YOUR BEST SOURCE FOR USEFUL SONGWRITING STUFF
Problem: You don’t have big chunks of time to spend on your songwriting. (Not many of us do.) So when you finally do get an afternoon to work on your songs – or at least a couple of uninterrupted hours – you need to get the most from it. You don’t need to be spending the first hour or two just trying to find an idea you want to work on.
Here are three BIG songwriting tips that can help you avoid wasting hours!
To listen to the hit song example in this video, be sure to turn on Youtube “Annotations.” Click on the square speech bubble at the bottom of the video screen.
Working on an early draft of a song? Don’t worry about rhyming too early. Forcing a rhyme can twist your song out of shape, making a line sound unnatural. Worse, it can make you say something you don’t mean. That’s when listeners start to tune out. Instead…
1st: Say what you want to say. Write a couple of lines that express the heart of your song. (Don’t think about rhyming.)
I got an email from someone who felt that I might be slighting the importance of serious rhyming in songwriting. I had suggested that when working up the raw material or first draft of a song, songwriters don’t need to focus on rhyming. If a rhyme happens to come along, hang on to it, but keep your focus on communicating emotion. The reason I wrote this is because I often see lyrics that have sacrificed meaning or depth for a rhyme.
Q: How do I develop a verse from a chorus and how do I to create a strong transition between sections?
A: For writing a verse based on a chorus, think “contrast.” If the chorus is in a high note range, try a verse melody in a low note range. If the chorus melody has a smooth flow, try a
