Actual Songwriting Advice from Scott Cooley

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.

These two figured it out pretty well by doing it a lot too!

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

So, there you go.  Write on.  I don't claim to have ever written any really good songs.  I'm still trying to write a good one, and that's what's fun.  There's a drive there, but the motivation is enjoying the trying part, knowing it would be rare and unrealistic to ever think you'll actually write a great one.

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.

How To Write Songs

How To Write Songs

I have no formal music training, and am completely a self-taught musician and songwriter.  This is just one songwriter’s process, described with lessons learned and advice for the like-minded.  If someone had shared this with me 25 years ago when I wrote my first song, it would’ve helped.  

Songwriting can be almost effortless at times, and that’s when it’s fun.  Other times it feels more like hard work and a struggle.  Rarely can you boost a bad draft to a keeper, but it is possible, and when it happens, it is a result of hard work spinning your wheels when the magical solution presents itself.  Those are the exception, and usually the songs that you write quickly as if it’s being channeled through you are the best.  Different aspects of songwriting come easier for some people than others, depending on things like their natural talents, inclinations, preferences, abilities, etc. - whether they be the lyric writing, music writing, or other various aspects.  Based on this, I will divide this post into sections accordingly to cover my experience and comfort level with each aspect.  

The amount of pain and agony involved with songwriting varies with the stages in the process, and depending on your process the sequence of those stages may vary as well.  The experience factor is similar to playing an instrument - some can log a ton of practice hours and still not be very good, while others are seemingly born with a high level of talent.  Everyone has different strengths, but here’s my assessment of my own pain level for each stage and a description of how I don’t always follow a consistent process for every song.  

Assumptions

The Scott Cooley approach to songwriting described herein assumes you’ve already looked up the basics about typical song forms (verse/chorus, verse/pre-chorus/chorus, AABA, etc.) and song sections (chorus, bridge, verse, etc.).  It also assumes you like popular vocal music (rock, folk, blues, country, etc.) that has words and singing versus classical or instrumental jazz.  It also assumes you at least know how to play some basic chords on an instrument.

Sequential Approach

I’m usually a lyrics-first writer, only because I find myself most often inspired about an idea for a song when I have a way to get the lyrics written but don’t have a way to get the music written (no instrument).  We all have smartphones on us most of the time nowadays, and they usually have a text editor or audio recording app.  You’re not always near a piano or happen to have a guitar with you.  So, you hit record and do a note to self, or you type stuff, or you write it on a napkin, etc..  Even without the phone, you can always find a pen and paper in most places where you find yourself, but don’t necessarily find yourself in a place where you have a way to borrow a handy instrument.

This article focuses on writing lyrics first, but of course I also am fully capable of doing it the other way around, and have done so with success in the past.  Quite often a musical idea you come across will drive how the entire song is written, including the lyrics.  Making lyrics fit music is in some ways easier.  My songs are not super complicated musically, and I believe the lyrics are slightly more important for someone who writes the kinds of songs that I do.  Sometimes you like songs only because of the music, others you like only because of the memorable chorus and have no idea what the lyrics in the verses are, but more often than not it’s the total package that you like, and that usually means good, meaningful lyrics throughout.

Concept

Fun, somewhat painless.  The idea for the song is the most important part - not just the main topic, but your point of view on that topic.  If you’ve got a great concept for a song, it can write itself.  The concept has to be about a feeling - and the concept itself must be the thing that motivates you to finish the rest of the song in the first place.  Follow the inspiration.  Of course it can be about topics covered in other existing songs - either your own or other people’s, but it has to be a new take or a different way of looking at the topic that hasn’t been done before, or at least, not that you’re aware of.  Starting with a title that summarizes that concept can be one way to start.  Coming up with a topic idea for a song is typically pure inspiration.  The emotion you’re experiencing is what drives you to finish writing about it.  You’re basically just filling in details of a skeleton theme.  

On the other hand, sometimes you come up with it only in the process of stream-of-consciousness lyric writing.  Usually though, the idea usually just strikes you, maybe as a reaction to an experience you’ve had, a conversation you’ve had or overheard, reading a book, watching a movie or tv show, listening to other songs, etc.  This often leads you to a title for the song, and a good idea of what the main theme of the chorus and hook will be.  From these, you can build the rest of the song, so it’s not a bad way to start.  Typically, you’ll operate within the subject matter and associated genre confines of, for example, love found/lost (pop, R&B), celebration/party/wild&crazy/escape (rock), a song about a place (folk), drinking/fishing/patriotism (country), etc., only your goal will be a fresh take or angle on these that hasn’t been done before – I guess that’s the challenging part, but when it strikes you like a lightning bolt, it’s a no-brainer.

