I'll start with a simple, short answer: Do it. It's fun.
If you've come to this blog looking for advice about songwriting, this is the post for you. The About page of my blog states that it is about my "experiences with the craft," but because it's such a mysterious and personal thing, I've rarely blogged about it. I think I can make it seem more accessible and less daunting, despite not really being a traditionally qualified expert, so here goes...
Presumably you read this blog because you've heard some of my songs and appreciate them. Also presumably, you know it isn't easy to explain or teach. Like most things, if you have the desire, then do it a lot, you learn along the way and get better. Presumably. I think I have, but it's hard to know for sure.
I guess I think of the blog as being more than just me being a solo artist. I've always considered myself more of a songwriter than anything else, and I've always envisioned writing songs for other artists as my ideal place in the music business. Turns out I've also become a solo artist, multi-instrumentalist, engineer, etc., but out of all the ways I get involved with music, just making up songs is my favorite aspect. I have maybe written, recorded and released more original songs than most people, but that's maybe my only qualification. I have no formal training, nor do I have any major awards to brag about.
If there’s anything I can offer, it would be that my songwriting “career” is an example of what you can do as an average joe, regular guy type of person who never took lessons or learned to read music notation. You, too, can learn a few chords on a guitar, make up some words to sing, put them together, and call them songs – and do it as a completely self-taught person without much skill or talent as a vocalist or instrumentalist.
For starters, being able to record yourself playing a song on a guitar and singing some lyrics really helps. Just hearing yourself perform a song you wrote helps. I used to teach people how to ski, and when video on the hill became a thing (Vail pioneered this in the early 90s with something they called “cybervision”), it made people get better faster to be able to see themselves ski. It's very similar to playing back a recording of yourself. Knowing what you sound like is important in evaluating songs you write. Hearing a recording of yourself makes you think about instrumentation and arrangement ideas as well as the overall impression a song has and what could be improved.
I think I started with a jam box that recorded cassettes. After a while, I bought a Tascam 4-track recorder, and that allowed you to record 4 different tracks and blend them together, which made me want to get a bass and some percussion. Later on, a computer with audio interface and multi-track recording software made the number of possible tracks limitless.
One thing I can say about my experience with the craft is that it has evolved with both time and technology. A digital audio interface with digital audio workstation software is overwhelming, but gives you a satisfying mad scientist experience. At first, you're excited to make yourself sound like a full band, and fairly quickly thereafter, you realize that adding too much instrumentation or too many vocal parts can make a song worse.
Recording helps, but so does using a word processor. Legal pad with pen was how I jotted down the words with chord letters above the word where the chord is to be strummed. Then you truly have a written song, along with the ability to have a recording of it on which you made all the sounds. Progressing on from paper was again spurred on by me getting my first computer and using Wordperfect, and then later on, Word, as my lyric/chord documenting tool of choice. It's way more efficient to rearrange sections, cut and paste lines, delete stuff, make edits, etc. than revising by crossing out and writing over or rewriting your revisions on a fresh paper page.
I was shaped by the circumstance of having a computer to use as part of my day job. This allowed me to take breaks and type lyrics in the office, then email them home to myself. Later when home and near my guitar again, I'd put them to music. This was the reason I’m more of a lyrics-first writer, but I’ve also written plenty by writing the music first too. I probably wrote more lyrics for songs than I would have otherwise, and once they exist, you look forward to completing the music part.
The more you learn, the more you are able to hear. When enjoying music by other artists you like, you can try to figure out what are the characteristics of the songs that made you like them. The more you know about music and songwriting and recording, the more likely you are to be able to hear song forms and structure, for example. You can find a lot of free information about writing songs on the web, so I highly recommend doing so. I don't ever co-write with anyone at all, but I do also advise doing it, because you can always learn from others. I've noticed that just talking about the craft with other craftsmen or listening to people who are better than you can no doubt help. Not everyone can be a Lennon or McCartney, but everyone can learn from listening to them.
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Ideas matter. Sometimes, when I sort of luck out, a song will just flow out as if it’s writing itself, and when this happens, it’s usually because the core idea of the song was really good to start with. You need a spark of a good idea first. Listening to other music, people's conversations, and even reading books can give you inspiration, usually to write a song that includes some aspect you wanted to hear, or some aspect it reminded you of, or some aspect you misheard. New original melodies, concepts, titles, and lyrics can pop into your head while listening to existing music. Maybe you hear where you would've gone if you were the artist, and maybe it just makes you think of something totally different.
My absolute best piece of advice I have is to just do it a lot. Write songs a lot. Most will suck. You may improve the more you try, but sometimes it doesn't seem that way. Maybe I haven't improved because for every batch of new songs I write, say 10 new songs, usually only a couple of them really stand out. 2/10 ain't a bad keeper ratio. Sometimes it's 0/10, sometimes 5/10, despite me learning a few things over the years.
