An Indie Musician's Diary Volume 4: Album two in the making

Writing a New Song?: Here Are My Techniques

Nov 19, 2021 (TGIF!)

Oh this one would be very long if I told you about all the great tips I've learned along the way and that have helped me write songs that are increasingly better than the ones I've written earlier in life. No, that would take too much time and I'm not sure that I could remember them all either! But here is how I am writing my latest song called, When I Begin To Praise.

As I develop this new song today, I realise that it won't be until much later that it finally sits, (feel 100% right in every respect). and get it recorded and distributed. The thing is that it's a good thing to have many projects in parallel.  So, this month I will be doing many things in parallel: writing this song new (about 15 minutes a day), finalising, mastering and sending the song Jesus Jag Älskar Dig for distribution (1-2 hrs today), checking out Black Friday deals for my music;  learning new bass techniques; training my voice, finishing a music video and creating a new one....

How did the song start?

I got an idea for the hook: I woke up yesterday and was just laying in bed praying as I usually do. "'Mornin', God..." and a song idea came to me. It was only the hook/chorus and it was happy so I lay in bed singing it to myself and after a few minutes I thought to myself.."this is good enough to take it out on my guitar", so I go up and grabbed "Blackie", my Fender Sonoran (not my Yamaha that is in the pic above. (Why the name Blackie? It's black. No racial slurs intended!) Btw I only use my Yamaha when I am outdoors. By itself its sound doesn't carry well, but it is sturdy and it has awesome sound when you hook it up to an amp.

Record your first draft immediately & back it up: I recorded the hook and the melody from the verses. This is how I do it. I got out my phone and turned on my "Mp3 inspelare" app and sang and played guitar recording my first draft. I sang in the words of the chorus/hook and hummed the verses as I played guitar. I saved a copy of the recording on my Dropbox with the name of the hook and date as a filename. 

Now your first draft is never perfect or great but it is important to catch that runaway locomotive before it disappears around the the next curve! If you wait too long you'll forget the hook and the song is gone forever. ALWAYS RECORD YOUR FIRST IDEAS.

Sometimes some song ideas really suck and, when I listen to each idea later on, I hear which ones are duds and delete them. But this one was definitely a hit, in my honest opinion, and I knew that this was a heavy locomotive so I recorded it before it choo chooed away from me.

Bpm: I figured out the bpm using another app in my phone, bpm Tap Free. All you do is tap on your phone to the beat of your song and after awhile it will take the average of your tapping and spit out the beats per minute rate of your song. Great!

Then you write the song idea down & back it up: Then I went to my computer, created a new document and started writing down the hook and the chords. This took some time to do because I wanted to start as low as I can (vocally) so I can raise the key a few times in the song to create a great arrangement. Already now I knew this was a pop/gospel song and very happy. After finding the right key to start with, I filled in all the chords for the chorus and the first verse. I backed it up onto Dropbox.

Brainstorming phase: Then I started playing/singing it over and over again and wrote down as many different variations of the chorus and verses that flew into my brain. I didn't sift through them, judge them or try to narrow them down at this point. All I did was have fun and be creative.

Then I took a break and did some mixing on another song, had some lunch.

Zoom out and get the main story: Later on, I got back into the song. Now that I had a very large amount of material to choose from,  I zoomed out and tried to capture the big picture/main story/meaning of the song. Then I knew what this was going to be about. This is important because it helps sift out what verses shouldn't be there. Also, I thought about grammar, tense and weeded out cliché phrases etc.

Backup and reminder set: All of the above took me a couple of hours to do. That evening I did av backup and then left the unfinished song on my computer screen so that I wouldn't forget to continue with the next morning while it is still fresh in my mind. I have found that I need to work with a song for a while like a chicken broods over its eggs. The songs don't "hatch" if you don't stay with them and complete them within a week. That is my experience.

The next day

Sculpting process: The next day I opened my computer and there is the song staring me in my face! O.k. so then I get going with it again. I start by singing/playing through what I've got so far. I tweak here and there, rearrange, add words, delete - sculpt the song.

Rinse and repeat the sculpting process next few days...

And that is where I am now.  This is going to take some time.

Test the song with others: When I get a song that I like into a final, compact package and can sing it without cheating (know it by heart), I test it on my hubby (poor guy, lol), to get some feedback. I've found that is never a good idea to share halfway done songs with others. Not even the pros. Especially the pros! Get your song tidy and nail it first. Then seek some constructive criticism of someone who really cares and understands music. 

Get feedback and act: If they then find anything wrong, and you agree that it is the sort of thing that you want to change, then you can go back and change it. But it is important not to share half baked songs with others. That will save you from some of the haters out there. (See my post from yesterday).

Rinse and repeat: Just like wine or cheese, a song needs to age a bit. I find myself playing through a new song, tweaking it occasionally and practising again until it feels done. Repeating this process, after getting good feedback and making the necessary changes, rinse and repeat this process until I am fully satisfied with the song.

The more I use this process, the faster it goes. So, don't give up hope if this seems like a complicated process. Each song you apply this process to will fly after a while. Just stay with the song like a hen over her eggs and the chick will break the eggshell and start to walk all by itself.

When is your song ready to record?

A song is ready to record when you are sure that the song breathes with tension and release, when the emotion shines through and the people around you like/love it. Also, you know it's done when you play the arrangement effortlessly and have actively walked through how to vocalise it correctly. But now that is a whole different subject for another day.

On another note: Today, I had my first personal vocal lesson (digitally) with a vocal expert in the UK.

Listen to my music, videos and be inspired for free.

Just copy this link to your browser: https://linktr.ee/ekitzing

or follow the link in my bio!

Until next time....