5 things you should learn if you want to write great songs

Advertisements

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty (Henry Ford), well he's absolutely right, learning is the key factor to any success, so if you keep fueling and learning you'll have no problem in writing songs or anything else. The songwriting techniques that we are going to learn depend on your understanding of key factor things that you should learn, but don't worry, i'm here for you and i'm going to give you the keys to the Lamborghini.

So the 5 things you should learn are:

1- Learn what's the key of a song: The key of the song is where all the melodies and harmonies of the song belong, so every note you'll play in that song will have to belong to that key you've chosen to your song.

2- Expend your chord vocabulary: Chords are what western harmony all about, learn as much as you can in order to give your songs a special flavor.

3- Learn some scales and modes: Scales and modes are very important in songwriting, because they are played along chords, they are used to create melodies or solos.

4- Learn chord progressions: Chord progressions are very important in songwriting, because you can't just play a chords sequence like that, you have to chose the strong progressions and even some of the medium ones to make your song enjoyable by your listener's ears.

5- You have to learn writing song lyrics properly: song lyrics are very important because they are what most normal people understand (words!!!), so make sure you pick them well.

These are the basics that you're going to learn in order to write good songs, and with the songwriting techniques i'm going to teach you, you'll be an invincible songwriter.

The major scale: the absolute of songwriting techniques

Advertisements

Every beginner songwriter thinks at first that it requires a lot of skills and songwriting techniques especially when writing the melody, this is because of the beast that we hear about always which is "music theory".

Music theory is not a very complicated theory as opposed to physics theories!!!, it's very simple to learn especially if you have the right tools and techniques. I believe that you've heard this somewhere "everything goes back to the major scale". The fun thing about this quote is that it's absolutely true, so the only theory you'll be learning is "the major scale".

The major scale is considered the standard of the music, everything is compared to it and everything goes back to it, how cool is that!

A scale is a series of notes played successively as it's name refers to. Every scale has 7 notes in it, but you can also find scales with less or more notes. The major scale is a scale that has 7 different notes in it and has these intervals: (WH, WH, H, WH, WH, Wh, H).

WH: whole step or whole tone, in guitar it's 2 frets.
H: half step of semi tone, in guitar it's 1 fret.

The first note of the scale is called the Root note of that scale, so in the key of C, the corresponding major scale will be: C - D - E - F - G - A - B - and C again. The first C is the same as the last C but one octave higher.

On the guitar's fretboard, you can play it like this

E--------------------------------------------------------------
B--------------------------------------------------------------
G--------------------------------------2---4---5------------
D-----------------------2---3---5---------------------------
A-------------3---5------------------------------------------
E-------------------------------------------------------------

Let's have another example, in the key of A the major scale will be: A (a whole step up) - B (a whole step up) - C# (a half step up) - D (a whole step up) - E (a whole step up) - F# (a whole step up) - G# (a half step up) - A again

E--------------------------------------------------------------
B--------------------------------------------------------------
G--------------------------------------------------------------
D---------------------------------4---6---7------------------
A----------------------4---5---7-----------------------------
E----------------5---7----------------------------------------

This is your major scale, just choose your root note and follow the whole and half step formula and you're done.

What should i write first; Music OR Lyrics?

Advertisements

I'm sure that this question popped up to your head at least dozen of times, well because it's a very controversial question and every songwriting begginer should ask it.

This question actually has no exact answer, because it doesn't matter whether you write the melody first or the lyrics first or you write them both at the same time, what actually matters is the songwriting techniques and the harmony behind them, but i'll give a simple answer to this very annoying question.

The simple answer is "It depends" on you, you don't have to put a restrictive rule to your songwriting, you just have to write down whatever songwriting ideas that came to your head, because you don't know when they do.

For me i like to write the lyrics first and then write the melody or sometimes write them simultaneously, but a lot of songwriters prefer to write the melody first and then write the lyrics. For you if you're holding you instrument, try to come up with musical ideas, write them down for possibly using them later with you songs. In contrast if you think that you have songwriting ideas for lyrics, then you can bring a notebook and also write these ideas down for later use in you songs.

When you assemble your song parts, make sure they fit together and that they have harmony between them, if they do then try to record your song or play it to close friends or family for opinion.

The 5 components of any music

Advertisements

There are 5 fundamental components that any song has, these components are what makes the difference between a good song or a bad one. You can forget that you have to be very talented to write good songs and start following these exact songwriting techniques to write better songs.

The first of these components is:

The form: is the structure of the music, it's more like a journey that will make your mood go up and down. We mean by the form, the intro, the verse, the chorus...et, each of these form components has its own destinction from others and also has its own mood.

The melody: it's the musical part of any song, it has to be unique, strong and has to leave an impact on the listener. This melody has to go along with the music form that we have talked about.

The harmony: We mean by harmony chords, chords are combination of notes played together in the same time, chord sequences are very important in music especially western music.

Lyrics: You all know what is this, lyrics are the word part of the song, it has to be compatible with the song melody, theme, harmony as well as the song form that you've chosen. Writing song lyrics isn't hard as most people say it is, not if you have the right songwriting techniques.

These components together will make you a great song, but what if you want to make your song not just great but a song that sticks in your listeners memories, well that way you have to find a good:

Hook: There is no exact definition of the hook but i'll give you a simple one. A Hook is the part of music that stays in the listener's mind. Sure this happened to you if you are human :) , where you listen to a song and stay singing that part "the hook" of the song all day long!!!

Well that's it, it's not complicated after all, these parts alltogether, when they have been taken care of carefully will make you a great and memorable song.

What do you need to be a good songwriter?

Advertisements

Everyone with no exception asks this question when they begin their songwriting careers "What does it take to be a songwriter", well sure you need the right songwriting techniques and you need to take action. I mean by taking action just starting to write songs (some chords and some lyrics) to assess your abilities and then come back to edit what you've written.

Also you need a notebook or "IPhone!!!" to write down ideas because you don't know when songwriting ideas will hit you especially when writing song lyrics.

The other thing is dedication to songwriting. You can't get bored every time you want to write a song because you find it hard and frustrating, you just have to believe that "there is a songwriter in everyone of us", but we just have to activate it!!!

Consistency is also a key to succeeding in this industry, you have to keep learning and applying until you master it and become a subconscious or natural songwriter that have songwriting ideas flow like a river.

The last thing that you need to be a great songwriter is to follow my song writing tips and also my songwriting course to improve your songwriting and to become a great songwriter.

Songwriting techniques blog:

Advertisements

So what's about Songwriting techniques blog:

As most music lovers end up even listening to music all their lives or writing songs, In this blog we are going to focus on the second type of people, the type that wants to move to the professional level of music which is writing great songs.

Music plays a major role in our lives, it touches and influences us very deeply especially great songs that stay in peoples minds for a long time and even forever. A lot of people think that great music writers are born with their magnificent talent so whether you have it or not!!! I'm sure that this will make a big frustration for starters, but let me give you the truth!:

Creativity is not a thing that you're born with, it's a natural process coming from mastery. Anybody can be creative, anybody can write great songs, the only thing they have to keep in mind is that they must be passionate and work hard to achieve their goals including writing great songs.

So let's come back to what this blog is about:

This blog will show you songwriting techniques from A to Z with a very easy to understand language, from understanding the music theory (compose music) to writing you own lyrics that will touch people's hearts when they hear them.

If you're interested in becoming a professional songwriter, then this is the right place for you.

Good Luck.