Lyric Writing

Fun, somewhat painless.  Especially on a computer, with a word processor and online rhyming dictionary and google, you’re set.  This assumes you’re starting with the words as opposed to fitting words to existing music, and further it assumes you’re probably starting with a title and overall concept already.  It’s really just a matter of expanding the title and concept into a chorus, then making it a conversation/story that has the basic elements of a story – the verses can identify a beginning, middle and end, and a bridge can provide a different perspective or tie things together.  

You’ll want to select a form structure along the way – either from the start, where it serves as a skeleton template form where you simply fill in the blanks, or just focus on getting all the story down, and after you have all the lines of information you want to include in the song, then rearrange them to fit the form structure.  Google ‘song forms’ and you’ll see there are only about 5 or 6 that most songs use, with optional variations.  

If you’ve started with music, and are trying to write lyrics to fit the music, you obviously already have a set form, and again, it’s a fill in the blanks thing.  Typically, you’ll want to pay attention to having lines with close to the same number of words and/or syllables as each other in each song section (verse, chorus, bridge), and change the rhyming scheme between sections, making sure you have agreement and keep in mind the basic and commonly-accepted rules (rules which if broken in the right way, of course produce great variations).  

The lyrics, when flowing out of you, are words and ideas you can’t wait to get out of your head and down on paper before you lose the cool concepts for the content.  Jot it down quickly, as you can always fix the little things like syllable pronunciation and meter later.  It’s the ideas that you want to capture while they’re fresh - the things you want to say and the point you’re trying to get across - the rhyming and story details and sequence of information can be perfected later on after you’ve got the bulk of the content down.  A final clean-up is then just a matter of getting it as close to ideal as possible while wearing your editor hat and looking at the song in its entirety.  

Music Writing:

A little more painful, depending on things.  When you’ve already got the lyrics done, and you have a structure with the song form, and a rhyme scheme, and the number of syllables in each line comes close to matching similar lines, then you’ve got something that’s easy to work with.  As you read the lyric either in your head or out loud, without pausing, the song as a whole will usually have patterns that become more evident - and these patterns will help you “envision” the music as you read it.  It’s got to be interesting to listen to, only not plagiarize existing songs that are interesting to listen to.  

Style considerations must be taken into account if you are after a particular genre of song – they can often dictate the key musical elements.  You have to come up with something new, yet something that uses some commonly-accepted elements that provide tension and excitement.  You probably want to use some commonly-accepted chord families for the key the song will be in.  You will want to stick with the structure of one of the major popular song forms, and not stray too far from it.  

You must have an exciting melody – hummable, whistleable, memorable – this is by far the most difficult part.  When you’re trying anyway, it’s hard, but sometimes it just happens naturally and you stumble upon a good one by accident.  Otherwise, you need to know how to read music unfortunately, and piano might be a better instrument for guitar for writing melodies.  When writing music to fit lyrics that are already written, this makes it a lot easier, at least from a harmony/chord perspective.  

Well-written lyrics have lines with close to the same number of syllables.  Within those lines, if you just speak the lyrics aloud or in your head, there is a built-in meter where you can hear a rhythm while reciting, and then you can place “ghost” markers above words where the chord symbol will eventually go.  This is where a “dummy melody” starts to form in your mind as you read through the lyrics.  You can hear where a chord should be played and where the changes would most likely be (usually at the start of a phrase within a line, and associated with emphasis on a syllable), and then mark those with an X above the word where the chord would be played throughout the lyric sheet.  These serve as placeholders for the actual chords.  Then it’s just a matter of picking a key and chords within that key and replace the X markers with the letter of the actual chord.  

A final step then would be to play those chords on a guitar and start singing the lyrics along with them, and the melody sort of naturally appears.  You could do this with a piano or some other instrument besides guitar, if you know how to play chords on it.  Music-first writing for motown tunes often started with a bass groove, so don’t rule out writing on bass, where the chords are the root notes.  

When selecting a key, go for one that is good for your own voice if you’re singing your own demo, of course, otherwise consider the range of the singer.  The chords you select can be fairly easy if you just do a google search on chords for a particularly.  There are usually five or six chords that are in the same family, and usually go well with each other, then there are substitution chords that sometimes also work well.  You can use the circle of fifths chart too - so google that and look at it.  The melody notes themselves usually are notes that make up the chord being played while sung, so I’ve been told.  