That's really two pieces of advice: write songs often, and accept a low keeper ratio without getting discouraged. Those are the top two most important things.
Secondarily, it is really important to listen to a lot of music. I remember being surprised when reading Stephen King's 'On Writing' about how important he thought it was to read other writer's books, and to do it frequently. A first reaction is that it seems contrary to writing something fresh and new, and that it would put you at risk of being perceived as copying someone else's style, or worse, being a plagiarist. My initial thought was that you don't want to be clouded by others' work and that to be truly original/authentic/creative, you want to avoid any influence whatsoever.
This one can also be broken down into two pieces of advice: listen to a lot of music, but also listen intently for what worked well.
I'll elaborate a little on this last one. The more you listen to music you like, as a songwriter, you're constantly focusing on why you like it, asking yourself what it is about the song that makes it good. The more you attempt writing songs (and recording them), the more you notice little details in the music of other songwriters and artists. You start to be able to at least hear things like the song forms and the arrangement choices and the rhyme schemes, whereas before you wrote songs you just liked what you liked from a music consumer perspective and didn't notice all these other things.
Therefore, the more you write/record, and the more you listen to the work of others, the more you notice, the more you pick up on various devices, tips, tricks and techniques you can use for your own songwriting work. As your experience increases, the greater your focus becomes. You hear things in songs you like that you never noticed before. Similarly, you also begin to notice what didn't work, why songs are not good, or how they could've been better.
Another piece of advice that has just emerged in my mind from explaining all this so far is you need to record in addition to write. In particular, I'm thinking of multi-track recording. Yes, a good song can be conveyed with one instrument and a vocal and should be able to stand on its own that way. However, most of what I enjoy has more than two tracks. The more you attempt recording multiple instrument and vocal tracks and blending them together, you start paying more attention to the instrumentation and mixing of your favorite songs by others.
To sum that up, I would also add a fifth piece of advice: record your own songs...with multiple tracks.
Expanding on that, it's never a bad thing to try to re-create a song someone else wrote by recording your own cover version of it. Fire up your DAW and try to record a famous song that stays true to the original, and you'll learn a lot about what made the song and record so good in the first place that you didn't notice when you were merely a fan.
To clarify further then, record songs in a multi-track environment; including covers. With all of the virtual instruments and MIDI sounds available in software, you don't have to know how to actually play instruments to record tracks using the tools.
Even if you're only wanting to write, recording demos is a part of presenting your songs to artists, and demos these days are typically more than just a guitar/vocal or piano/vocal.
And I guess elaborating on that point would be to have DAW software, an audio interface, a computer, a microphone, and a MIDI keyboard. At minimum, these are the basic tools every songwriter should have. If you don't play piano or bass or drums, you can use the keyboard for a simple snare hit track or a simple root note bass track to fill out a demo.
Adding to that would be an obvious one: have an acoustic guitar. They are the most commonly-used instrument for songwriters, easy to just pick up and start using without any setup when inspiration strikes.
Summarizing those last few might be to say have an instrument - which almost goes without saying, and have some recording equipment, and a MIDI keyboard is highly recommended even if you don't play piano.
I got by with a 4-track tape recorder for years, but today's digital electronic recording tools are amazing by comparison. Again, when attempting to record a demo of your own song or a cover of someone else's great song, you learn things about what makes songs and recordings of songs great. This in turn trains you to listen more intently to songs you like to hear what they did that worked (or didn't). It makes you become a producer, or at least be able to think like one.
Lastly, I might advise listening for the structure of songs. As a kid, I could sing songs I liked, but never paid any attention to which parts were a verse, chorus or bridge, intros/outros, etc. Along with this is the advice to learn a little about the common song forms that exist, and the common rhyme schemes that are used in great songs. Learn the rules, break them, listen for how others followed or broke them, etc. It makes you become an "arranger" of sorts.
Concluding about those last two might be learn the popular song forms - there are only a handful, and learn a little about types of rhyme options.
Another big one in the same vein would be to learn a little bit about chord families - that is, which chords go well together for a song in a particular key. Again, these are good to know because it's a matter of knowing the rules in order to break them. There are all sorts of confusing charts and diagrams out there to be found like the circle of fifths, but chord families gets you started with theory.
So the advice piece here is: learn chord "families" for each song key. I mean, you don't have to actually learn them, just google it and refer to the table that lists what they are. Simple as that.
There are a ton of other subtleties to learn about and pay attention to as you get deeper into understanding what works. Things about tension/release, contrast, subject matter, and the details go on and on. You will learn how certain chords tend to resolve to other chords in a key, stuff like that.
