Sometimes it is not easy to find good ideas for writing a song, but don't be discouraged: if you are in trouble, take some time to leave room for creativity. Open up to emotions and seek inspiration from the world around you. Practice writing and experimenting with music until you find lyrics and melodies that pique your interest. Keep exploring these ideas and perfect until you've created a coherent and catchy song.
Steps
Method 1 of 3: Finding Inspiration
Step 1. View the message, theme or moment you want to capture
If you want to write a song about a specific topic, sit down in a quiet place and clear your mind. Think about this topic; if it is an object, an image or a place, stay and observe it. Let it arouse emotions in you and try to translate this experience into words.
- Suppose you've just had a great first date and you want to write a song about it. Clear your mind, relive the evening in your head and let thoughts and feelings take their course.
- Don't filter your thoughts and don't try to force yourself to write. Just focus on the moment and let it fuel your emotions. If inspiration comes to you and the words are born in your mind, write them freely without making any changes.
Step 2. Allow your mind to wander as you go about your usual daily activities
Let your creativity run free when you wash the dishes, take a shower, drive the car or go for a walk. Think of a memory, a person, an emotion or just free your thoughts and stay open to any idea that comes up on the surface.
If you have an idea for a song, melody or text, write it or record using a smartphone app
Step 3. Analyze the lyrics of other singers' songs and how they are structured
Read song lyrics by artists of different genres and periods. Take note of how they structured verses and choruses, rhyming patterns and rhythm patterns. Identify the tone, notice similarities, metaphors and ask yourself who their words are meant for.
- Look for similarities and differences between genres and periods, then use the conclusions you come up with to create your own taste, set your musical goals, and decide the type of song you want to write.
- For example, contemporary pop tracks are typically catchy, simple, and repetitive. Many alternative hip-hop songs are rhythmically and thematically complex, while country ones often aim to tell a story clearly structured in a beginning, a development and an end.
Step 4. Look for inspiration in music, literature, film and other art forms
Immerse yourself in a classic album, a compelling novel, a famous painting or a genius film. Put yourself within the story or moment represented in this artwork, then let it come to life in your mind and unleash your emotions.
If you have a particular theme in mind, look for related artwork. For example, listening to romantic ballads or watching a sentimental movie can help you find inspiration if you want to write a love song
Step 5. Create drawings, then imagine stories based on them
If you are someone who expresses himself better with pictures rather than words, draw a few scribbles, sketch a scene or a feeling, then look at your drawings and think about what they remind you of.
Even meaningless scribbles can add colorful detail to song lyrics. Suppose you are drawing a stick figure trying to balance an elephant, a piano and a sofa, one on top of the other. You could use that image to create a metaphor for how hard it is to deal with the pressure
Method 2 of 3: Write the Text
Step 1. Write freely every day for 15-30 minutes
Writing is like exercising your muscles, so stick to a set schedule. Write down everything that comes to your mind for 15-30 minutes a day without making any changes or filtering your thoughts. Don't worry if most of what you write is unusable - from time to time, you may find a track worth following.
Write, edit lyrics and compose music in a quiet place. You will not be able to concentrate to the best of your ability if the television is on or you are surrounded by confusion
Step 2. Always carry a notepad with you and take notes throughout the day
When you are out and about thinking about an idea, write it down or record it on your phone. Even if you prefer to record yourself singing or talking, still keep a notepad and pen with you in case the battery runs out.
A great idea can also come to you in a dream, in the middle of the night, so keep a pad on your nightstand. Even if when you read it in the morning it doesn't seem to make much sense, it could contain the germ of a great theme, a melody or an exceptional text
Step 3. Find a good sentence in your notes and work on it
Check your notepad, diary, free notes and whatever else you have written. Depending on how much you write, review your pages every day, every few days, or every week or so. Try to come up with a good line, a sentence, or even a paragraph, then work on developing that idea.
- You can write every day for a week and find a sentence or two that seem good to you. Keep exploring this idea with free and focused writing sessions. Try to find intermediate steps that develop that idea further.
- Remember that good songs often have a conversational tone. Aim for simplicity, especially when you start thinking about lyrics. You can worry about rhymes, rhythms and elaborate imagery later.
Step 4. Refine your notes by turning them into rhymed verse
Once you've worked out your lyrics in raw form, work on it to create a rhythm and set up a rhyming scheme. Try using a rhyming dictionary (also called rhyming) to find synonyms for individual words and create nice sound effects in your verses.
- Keep in mind that you shouldn't sacrifice the meaning or emotional content of lyrics just to create a rhyme; furthermore, the rhyming pattern need not always be uniform or perfect.
- This is particularly true in English songs, where words are often used that share enough vowels and consonants to satisfy the ear without rhyming perfectly, but also in Italian we frequently resort to such assonances.
Advise:
the text and the melody must cooperate harmoniously without getting stuck in embarrassing and forced moments. If you write the lyrics first, develop the melody as you perfect them instead of setting them in stone before moving on to writing the music.
Method 3 of 3: Find the Melody
Step 1. Experiment with melodies And chords on your favorite musical instrument.
Start with simple chords on piano, guitar or any other instrument you play. If you already have a specific theme or text in mind, think about the tone the melody should convey. If it's sad or melancholy, you may want to stick to minor chords. If it's upbeat and upbeat, you might do better with major chords.
Don't worry if you can't play an instrument - you can still find a catchy tune by humming or whistling. Then ask a friend or relative who can play an instrument to help you perfect the melody and write the sheet music
Step 2. Try to create a melody based on some text
If you've already written lyrics, try singing the first line of a verse or chorus with different melodies and rhythms. Improvise by singing higher notes with different words to add emphasis. Keep experimenting, until you find a beautiful melody that conveys exactly what you are trying to achieve.
If you've written lyrics, ask a musician friend what they think. Exchange your impressions and sing the words to various improvised melodies
Step 3. Create alternate songs around the base melody
As for the verses, create a progression of tones, or notes, following standard patterns. In a simple melody, the first line often goes up the scale, or increases in pitch, then the second goes down in response.
- It is a phenomenon widely used in children's songs: the notes of the first verse increase in pitch, those of the second verse are lowered.
- The melody of the lines repeats itself, but that doesn't mean it should be predictable or boring. Rhythm is key, so experiment with combinations of quarter notes, eighth notes, and sixteenth notes to give your melody fresh and captivating rhythmic accents.
Step 4. Create contrasting rhythms and melodies to spice up your song
While the lines of a song repeat a melody, the chorus offers the opportunity to add an element of contrast. In many famous songs the refrain surprises the listener with melodies and rhythms that completely detach from the verses.
Contrast is the key to the verse-chorus relationship. A musical passage repeated a thousand times is not interesting, so try to capture the attention of your listeners by creating rhythmically and melodically different sections
Example:
think of Adele's song "Rolling in the Deep", in which the long, soaring high notes of the chorus seem to jump out of the previous lines, rhythmically complex and characterized by a lower register.
Advice
- Authenticity is important so always be yourself, have courage and don't be afraid to take risks.
- There is no "right" way to write a song. Create the melody first if you think this works best for you, otherwise build the song from the lyrics.
- Work on building your vocabulary by reading good books and analyzing the lyrics of the songs you love, using vocabulary quiz apps and any other resources that allow you to increase your familiarity with the world of words.
