Hello All,

Just joined the forum. I am a beginner songwriter and feel there are lots of songs inside me. I really want to get serious about it someday, but right now just starting off. I get these great ideas and then when it comes time to sit down and actually do it, I run into a brick wall. Any suggestions? Also should I write the words first or the music firstIs there and easier way to do it? Thanks

MCF

Hello Farnum, welcome to chordbook...the best site of it's kind on net. I don't know the answer to your questions but I'm looking forward to the replies of those that know because I'd like to write a few songs myself and though I know how I'd do it, I'm thinking it could be the wrong way to go about it so I haven't begun yet. Good luck !

GuitarZen

Hi Farnum,

As a bit of a songwriter myself I hope I can give you some tips.  I've been writing songs for years and its sometimes a quick mysterious delightful process, other times from a good seed idea it takes a lot of toil and sweat to make it work.  Jimmy Webb veteran writer of a few old classics I think said about songwriting that if it isn't hard work you're doing something wrong! 

What myself included and a lot of musicians run into trouble with is lyrics, where there first love is music, they listen carefully and get excited by the music, guitar riffs, chord patterns, etc. but get a bit stuck with the words. What helped me a lot was to suddenly realise there's a whole lot of great lyrics out there and when married to the music magical things can happen. It got me going back to the songs I love and really listening to the lyric and started me to get more creative with language. Or even when the radio is on focusing on the lyric and seeing what is inspiring gives me ideas.

Secondly there's song construction, like a film,book or anything similar most good songs seem to build, the tension builds up and it climaxes on the chorus.
Dance or Club stuff has slightly different rules, but I guess we're talking more about rock type songs here.
The classic pattern would be something like verse,chorus,verse,chorus,middle8,verse, chorus, chorus. A good exercise might be to find a song you love and duplicate the patterns and elements of the song exactly but change everything to your own music and lyrics, try to get the energy in each part to match the original. See how that sounds.

As for words or music first, it doesn't really matter but being a committed guitar player, I find the easiest route for me is to use an ad lib method.
If I get a chord pattern and ad lib a melody and keep messing around with the first nonsense lyrics/melody that come into my head and very importantly some way of recording an initial idea so its not lost. I keep singing till I get something that feels good. Then listen back to it and try and figure out what it could be saying. Often in the
nonsense ad lib lyrics there is one or two phrases that actually work and from there I can sit down and spend time trying to develop the lyric into something more meaningful.

Songs are generally expressing something you want to say or feel, but its not enough just to express them, you have to try to express them well and in an engaging way.
You can say I feel good, feel bad, you broke my heart etc. but if the music and lyric aren't engaging enough it won't communicate to other people. So playing your ideas to your friends, although they're biased! is a good way of at least seeing which ones they like best and helps you to understand when you're creating something good.

Try to listen back to your ideas and hear also where the energy is with the song, does it build up, does it flow, are there moments where nothing is happening or it feels flat, maybe you can change the chord slightly, maybe try a different key by putting a capo on the guitar.

Melody like lyrics is also something I struggled with, being a guitar player first and foremost, a lot of my attention was on the guitar and music part, and being a competent but not great singer I would write very boring melodies. Only after working with some excellent expressive singers and realising how that made such a difference did I start to be a bit more adventurous with melodies and this really helped, for a lot of listeners will key into the vocal line first and foremost and not care so much how great the guitar sound/drum track is. Experiment with this great instrument you have, your voice, and see where you can take it, how high and low what you can do with it. I still love to work with really good singers but I can create a good part for them cause I can understand a bit of writing a good vocal part.

Sounds like a lot of work and skills to master! well yes and no, once you just start down this road of figuring out what makes a song you like sound good, there should be moments where you've absorbed some of this and at 2 in the morning lost in music, you are strumming your guitar and something good will just pop out, love those moments, get them down on your recorder immediately cause your creative mind can be brilliant when on a roll, but next morning you've forgotten the subtle things that made it really great.

Anyway hope this helps as a starter

all the best

strat