For writing music first, when you don’t read music, you can just play a chord sequence and hum or whistle along with it until the whistling sounds good, then replace whistles with sung words.  These serve as the dummy singing melody.  Then just write your lyrics to fit.  Otherwise, if singing in the key the song is in, usually the first chord played in the song, the melody notes just sort of work themselves out naturally, so that when you’re done with your song, someone who does know how to write/read music can verify for you that they are technically allowable notes you are singing that are in the chord being played, and in the key the song is in.

Arranging

Arrangement stuff can come last.  If you’ve got your verses, bridges, and choruses written - that is, both the music and lyrics for each part - then the order they take will come naturally according to commonly-accepted song forms.  The toughest decisions might be where to place an instrumental break, and which chords to play for the intro, and then whether to end the song with a fade out or something more abrupt.  These decisions are minor and can be tweaked once you start recording.  Often when you listen back to one of the first recorded versions of your song it will occur to you how to handle the arrangement.  Other times you know from playing it live and solo how it should best be arranged.  It is important to notate these decisions on your lyric sheet so you won’t forget when it comes time to do a final recording.

Re-Writing

Rewriting bad songs is a waste of time, but some parts you might re-use someday, so don’t throw it away completely.  Save the lyrics at least.  Rewriting borderline keepers can promote a song to keeper only rarely.  You can rewrite the heck out of a mediocre song and maybe elevate it to a deep album track keeper, but never a hit single.  My advice is to move on to the next new song, and don’t spend too much time rewriting.  Keep coming up with new ones, and then you’ll have a better chance at one that sort of writes itself into being a quick keeper.  When you run out of those completely, need more to fill out an album, then go back to the borderliners and polish them up to get an acceptable filler song, but only when you need a break from trying to write new songs.  

Recycling

Songs that aren’t very good at all from the get-go might have some recyclable parts and pieces for a future song, but again, do the recycling as a last resort.  Many times I’ve listened back to my catalog tapes of first take recordings, and I make notes right next to the titles on the cassette j-cards, or on the lyric documents.  The notes will often say something like “awesome music, bad lyrics” - in which case I can make future lyrics with no chords yet fit the music.  The opposite has also happened where I’ll note the lyrics are excellent, but don’t work with the music, and a future set of chord changes can be made to fit.  This is again why writing down both the chords and lyrics, accompanied with a rough first take recording, are good things to have to fall back on.  Going back through your notes and parts of songs that worked is a good exercise to get yourself through writers block.

Vocal Key

The key the song is in matters after you’ve listened back to a recorded version and you realize it’s too low or too high to work well with your voice.  Re-do it with a capo, or transpose if possible to make it work better for your range.  This is a hassle, but worth it, and may even be an important factor in whether a borderliner has potential to be a keeper in the first place.  The most painful is the re-recording in the new key, so it’s important to take this into consideration early in the songwriting process.  

Lead Sheets

Not writing down the chords (or lyrics for that matter) can be a huge source of pain later on down the road.  I’ve recorded a ton of songs early in my songwriting experiences where I never wrote down the lyrics or the chords I was playing, and it’s a big pain to listen back to the tape and pause constantly to type up the lyrics and get out the guitar to figure out the chords and then type those too.  Document it as you’re doing it, and don’t assume you’ll remember certain parts later.  Tapes wear out, so your cool songs can be lost forever.  

You can’t rely on your own memory either - even if you regularly practice and memorize your own material, when you’ve written hundreds of songs, it’s nearly impossible to remember everything given your free time availability.  Write it all down in that word document, and back up your hard drives.  If you actually know how to write music - that is notation on a staff, go for it.  If you know the Nashville number system, document that too.  I don’t know either, but writing the chord letters above the word where strummed at least helps, so I highly recommend the discipline to do this.

Production

Instrumentation and effects decisions are often driven by the overall feel of the song.  This gets off the topic of this article, but the recording process matters a little bit since the finished product is important in the overall process of writing a song.  Aside from being able to teach a band the song or perform it live by yourself, the recording ends the songwriting process, so it does indeed matter what it sounds like.  Sometimes only after it’s fully recorded in a multitrack environment with several instrument and vocal tracks mixed, do you hear the need to tweak to the point of where you would consider it rewriting the song.

Re-Visitation

Giving it time is maybe another important aspect of writing a song.  Once you’ve got a batch of keepers you’ve written, ignore them for several months.  Then re-listen.  You’ll be surprised that some aren’t as great as you thought when they were freshly written, and on the other hand, you’ll be surprised that some you were on the fence about are much better than you originally thought.