How do you learn to be a songwriter?

[bitraker]

generally people write because they have something to say about love, politics, being "on the road", injustice, etc. - a song with/without lyrics is an argument staking out your position - also, remember what F. Scott Fitzgerald said: It all begins with an emotion. If you can't feel it, it doesn't matter how technically good you are.

[Silly Moustache]

Y'know there is much to say with the old cliche "Three chords and the truth."

From my own experience - I think you need to have something on your mind that you want to say - whether it's a love song , or a protest song.

Many great songwriters started with the teenage angst thing - (I certainly did!) and then expanded my subject material.

So the 12 bar three chord thing is fine, and can always be augmented with a major II a minor III and minor VI.

Personally I'd say the secret of communicating a good song is story telling talent - act out that three minute drama to your audience - eye contact, emphasis, repetition of chorus or bridge etc.

Hope that helps.

[Rmz76]

Originally Posted by Jeffe26

This might be a completely stupid question, but here it goes...

Like many of you, music is a passion and huge part of my life. I hear a great song and it moves me like nothing else does, which is the main reason I wanted to play the guitar. I wanted to learn to imitate my favorite artist and the message and emotions of their songs, and eventually learn to express and create my own music.

After about six years of learning and perfecting countless covers, I have started dabbling in writing my own material... I SUCK. Seriously, I have the hardest time creating a good melody or chord progression that doesn't sound similar to a cover I have learned, and I get frustrated and just go back to learning more covers. I have a background in English and literature, so lyrics come pretty easy- But I just can't seem to write a good tune to fit my lyrics. My influences are mostly Folk and Alternative, I LOVE fingerpicking and tend to prefer a more mellow and natural sound.
What are some things I can do to become more familiar and creative with making melodies on my guitar? Should I be focusing more on learning new chords, trying different tunings, or just keep doing what I'm doing?

Any advice from you singer/songwriters?

Thank you in advance!

Hi, this is the journey I've been on for a few years now. So here are some suggestions.

• Read Melody in Songwriting (Berklee Press)
• Read Songwriting: Essential Guide to Lyric form and structure (Berklee Press)
• Read Writing Better Lyrics by Pat Pattison
• Read How to Write Songs on Guitar by Rikky Rooksby
• Take an on-line course on songwriting. The best free on-line course is offered by Berklee School of Music though Coursera. This is taught by Pat Pattison, author of two of the recommended books above.
  Here's a link to the course:
  https://www.coursera.org/course/songwriting
• If you live in or near a major city see if they have a local chapter of the NSAI (Nashville Songwriters Association International). This group will plug you in to other songwriters in your area. You'll likely meet professional songwriters. The group also has several events each year where contest are held and winners get the opportunity to pitch their songs to major label agents.

Know that very, very few people are making their living as staff songwriters anymore. It's a very closed circle in Nashville, New York and LA. Your best bet (which is still a long shot as a sole source of income) is to become a performing songwriter. Develop some stage presence and a unique voice and tour pubs and dives working your way up. You'll earn respect this way and your songs will be heard. Maybe the right person will like one of your songs and pitch it to a major label artist to cut. You have to be not only a great songwriter, but be a able to package and sell your songs. Many aspiring songwriters think they shouldn't have to be able to perform, but who better to present your song than you? We're at the point where the singer-songwriter is a cherished thing by the new industry. Every singer who can't write wants to find that next great song by the next up and coming Bob Dylan wannabe. They don't want to sort though a collection of generic demo CDs listening to polished but unlively songs written by a songwriter somewhere in Nowhereville, USA and recorded by aspiring studio musicians at three in the morning after they finished working their two jobs for the day. I believe those sort of pure non-performing songwriters are thing of the past.

Although you can and should educate yourself on the craft of professional songwriting know that as with many talents, this is something a person is largely born with. The best songwriters I know have told me they have expressed themselves though songs and poems for a long as they can remember. You can teach yourself technique and learn how to craft a song or two, maybe even a good song but the great ones always seem to be channeled in from another dimension. I believe some have the gift to open the channel and some can't. I think great guitarist, pianist and singers are the same way.

[rmyAddison]

Originally Posted by Bingoccc

If your really driven here is Berklee Online http://online.berklee.edu/songwriting

Bingo !!

Berklee online, or sponsored weekend workshops. I learned more at a few workshops with Pat Pattison (one of John Mayer's profs) than a lifetime by myself.

