i need some tips on how to write songs?

Question

i play guitar, and i really wanna write my own songs again, i use to be able to look out a window and i woulf come up with a song. can someone give me tips on how i could start again

Answer 1

I am a drummer, so I don't know musical notes, but I am still a musician. I think that if you try and push yourself to write a song, than it won't be natural, or satisfying. And the best thing is; express YOURSELF no matter how it sounds. Thats a true musician.

Answer 2

Heather,

You've got a cute name, you should write a song about yourself.

#1 Write song PARODIES of existing songs to shock your mind into thinking like a lyricist.

#2 Read great poetry and great analysis of it, since lyrics are really poems with a soundtrack. It's out of print, but Oscar Williams' "Master Poems of the English Language" is excellent, and so are the critical reviews of the poems. All this intellectual and academic analysis is IMPORTANT to poetry and lyrics.

#3 Get and read all of Shakespeare's Sonnets (I think there is a CD available of Sir John Guilgud reading them --find it). Try to plink out your own matching guitar tunes and melodies --if you can do this, you have established competence at what you want to do BACKWARDS and upside down.

#4 You need some platonic boyfriends to tell you what they really think of your lyrics. Don't listen to the mouse pack of lonely girls who faint over the Backstreet Boys! You need honest hip criticism from young adults --MALE young adults.

#5 Keep banging your head against the wall and trying different things until several of them click.

Answer 3

*Start by writing poems about whats going on in your life: boys you like, hobbies, emotions you experience, etc.Try to hum the poems. Put a melody to them. Find a chord structure that fits the melody.
*Just find flowing chord structures and start from here. Maybe you can eventually work out a chorus. then write verses based on the chorus. Or maybe find a melody within the chord structure. Write lyrics after you have the melody.
*Seek out collaborators maybe even at this site.
*I used to have a pocket notebook and I used to write "clever" lines I would think up or hear on TV. They would gradually build up. Every now and then I would go through these and sometimes get lyric ideas or song title ideas from these.
*Listen to different music genres for inspiration
*For a fun practice thing, take some of your favorite songs and reinvent them . Write your own alternative verse(s). Just for a fun thing and for your eyes only.

Answer 4

I don't know if I can give tips, but if you are listening to the radio and all the lack-wit garbage it puts out, that may be what's hampering your creativity. I know I stopped playing my strings as often as I did because I've been so busy, but when I was playing, joking around and singing about whatever (appropriate) things came to my mind was a real therapy if nothing else.

Answer 5

When i was 16 i asked my music teacher the same question.
He said;When i have experienced life then i would have something to write about.Such as (relationships)

Answer 6

Look out the window.

Answer 7

check out the Songwriters guild of America...

they have workshops and online song critiques wher you can share your songs with other songwriters and get advice...

the SGA is the nations oldest and largest organization of songwriters...

Answer 8

if u dont the talent then theirs your answer my twin can do things off the top of her head ill think theyre real songs

Answer 9

just let it flow. my boyfriend writes songs. find a person or thing to inspire you. he has on of his songs on his myspace. search "somers barto" his song is called "purple carnations"

Answer 10

Let your heart lead the way.