How do you learn to be a songwriter?

[Charmed Life Picks]

Originally Posted by Rmz76

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.

Great idea for a thread. RMZ, thanks for this as well. I haven't read the whole thread, but there's also a wonderful book of interviews with many, many fine songwriters, called Songwriters on Songwriting by Paul Zollo. Here's the Amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/Songwriters-So...rds=Paul+Zollo

[catdaddy]

Originally Posted by songz

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

Ron

I guess I agree that killing one's inner critic might be taking things too far. However, I've found an occasional bludgeoning of that persistent nemesis to be necessary in order to sometimes unblock creativity.

[Don W]

Try noodling around in "C" CGCGCE . Someone mentioned alternate tunings...it is really inspiring...check out some of the tunings Joni Mitchell uses. Very cool.

[Marshall]

Don't listen to these guys.

Get a pickup truck. Get a dog. Get a girl.
Treat the girl like crap. Hang out in a bar and get drunk regularly.
Girl will bond with dog while you're always gone. Eventually she'll pile her stuff in the truck, take the dog, and leave.

. . . , write a song about it.

[Hotspur]

I'm not a fan of "how to write songs on guitar." I know a lot of people love that book, but honestly, it seems to approach songwriting backwards.

I do think "Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles" is a great book. I don't know how much it'll teach you about songwriting, but it will help you understand how music works. It's the best practical theory book I've ever read. (Don't be put off by the price - it's got lots more content than your typical music book. It's very thick. You could easily spend over a year working through it).

So here's what I think about songwriting. This is based on my experience writing a few songs that don't suck and a bunch of songs that do suck.

The first, and most important thing you need to do is develop your ear. This is more important than knowing the fretboard. Every single good song I've written has arrived in something like the same method:

I'm inspired, sometimes by a song I hear, sometimes by some noodling I'm doing ... and I hear the whole song in my head. Melody. Chords. Some of the lyrics. I feel like it's floating by and I'm discovering it more than writing it.

But in order to do that, I have to be able to "hear" the song in my head and play it. Which is similar to hearing a song someone else is playing and playing it. (I honestly think that with an un-developed ear, you'll get a lot of ideas in your head that are literally untranslatable. They don't exist - because you don't know how to think in pitches. You are thinking in sort of a vague idea of pitches). So work on your ear.

But the other thing is that this is a largely subconscious process. I write something other than music for a living, and when I'm writing, in general, it's not a subconscious process. But music writing is. So you need to prime your subconscious.

So the second thing - and this is where the Beatles book comes in so handily - is that you need to know the genre you're writing in. Your subconscious will only do the work for you if you lay out the tools, so that means studying music. But your brain doesn't compose in concepts, it composes in sounds - so it doesn't matte if you, for example, know what a secondary dominant is because you read a book about theory. It matters if you can hear a secondary dominant in practice. Once you're in that place, your brain understands "secondary dominants" and you will find they start creeping into your writing.

That being said, because this is a largely subconscious process, there are two other things:

1) You can't force it. You have to be willing to let something sit. Every time I feel like I'm halfway there and try to ram it home, the result is disappointing. This means I've had a bunch of half-written songs rattling around my brain for a while, but I'd rather have a half-written good song than a fully-written mediocre one.

2) You have to follow the muse. I think it was Neil Young who said that when he gets an idea for a song, no matter what he's doing, he stops and works on it. (This was in "Songwriters on Songwriting" which is worth reading.) You can't put a pin in it for later.

Anyway, that's what I've figured out from writing a few songs that don't suck and a bunch that do. It's what works for me. Good luck!

[Geedub]

Lot’s of good stuff on this thread…

I’ve been writing songs for just over a year now after playing guitar for about 30 and even though I really don’t know a lot about it, I like the songs I’ve been writing and so do the people with whom I share them with. Here are a few things that have found helpful.

Write, write, write and don’t worry if it’s right.
The Ira Glass video was dead on. When I first started writing I tried to just focus on getting songs to a point where I considered them finished and I’ve got somewhere between 20 and 25 that I consider complete. At any given time I have between 5-15 songs that I’m working on.

I write on my smart phone and have it with me so if inspiration strikes I can go into either the notes program or into voice memo and write/record it so I don’t forget. I also keep a file in my notes program of random lines that I hear that might be good for either a single line/lyric, song title or idea. I find that I go back to that often.

The free songwriting course at Berklee was VERY helpful.

Listen, listen, listen to other music. I found listening to songwriter’s whose music I found meaningful was and still is very helpful, sometimes in unexpected ways. For example I had been working on a song about my divorce/to my ex wife and was struggling with a phrase. One night I was listening to John Mellencamp’s song Walk Tall and heard the line “…grace, mercy and forgiveness…” and the line I was working on for my song popped in my head as “…dreams are for living, grace is forgiving…”

Pick a primary focus by emphasizing either the melody/instrumental side or lyrics. It helps narrow down the number of variables you’re dealing with. As your skill level improves you can branch out. I started out by focusing on lyrics and wasn’t overly concerned about using complex chord progressions or melodies.

Especially in the beginning, evaluate but don’t judge your work. That is, try to stay out of the trap of saying something you have written is “good” or “bad.” Those terms don’t really provide you with any new information.

[Silly Moustache]

Originally Posted by 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.

this is an excellent recommendation!

[Larry Pattis]

Originally Posted by 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.

Yes, and there are others.

My departed friend, TR Ritchie, was amongst the best at speaking to the human condition. As a mutual friend recently mentioned (Don Charles), "TR had a way of gathering it all up."

Nothing of TR's ever made it to the public's eye unless every word, every turn of a phrase, every deep-meaning was scrutinized and fully fleshed out...and in his own inimitable/minimalist fashion.

A GREAT example of how to do it right.

[Mbroady]

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!

Hey Jeffe26:

What a wonderful journey.
I am not sure any one person can tell you how to become a songwriter. Check out the book(s) "songwriters on songwriting". Some of the greats talk about their process. And they all have their own approach.

I will share this from my experience. I started writing my own tunes about 15 years ago. I would take them out to open mics and gigs and I would always get the same comments: Nice guitar playing, or love your voice, or "like that groove". Sure the was nice but never did I get "Love your song"

Fast forward around 8 years and I finally had performances were folks would say how much they appreciated the song or that the song touched them.
It took 8 years of writing before I was able to get a response from a song.

So allow your self to “Suck” at writing and keep doing it, no matter what people say or do not say

[psychojohn]

I am a trained psychologist who was kicked out of guitar lessons (after a year)at age 10 for not being able to read music and likely being tone deaf. At 54 (a little more than a year ago) I began guitar lessons again and have penned one song ("Fifty, Fat and Frumpy"). Kinda autobiographical in it's content, but based on lyrics and rhythm of prose really pulled for heavy metal beat and music (which I hate). I none the less figured out a tune to go with it.

I was interested in reading in other posts however, how many people recommended starting with the music or tune. I've been writing poetry considerably more decades than I've been playing guitar (about 1 1/2 years) and have a stock pile of poems I plan to put to music. Like for "Fifty, Fat and Frumpy", the content and cadence of the poems seem to pull for or draw me to a specific genre' of music. I'm working on the "Swollen Prostate Blues" right now and you can guess what genre' the tune will be in once the words are done. So for me, words first then music but that is due to my life experience. I'm sure different things work for different people, but this works for me. No aspirations of big time publishing here, however.

John