10 Steps to Write a Great Song

I just returned from an AWESOME! songwriting session with a friend. I had forgotten how great it is to work with other Songwriters and Musicians. Here is exactly how we did it.....



1. Form an idea of a story in your mind and chat back and forth with each other. Don't set limits just make up a story.



2. Plan three sections. A start, a middle and an end. (not chorus or verse just the story)



3. Get it clear in your head and write it down. This is where the songwriting part starts.

The main advantage you have now is a heap of great material. You have clear ideas about when it takes place, who the people are in the song, and what things happen to them. You can also at this point actually see if its a good story/song.



4. Now you can turn on your songwriting skills and start to play around with wording. We wrote most of the lyrics without any idea of how the music would go.



5. Block out sections and get a feel of rhythm, Im talking about the rhythm of the words not the music. Think about lines, 3 lines, 4 lines. Then fill them in thinking about flow and rhyme.

At this point you can get clever and make little surprises happen, maybe it was about someone else. You can play with the listener take them down a path and then introduce the real meaning towards the end. You can use word plays. All of this things you can put in here. Play with it and enjoy it.



6. Once you have a good draft of your lyrics start to think about Melody and chords. This is the part when we picked up our guitars and just started Jammin out progressions. Pick a key and start running over progressions. Run some of the lines and get a feel of the words natural rhythm and feels. It was the rhythm of the words that gave the idea of the hook.



7. When you have something that clicks with your ear, record it down and capture it.



8. At this stage we Stopped, Why now? Because we had a strong structure of lyrics. We had a firm idea of the story, and we had solid, recorded, progressions and grooves.



This was the perfect time to take a break and come back at it with a fresh new ear to judge if what we had was really as good as it felt in the groove we were in.

Its really important to give yourself time to breath and re-work your songs. I find the more I work on something at once the hard it is to let go of a section or a riff or a line that, although it may be good, it just doesnt work in the song. The longer I work on it the hard it is to see it, I think becuase it feels personal. Its like "No way im letting go of that line it took me hours to come up with it" or " I practiced that guitar riff for hours before I could play it!!! its stayin in" its not that its not a great line but just not here. Best to use it to make another great song where it fits perfectly.



9. After an hour, a day, a week, it doesnt really matter. Come back together and listen back to what you have. Re-read your lyrics. Dont try and capture what you had before, rather try and create something new. That was the last phase when you were creating, now you are re-writing.

Put on a different hat. Be a Producer, not a song writer. Think about the elements you have now and how they best server the song. Consider this as someone elses material that you have the honour of producing. Thing about sounds, instuments, flow, texture, colours in the music itself. Feel the song as a whole, not as lots of lines fitting together.



10. Once you have the song in your head then simply assemble it.



The biggest issue that faces most songwritiers is staying on the one track. Its Hard... Its sometimes impossible. So dont. Make it your plan to break it into phases. Play all the parts that go to making a song. Be the Writer and the colaberator and the Producer but as you do this make sure you take time and come back to each phase fresh.

Songs arnt writen they are Re-writen. Dont ever try and write the perfect song, always try to write the song for what it is. If its perfect thats great and you will make squillions but if its not its great practice, write alot all the time. Write with anyone who is willing to write with you.

It is a craft that takes a life time so enjoy the journey of each and every song.



Let me know how this helps you. Try it and leave me some comments of ways you create.



Cheers Darren