beginner!)
When I first started wanting to write songs, I remember sitting on my couch and having NOTHING good I wanted to put on paper. It wasn’t that I didn’t have any ideas, but I felt like they were all dumb! Ugh. After sitting there for like half an hour not being able to think of anything, I finally decided to take a break. How could I constantly have 1 million things to say and yet when I actually needed to express that, I had nothing. After a bit more time writing though, something changed for me with songwriting- suddenly it became way easier to think of ideas and melodies that didn’t feel forced/awkward.
I am not a professional songwriter, but I am someone who has just started and got over some hurdles with writing. Now I’m finding I actually LOVE writing songs and plan to do that a lot more this year.
Starting at a blank page is the WORST!
If you want to start writing, I wanted to give you my tips as someone who was recently in your shoes and wondering how to get started!
1) Don’t worry if your ideas Don’t feel song worthy
I think this is THE BIGGEST tip I have discovered! The worst thing is a co-write (when multiple people are writing a song together) where no one wants to say their ideas!. If you take the vulnerability leap and are the first to say your stupid ideas, then it’s usually a lot easier for other people to go off that or at least have a starting point. You don’t have to say anything so poetic or deep, but sometimes just getting out how you feel about something in normal language can lead to other great ideas. It’s a lot easier to come back to a song once you have something down!
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2) Use your voice memos
There are a lot of ways of writing songs, but one of my favorites has been recording voice memos. I don’t know why, but I always have my best melody ideas in the car or walking my dog. I have hundreds of voice memos now of little song melodies (that sound absolutely terrible with the sound of traffic all around me lol). I have been liking storing these up because then when I go to sit down a write, I have something to go off of. I have also found the melodies I can actually remember without having to go back and listen are usually the winners!
3) Be open to change
This is my sister Molly! We just started songwriting together and it’s been the best!
Since my sister and I started writing, there are a lot of ideas I think are great and vice versa that one person really doesn’t like. Since we are sisters, we are probably WAY too real with each other which is actually really good because you don’t have to worry about hurting anyone’s feelings. I love my friend Laura’s practice with her friend, where each session they get one veto for an idea. That way you don’t end up disagreeing about everything. Bb being flexible with your ideas and figuring out how to work with the other person you can get a more creative song by doing things you aren’t used to ( but obviously still be honest if you have an idea you're really attached to!).
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4) Play them out
Us getting some practice playing out new songs out and about!
At a recent gig my sister and I had, we got to play all our freshly written songs! (You can also sign up for a writer’s night if you don’t have any gigs lined up.) It really helped us see which songs of ours felt most singable and naturally melodic. After the gig, we had a clear idea of which songs we would keep and which songs to retire.
5) Try different styles of writing
I used to think of guitar parts first, but I realized I actually do better when I start with the melody/lyrics first. Otherwise, my song doesn’t sound singable. You might be the opposite, but try a few different ways and see what you like! Sometimes the process is trial and error, but it’s worth changing things up to refresh your creativity!
If you want to get into songwriting, I hope this gives you some good tips for starting out! If you have any songs you’ve written you want to share, I would love if you dropped them below! Thanks so much for reading!
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