Jeff Tweedy’s book How to Write One Song covers this ground really well, but if you’re curious about my process, or just want tips in tiny, blog-sized chunks, maybe this will be for you.
I tried to start writing songs in eighth grade before I’d even learned how to play guitar. They weren’t good, but I remember showing a friend a country song I’d written on an index card, and he didn’t think it was stupid.
Dear reader, it was.
Still, that only encouraged me. I went looking for guitar players to sing along with and, after a while, thought that I should probably learn how to play for myself if I really wanted to get into the whole songwriting game. It took a year or so before I tried my hand at songwriting again. I would try and fail, time and again, usually abandoning the song after the first verse.
“This is stupid,” I’d think, or “this isn’t good enough.”
I went about this for a few weeks, or months, I don’t remember, until finally, I thought, “it doesn’t have to be Shakespeare.”
That unlocked my first completed song. I don’t remember what the song was, so it probably wasn’t good, but I finished it. Up and to that point, I’d let the perfect idea of a song stop me from writing whatever I was capable of at the time.
Most people are bad at things before they’re good, and the only way to get better is to practice. So, step one in writing a song is simply to complete a song.
That’s it.
Maybe it will be good, maybe it won’t, but it will be done. Then you can start working on making it better or move on to the next one.
The important thing is to finish.
When I’m in songwriting mode, I give myself 20-30 minutes in the morning, afternoon, or evening (whatever consistent timeslot is available) and work on a song until it’s complete.
I tend to view songwriting like buying raffle tickets. The more you have, the better your odds are at winning (i.e. writing a good song).
Next Music Monday I’ll cover the mechanics of songwriting (structure, dynamics, and what chords go where).