Songwriting tips

[ruixist]

some people try to write english songs with bad english...to me that's just :evil:

anyway for me when i write songs i would write the lyrics first, like a poem, then try to re-work it such that it could have a verse-chorus-verse type of structure. melody/rhythm-wise, i would then fit the note values of the melody into how i would recite the words, so the accents won't sound out of place. it's called scansion, i believe, i'm not too familiar with the technicalities.

only after i've settled lyrics and melody then will i go about harmonising the song with suitable chord progressions to bring out the desired emotion.

 

[haikelzambri]

for me b4 i write a song i need some ingition spark for my idea... so i listen to alot of music in the genre u into.... then once u got the ingition spark... i quickly tab them out at guitar pro.... then add somemore melodies,catchy beats...etc

but yeah it all starts at that ingition spark(just like cars)...once u got it... it would go on naturally...

 

[Cheez]

ruixist, your way of writing is the standard way of doing it - ie my style!

That's not to say it's not possible to write the melody or chords out first before the lyrics. Many has done that with good results. It's just that if it's done in the sequence ruixist said (lyrics-melody-chords), it has greater potential to bring out the emotion of the words (bring out the highs/climaxes and the lows of the song at the right places).

 

[centralcatchment]

I think that everybody has their musical blindspots. Just as some people can't understand rap, others (like me) can't understand metal at all.

To be sure, rap is very different from most other music, where rhythm is the dominant element instead of melody. But just as there can be counterpoint in melody there can also be counterpoint in rhythm, and the best rap music will have layer upon layer of hooks bouncing off each other.

And really, if you want to understand lyrics, it would greatly help to study rap music.

When I've written the song first, I try to understand what that song is about. That is the first step, it must have a central theme, a story. It should be consistent with the mood of the song. (Unless you're trying to be like Bob Marley who wrote a happy song and called it "Slave Driver") If you don't know what the mood of the song is, throw it away and write another song. Then that will serve as a guide for the lyrics.

 

[DeathCubeK]

Don't have any tips, but this is a nice song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2-5rnk9yHU

 

[centralcatchment]

This just in. Alex Chilton is dead.

If you want to learn songwriting, you learn from the best. Alex Chilton was one of the best (at least when he was with Big Star).