5 Songwriting Tips For The Lazy
It's funny, being a songwriter myself, I always find that writing songs can sometimes be a chore. But why does it feel this way? Isn't this supposed to be my passion? Isn't this supposed to be something that I never get bored of?
Ö well, not exactly. Everything gets boring once in a while, even the things that youíre most passionate about. So every so often I like to take the lazy man's route to doing things. And surprisingly, I often produce some very good results!
So listen up. If you newbie at songwriting, or even if you have been at it for a while -- I'm going to a couple of simple tricks that will help you start the writing process within minutes.
Here we goÖ
1) Review a particular situation in your day. It could be at work, during your travels, or at home. It could be with your workmates, your family or your friends. Just any situation that affected you in either a positive or negative way.
An example of this would be "when you're at work, your boss just keeps hounding you. But, the only thing that keeps you going throughout the day is that you know that somebody in the office has a crush on you"
(the above is a very dry exampleÖ but try to work with me here!)
2) Write down as many words as you can think of that relate to your situation.
Let's follow the example from earlier on:
anger, pain, sad, happy, excitement, nervousness, anxious, misery, impatience, relaxation, goofy, sophisticated, annoying, frustrating, antagonising, fancy, sexy, cool, pretty, smile, etc, etcÖ you get the point :-)
3) Write down random short sentences about your situation including the words that you mentioned him step 2. So let's continue in our little experimentÖ
ì the way he talked to me really angers meî
ì if only he knew the pain I suffered insideî
ì when I see her pretty eyes light up it makes me smileî
ì I have to act cool and sophisticated -- don't want to get frustratedî
ì he doesn't know what makes my day go byî
ì don't want to be in this misery for much longerî
Etc, etc. at this point it's important to note that you don't have to use all the words that you mentioned earlier in step two. As you can see Iíve even started to make up my own lines *without* any of the words too! Sometimes, I'm rhyming the words without even realizing. And this is exactly where the magic starts to happenÖ
You can easily turn this idea into a full-fledged song. Use rhymezone.com to help you find words that rhymeÖ and also other related words as well.
My example was very average and simplified -- but you can use an example that's a little more dramatic. You should really get wild with your ideas! Really, just let loose.
4) Listen to a ëbacking trackí (an instrumental of a song) that you have NO CLUE about. While itís playing, make up a melody. Doesnít have to be perfect, just create a melody on the fly. You donít have to sing any lyrics either. Just ëhummí or ëlaaaí a tune out until youíre hearts content.
Why do this? This is an exercise that will subconsciously preparing you to create melodies for youíre own chord sequences in the next step.
5) Create a SIMPLE chord progression on the guitar or keyboard. When I say simple, I mean *simple*. Maybe TWO chords for the verse and TWO chords for the chorus. Now create a melody on top of that chord progression. Record the song on tape. There you have it.
NOTE: if you donít play an instrument, then hook up with someone who does. After all, you pretty much have half the song now :-)
Still think itís difficult conceiving an idea? Want to know more? I have *plenty more* that I want to share with youÖ
