How To Write A Song

[superwoman]

Here's an indie musician's guide to songwriting by my band, Pitch Feather.

We write, record, produce and promote our own music (and now, videos). We love to compose, arrange and produce songs, and thought we could share our method with the rest of you aspiring songwriters.

Happy songwriting!

 

[centralcatchment]

Hi,

That's a nicely put together video.

Now when writing music, or more specifically writing songs eventually we will figure out the chords, the melody, the lyrics, the concept / theme of it. But not necessarily in any one order, or not necessarily sequentially.

If you work out the concept first, that can help you focus your creative efforts on something tangible. But it's equally likely that you might have a song pop into your head suddenly.

Now for those people who write songs - I probably don't have to tell you. If a song suddenly pops into your head without you having to look for it, you MUST write it down RIGHT AWAY because there's a good chance that those songs are your best songs.

So you'll write it down, and then you figure out the concept for that song later. I still remember listening to a Miles Davis album (I think the song is "If I Were a Bell"). He says at the beginning (and this is bebop in the 50s, spoken word intros are very rare). "I'll play it first and tell you what it is later".

In fact be very careful about conceptualising songs or music - you could ruin a good work by conceptualising too much. But lyrics are usually written when you listen back to your song, and then ask yourself, what's this about? Then your lyrics are usually written as an answer to that question.

 

[bangbangbang]

 

[DeadlyDivine]

Interesting! Nice video.

 

[centralcatchment]

How many of you know that one was written by a Beach Boy? (Not Brian)

 

[superwoman]

Hi,

That's a nicely put together video.

Now when writing music, or more specifically writing songs eventually we will figure out the chords, the melody, the lyrics, the concept / theme of it. But not necessarily in any one order, or not necessarily sequentially.

If you work out the concept first, that can help you focus your creative efforts on something tangible. But it's equally likely that you might have a song pop into your head suddenly.

Now for those people who write songs - I probably don't have to tell you. If a song suddenly pops into your head without you having to look for it, you MUST write it down RIGHT AWAY because there's a good chance that those songs are your best songs.

So you'll write it down, and then you figure out the concept for that song later. I still remember listening to a Miles Davis album (I think the song is "If I Were a Bell"). He says at the beginning (and this is bebop in the 50s, spoken word intros are very rare). "I'll play it first and tell you what it is later".

In fact be very careful about conceptualising songs or music - you could ruin a good work by conceptualising too much. But lyrics are usually written when you listen back to your song, and then ask yourself, what's this about? Then your lyrics are usually written as an answer to that question.

Thank you!

Your points make a lot of sense. Yup, the steps need not be sequential. In fact, if you try to stick too rigidly to a fixed method, it may end up counter-productive. Anyway, this video is just to share with the rest of you guys how we do it most of the time, and hopefully guide the beginners to get the ball rolling.

And yes, if you hear a melody/tune in your head, record/write it down straight away!! In fact, we often listen back to the snippets of recordings/writings that we made and get inspired to work out a new song from those snippets. This is how many of our songs were written.

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Interesting! Nice video.

Glad you enjoyed it!