What's the best way to write a song?

Answer 1

The best way is the way that works for you. Some people start with the tune and chords from an existing song they like and write new words. Then they take their new lyrics and write a new tune. Voila! new song.

Two good pieces of advice are 1) write about something you care about, and 2) write lots of songs - they're like photos - you usually have to throw out lots of them to get a few keepers.

Answer 2

Lyrically I used to carry a pocket binder a lot and write clever phrases that would come to me or I would hear from others or TV shows. I would let these build up. Eventually I would look through these and maybe base a song title or part of a chorus on one or more of these and then work from there.
Musically I would often play guitar in front of the TV, sometimes with part of a lyric or chorus and just work it out, Try to get a melody or chord combination to fit the lyrics or chorus. I used an unamplified electric guitar since there were sometimes others trying to watch the TV shows.

Answer 3

Capture the essence of a daydream then write it down. After you are finished, pick it up and sing it back to yourself! You have just written a song.

Answer 4

THE BEST WAY TO WRITE A SONG IS TO USE LIFE....AND DONT THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT TO WRITE JUST WRITE...

Answer 5

Don't think about it, just write it. ppl who can write this comes natural. Also it sounds stupid but when your down, songs are so easy to write and are usually better, thats what I find

Answer 6

its easier to write a good song from past experiences, inner thoughts and personal feelings. you can make more sense and write better when you know what youre talking about and can express it uniquely, in your own words.

Answer 7

when you are emotional trust me on this i love to write songs and they best come when i am emotional like i wrote 5 songs when i broke up with my ex

Answer 8

Start with a mood, a direction, and idea, most of all a picture of a place, time or emotion. Maybe it's a castle by a lake. Maybe it's anger. Then sculpt away anything that isn't that from your words and music :)

Lyrically it's the opening lines that usually fire the process up. Maybe they'll turn out to be the verse but whatever it is you set the secene. Set the mood. Describe a person place or mood. Don't worry too much about rhyming at this stage. You can always manipulate the sound for rhymes down the road. What your worried about is a sense of timing and words that evoke emotions, that tell a story, that take people someplace.

Musically start with a phrase. Maybe an effect inspires it, maybe it's what the drummer is doing or maybe it's just a musical phrase that's been running through your head all week and you finally find a way to express it. If your not writing to lyrics you'll often write the next section skipping the bridge, it'll sound ok while your writing and sometimes you can get away completely without a bridge at all. Just go with that feeling. Paint a picture with your music, but make it fit in the genre you are writing too. Me I hate that, one reason I write in dozens of genres. I let the song go where it wants too and then match it up with a genre I play later. Muses can be fickle that way and if you try to push the muse it all too often just flips you the bird and you might not see it again for weeks.

I usually start with the music first then add lyrics, seems a whole lot easier for me to do it that way. For others it may be easier to start with lyrics assuming a song ever has lyrics. Again you are starting with a feel. Once you have the mood set the rest tends to start to fall into place. Musically this can start and almost finish in a single section, other times I've got songs that have been perculating literally for years as I finally find the verse for the tune or add an interlude. Everything has to flow along the genre that you choose to express that mood in. The peices have to make sense together or you have to write a very good bridge to get from one to the other.

So in hours to years you have the raw music for the tune. Then you have to get some feedback and make sure your not accidentally plagerizing somebody else. You'll also be fine tuning the progression. Maybe a verse sounds flat when you put it all togehter or maybe the bridge isn't working like you want it too. The other part is if your in a band few songs survive intact meeting other musicians. Don't cling to your origional ideas too much. The value of being in a band IS the input from the other musicians. They will stretch it, crunch it, ask you to rewrite sections, sometimes your part inspires an awesome counter melody or wicked bass line or it even evolves with your base melody being juiced up with a turn here or there. Singers always want to make the verse longer or shorter or to add an intro or they cram too many words in and you have ot add a passage to give them a chance to breathe. Sometimes that bridge you worked so hard and long on becomes a verse and you have to write two more to bridge to the once bridge and from the once bridge to the next verse.

The same sort of thing happens when verse meets music. Even if you write the music to the verse suddenly spots in your lyrics show up as being too long or short. With the vocal melody line already worked out you stil have to find time to breath and the verses can mutate and jump onto bridges or suddenly double as you have ideas or other musicians give you ideas. Most of the time lyrics surive meeting the rest of the band pretty much intact but don't take any suggestions personally. Most you'll dump but lots of times you'll run accross really good ideas.

Then comes time to record and hear it like a listener. No you don't suck that badly. It's a rough draft relax. It's going to sound like hell. The timing is likely loose, the effects on the instraments still not resolved, the bridges and verses likely sloppy. Your looking for general effect. This is where you start thinking of overdubs, you'll likely make changes to better match what the song is doing. Sometimes a verse or something just isn't working and you either rip it completely out or rewrite it. Remember it's your job to be your worst critic unless you can con somebody close to you into the job :)

Once you have the rough idea set down it's time to work on arrangements. This occasionally inspires changes and from time to time you get so frustrated with a section by this point you take it out and have it shot. Most of the time you are only adding refinements and finishing touches by now. Adding those little keyboard sounds maybe that add emphsis to a really slow somber part or you juice up the solo or change effects on the rythem guitar or have the bass player add a bit of chorus and so on. It's during this time that the producer(s) (usually the writer and often the lead guitar and or lead singer) will see the little things. The bells at a start of a song, the need for a little intro, volume changes at points. Maybe the end of the song needs more bang to it or maybe it's decided here to fade it out instead. This is the time of nuances and of fine tunings.

Next comes the real recording. This is mostly brute force squeezing of talent. Sometimes when your done you hate the song for a few days as you've played it so often to get just that perfect rendition of it. Tiny timing mistakes seem huge, an effect that worked great through the rough recordings suddenly gets blurry or sounds weak and your scrambling for the perfect effect or even recording dry and remixing hundreds of variations of an effect to find the one perfect one for that tune. You listening to your peformances and your bandmates with ultra critical ears. Tiny things that didn't matter in rehearsals suddenly seem like titanic problems at this stage. Tempers can get short as the schedule starts getting harder and harder to meet. Sometimes you have to drop a song and record others and come back to one. Sometimes you even have to abandon one as unrecordable because of the time you have left. Last minute changes from studio engineers, producers and bandmates can be hell as you've rehearsed until you can play it in your sleep one way and all of sudden it's changed and your lucky to rehearse it that way once much less get comfortable with the changes.

In the end you stand back and say "Gawd we butchered that song" then hear people rave about how much they like it. You scratch your head, smile wishing you'd gotten that pefect sound and thinking how much they'd liked it if the song came out like you wanted it too. Then you go start the process all over again with a new set of songs.

Answer 9

get a writing utensil and a piece of paper

Answer 10

Hi,

I've posted lots on here!!

Usually remove them due to not

Wanting people to copy my work!!

I have one you should check in my answers...

Cheers!!
Good Luck!!
It's called eternal road...