How To Write A Song

 Hey everyone! Today I wanted to talk a little bit about songwriting. Over quarantine, due to the excessive time we had at home, I decided to pick up songwriting. Writing songs was a really fun way of expressing myself and just using my love of music! If you want to learn how to write a song, you've come to the right place. I'll give you the process that I used, tips and tricks, and some websites I referred to to get started. (The rights for any links I include go to the owners of these websites. I don't own any of these!)

The Process

Step 1: Write some lyrics

I started off with writing lyrics, although many people choose to start off with creating a melody. It's really up to you, but I personally find that by writing lyrics first, then I can come up with a melody that matches the mood of the lyrics. here are the mini-steps for this part of the process:

Brainstorm- Think of the type of song you are trying to write. Is it sad? Happy? Based on some experience you've had in the past? Whatever your topic may be, write down some words that come to your mind when you think about that subject. For example, if you are writing a happy song, maybe think of some words like sunshine, joy, celebration, party, friends, family, success, warmth, et cetera. If you are writing a sad song, maybe some words could be rain, storm, isolation, cold, et cetera. These are just some ideas that I had, but you do you.

After you think of some general words, start constructing sentences. The sentences you write don't have to directly relate to each other yet, so don't worry about that until you get to your format.

Rhyming (if you want)- This mini-step is totally up to you. but you can make your words rhyme. It also depends on what type of song you are writing. Most popular songs have rhyming words, but if you are just writing songs for yourself, you absolutely are not obliged to do this.

Format- This mini-step is where you start thinking of making your sentences flow. Songs are like a poem. If you want to write a good song, you have to have a natural progression of words and in your story to have it make sense. If you want, write a poem using your sentences/ words and later you can put it to music.

Songs also have a general format of verse 1, pre-chorus, chorus, verse 2, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge, chorus, outro. If you don't want to follow this format, try experimenting with your format. 

Here's a website that you can refer to for formatting and song structure:https://www.masterclass.com/articles/songwriting-101-learn-common-song-structures#what-is-song-structure

Step 2: Melody

For this step, think of the type of songs you like to listen to. Are they similar in their melodies? If you find a pattern in how they sound, use this to your advantage. If you have a piano, or guitar, or any instrument that can play chords, figure out some notes for the chords from these songs. Play around with these chords and find different chord progressions.

If there isn't specifically any type of genre you listen to, start humming random melodies! Make patterns out of notes you can sing or play on an instrument and see if you can modify your melody to match the rhythm of your lyrics. 

Here's a website for melody: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-write-a-melody#what-are-the-components-of-a-melody

If you have any instruments or know anybody with an instrument, start adding instrumentals to your song. If not, find a music platform such as GarageBand or Ableton with prerecorded tracks for you to use as your instrumentals.

Step 3: Editing

Once you feel you are ready with those two steps, share your song with some friends or family that you trust to give you good advice. Ask them to tell you what you did well and what you can work on. With these suggestions, you can edit and tweak your song until you feel ready to move on.

Step 4:?

This last step is really up to you! 

Do you want to share your song with an audience? Consider putting your song on YouTube or some other social media platform.

Do you want to share your song with only people you know? Sing it to them or make a recording and send it to them.

Step 5:

ACTUALLY, here's the real last step. BE PROUD OF YOURSELF! Give yourself a pat on the back. You deserve it!