Confession To You

HOW TO WRITE SONGS .1 ~

Part 1 of 6: Getting Inspiration

1 ) Be true to your style. Don't ever look at how others write songs and feel like you have to do the same; everyone has a different style. Some write freely from their mind's eye, while others write with a specific intention. While there are lots of rules and conventions to music, at the end of the day it is a creative venture, which means that the most important thing is that it expresses you.

2) Keep writing to get to the good stuff. Get a journal and be ready to write down a lot of stuff that won't work in order to get to the stuff that does. This is how the creative process works: everyone has to make bad things on the way to making good things. Write as much as you can until you feel it is finished or ready to be set aside. To even write a single word or sound is an excellent start. Let the song ferment. Songwriting takes time!

Keep everything. If you write a single sentence of a song down, it always leads to something else sooner.

3) Write all the time. You should always start by just writing. Write about your feelings. Write about the world around you. Describe a person or a thing that matters to you. This is to help you find the words most worthy of a song. The poetry on which your song will be built (whether it's an actual poem or just a few phrases that you want to cobble together into something better). Remember: it doesn't have to always be depressing or angry. Or even have an emotion. A laundry list could be poetic if done right.

4)Look at existing songs. Look at songs which are known for great lyrics to get inspiration. You can learn a lot from thinking about what makes a song good vs what makes a song bad. Look for the kinds of things they talk about, how they talk about them, what rhymes they use, the rhythm of the lyrics, etc.

Good examples include Blitzen Trapper's "Furr", Macklemore's "Same Love", Bob Dylan's "The Times Are a Changin'", Patsy Cline's "I Fall to Pieces", or Janis Joplin's "Piece of My Heart". Examples of bad song lyrics include Black Eyed Peas "I Gotta Feeling", Avril Lavigne's "Sk8ter Boi", Trace Adkins' "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk", and the probably obvious choice of Rebecca Black's "Friday".

5) Look at existing poems. If you're hard up for inspiration but you want to practicing your song writing, try adapting existing poems. Older poems (think Lord Byron or Robert Burns) have wonderful ideas but might not seem all that modern. Take on the challenge and adapt them. Can you make a rap song out of Shakespeare? A folk song from e e cummings? This type of challenge will improve your skills and give you a great starting point.

6)Use stream of consciousness exercises. Stream of consciousness writing is where you just write and keep writing and don't stop: just write everything that comes into your head. This will capture many ideas that change quickly but it can help you find ideas when you're really lost.

- BHABYPANGET