We don't know what we don't know, if you are really serious about songwriting invest in learning from pros, it is amazing how many wrong assumptions we make about what is "good" from lyrics to rhyming.

Highly recommend classes or songwriter workshops, much easier if you learn the rules rather than flying blind...........

I must have been posting the same time as Rmz76, and I own and have read his first three books recommendations, they work !!

[sbeirnes]

1. Buy some John Prine albums. Start with the early ones

2. Listen to the John Prine albums, a lot.

3. Do what John Prine does.

After this, do the same thing, substituting Guy Clark for John Prine.

[jaymarsch]

I have been attending songwriting workshops and camps over the past two years as well as spending time listening to the music of a lot of songwriters. I am in the second week of the Coursera online songwriting class with Pat Pattison that has already been mentioned. It is a great class that covers all of the nuts and bolts. And the assignments help keep the momentum going.

All the resources that have been mentioned here are great ways to get started. Ultimately, I believe that if you follow your passion, it will take you places you never thought possible. But, like anything else, it takes a lot of trial and error, and practice. You have to be willing to write a lot of bad and mediocre songs in order to get to the gems!

Best,
Jayne

[MikeBmusic]

Take the free Berklee/COursera songwriting class (think the lastest one just started) - it can't hurt, but might help.

I've known some fabulous musicians who can duplicate someone else's music, leads, etc, and can invent thier own lead guitar parts to a song, but can't write a song of their own at all. I think it's a different brain part than the 'playing' part.

[upsidedown]

Kill your inner critic.

[Br1ck]

Find out who you are, then don't try to change. Write down every catchy phrase you hear or say, like " the government thinks I'm unemployed, my brain says I'm retired." There is a song there.

I have always challenged myself to write songs emulating great songwriters. This is a great exercise. Beach Boys, Carol King, Dylan, anyone really.

Things happen in life, big and small, good or bad, that you can use as song ideas. My band played a wake for a guy I met a few times but was close to my keyboard player. I thought to myself I was just a dispassionate man in the corner watching, those who new him well, and those who loved him. Humm, line for a song there?

Keep your antenna up, and recognize when things happen.

And like an actor, put yourself is someone else's shoes. I've been listening and writing song that could have been written in the depression. Three chords and hard times.

You need to play them for others, be that a songwriter's group or open mic nights. Record yourself. Send mp3s to friends you can trust for a truthful opinion, that are musicians you respect.

Learn to "sell " your songs. Timid performance in front of three or three hundred won't cut it. This takes experience. You only need to amuse yourself, but amusing others makes things a whole lot better. Cowboy chords and a simple strum will put a good song across. I hope to God you can sing on key. A recorder will be your best friend or worst enemy. My sadistic friend sends me mp3s of my open mic nights.

[ADK]

Just like writing anything, I think you have to write a lot of junk first. Write songs that sound like your influences. Get it out of the way. Keep moving forward with new songs.
I've written a few hundred songs over the years. Maybe 20 of them are okay. The rest are convoluted, contrived, or just plain dull.

[Pitar]

Writing for music is no different than writing in general. The Who-What-Where-When-and-Why is common to any literature.

Who - Know your audience. Write to/for them. There's always a demographic to appeal to in a common message.
What - The topic. Identify it as a thing, event, person or persons.
Where - The setting. It could be anywhere real or imagined.
When - Time of day, day of week/month/year, over a period of time such as a lifetime, on your lunch hour, at midnight - Time plays a big role.
Why - Cause and effect scenarios need resolving. Your audience wants to know why your story is important to them. In a word: interesting.

The above is the 101 in any writing and at the very elementary core of its discussion. You do not need to go all Burklee over it. Just get a book on basic writing.

[epluribus36]

I've always loved doing other people's songs. I've never really tried to make money making music, and I've figured why write songs when there are so many out there to re-do.

Then a few times I've picked up a guitar or sat at a keyboard, and poof! Here comes a song. I have absolutely no control over this phenomenon, and don't want any.

I think if I tried to write a song, I could do it probably, but it would be weird.

I don't know what that meant, but I had to get it off my chest.

[Tom46]

You might consider reading "Tunesmith; Inside the Art of Songwriting" by Jimmy Webb.

It's like Brahms, Beethoven or Mozart writing a treatise on the symphony.

[NevadaPic]

Hitchhike around the country with guitar and notebook.

[songz]

Originally Posted by upsidedown

Kill your inner critic.

Do not do this! Your inner critic is so important to the songwriting
process.

Ron