How to get songwriting ideas?

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An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea "Buddha", this is a great quote because it explains how important taking action is, while there is 2 main problems in songwriting and with almost everything, these 2 main problem are: how can i find songwriting ideas, and how can i apply them in my song.

While songwriting ideas come usually when you don't expect them, you need to carry a notebook with you wherever you go, and as "Albert Einstein" said: "You ask me if I keep a notebook to record my great ideas. I've only ever had one". Writing down or even recording ideas is very important to you as a songwriter, so make sure you get used to it in order to catch ideas as they come to you.

Here is where you can find songwriting ideas:

1- Listen to people: honestly, i think that this is the most important source of ideas, listening to people, especially when they are having problems can give you a lot of ideas, when people get emotional, they usually express honest feelings, these feelings can be transmitted to your audience so they can taste the same emotional situation your song is talking about.

2- Listen to yourself: In order to give your listeners honest lyrics sometimes, you need to go personal, i mean by that going deep in your past or present and try to find emotional moments for you: sad, happy, touchy, disastrous...etc, and try to express it using your songs.

3- Internet: While the internet has made a revolution to our world and thinking, i usually find a lot of songwriting ideas by just surfing the internet.

4- Read: articles, magazines and especially books can act like and ideas arsenal to you, you can find hundreds of great ideas by just reading, so try to read as much as you can especially inspirational things.

5- Experience yourself: this is especially when writing music, you have to experience yourself and try many ideas and combination to figure out how your song will look like when finished, so just grab an instrument and start to play a series of chords or notes (melody) and see if they're good enough for your song.

6- Just improvise: improvising has a lot of potential in it, sometimes i hit an idea just when i'm improvising, whether it's a lyrics or music idea, don't care if it sounds creepy, after that come back the other day or so and you'll be surprised of knowing how to modify it to fit your song.

7- Listen to other songs: inspiration could sometimes come from other songs, i'm sure that at one point when you've listened to a song and you felt like a flow of songwriting ideas is coming to your head. Just don't try to copy songs "this is a bad thing!!!" for your career.

Usually you don't know when an idea strikes, but believe me if you are interested in songwriting, you'll consider everything as a possible idea. When you feel that you are running out of ideas, just go to an empty place an relax (that usually helps me get a flow of ideas), or just try to do something different.