I'm mainly talking about songs that have lyrics, so if you're aspiring to "compose" classical music or chamber music or instrumental music or background music for movies or television, some of these things may not apply as much. Something to never lose sight of is that songs with words meant to be sung require great singing for the best impact. Guitar riffs, drum beats, melodies, etc. can all be hooks that contribute to great songs, but great singers can transform songs into things of beauty.
It seems to be more true for guitarists than keyboardists, but while playing chords, you start singing the words in a way that sounds good to you. This is the melody. So, I guess I would recommend that you write the melody with your voice. You could do it with your right hand on a piano, or with a harmonica, but I do it vocally. I rarely just write a melody on a guitar first. It sort of naturally feels like the right notes to sing while strumming those chords in that order.
You can start with whistling or humming or just singing nonsensical “na-na’s” before you have the lyrics, then when you have the lyrics, sing them in place of those same notes that sound good to you. So, the singing, while playing some progression, for guitar players usually, is the creation of the melody. It’s a vocal melody that could theoretically later be notated on a staff. Later on, you can match what you sang with an instrument – such as playing the melody on individual notes either while singing or during an instrumental break.
I’ve done lyrics-first a lot, but I’ve also done music first. Inevitably, there’s a little back-and-forth editing until you get it all to gel. Sometimes you can just hear it all coming together in your head, and your fingers and voice have to translate it simultaneously. Attempting it a lot makes it less daunting, like anything.
Final piece: don't underestimate the power of great singing. Be a great singer or find one.
Someone like me who is not much of a singer should theoretically be on the lookout for great singers to interpret my songs - whether by me pitching my songs to artists, or finding a great singer to be in a band with. Instead of pursuing either of those, I record my own versions of my own songs as a solo artist by myself, and hope some great singers take notice and want to record them.
As an artist myself with a small-but-growing cult following, I am fortunate that singing isn't the only thing people enjoy about music and artistry, or I'd have no interest in my music at all. People appreciate the songwriting, I'm told.
Some of the pros in Nashville will spend a couple grand on a single demo of a single song, sometimes more. It seems almost insane. That takes a great amount of confidence in addition to capital. Then they pitch them to artists, and often get rejected. I'm all for people going for it, but my current situation is to just keep doing what I do, keep trying to write better songs, keep trying to record better songs.
As I've blogged before, I know I'm not the type of solo artist who would be likely to get signed by a major record label. I might have enough skill with songwriting to do it as full-time staff member for a publisher, but I live in Michigan and have no plans to move to a music hub and network. Luckily, it's a hobby that is a blast and can be made public from the privacy of my home - which is weird but true. Thankfully, I've had enough confidence to put my songs and recordings out there.
My songwriting and recording have evolved, my knowledge of each has evolved, and so has the advice list. I have no reason to think these trends won't continue.
So, re-skim the things I made bold above, but here's an abbreviated list for you impatient scrollers as blogged about in detail above:
- Do it often
- Accept bad songs
- Listen to great songs
- Listen intently
- Buy an instrument
- Learn song forms
- Learn rhyme schemes
- Learn chord families
- Buy recording equipment
- Get a MIDI keyboard
- Record multi-track songs
- Record covers
- Focus on singing
- Don't give up
When I run in to people who know I like to write songs and they ask if I’m still doing it, I usually say I’m still trying to write a good one, and then I usually throw in a “haven’t given up yet” part too. I say these things with a smile on my face because I have so much fun with it. It’s a great way to pass the time. I know some of them might think to themselves “okay, I guess he really likes something he’s not very good at” and then might wonder “why make them available for streaming though?”. I do it anyway, because I can.
We all know someone who retires with a hobby, then they attempt to go pro with it. I’ve worked with guys who liked to take pictures with a camera and then retire and launch a “photography studio” website, or guys who are into woodworking and then retire and launch a website to try to sell their creations online. You check it out, make a quick judgement in your mind, compliment them, and wish them well. You always think to yourself “dude, you’re not as good as you think you are, but good luck,” but you’d never tell them your thoughts out loud to their face.
Those sites don’t seem to stay up for very long. Is this kind of thing sad? Yeah, maybe a little, but I’m one of them, and I’m a supporter. Depends how you look at it. Did they need someone to tell them they weren’t as good as they thought they were, or that their ambition outweighed their talent? I’m not sure about that.
Trying and failing is better than not trying. Not giving up despite remaining conventionally unsuccessful would be another way to say it. Following a passion isn’t about mainstream success, it’s about the enjoyment of a creative pursuit. Keep at it, that’s how you get better at anything.
