Song writing tip 1 - how to get your songwriting creativity flowing

Here is something that I did from a very early age. I would put on a tape recorder, grab my acoustic guitar, press the record button and sing and play my heart out. Without knowing which chords I would play or what to sing, I just let whatever was willing to come out, come out. Lots of uninspiring noise with nonsense lyrics would happen, then, about half way through the cassette, a little gem of genius. It doesn't have to be a whole song, sometimes all you need is a line or two with a catchy hook, and you've got it on tape. You could also use a dictaphone (or use your finger like everyone else), but a regular cassette recorder works fine. Nowadays there are all sorts of digital gadjets you can record with. Creativity takes time to open up, so whether you're writing a poem, lyrics or a song, the thing is to just keep going untill the good stuff comes out. The more you do it, the quicker it comes out.

Song writing tip 2 - Try writing songs on a different instrument

If you're a guitarist or don't play a musical instrument, try writing songs on a piano, even if you can't play piano. The piano is easy to make basic chords on, especially in the key of C (That's all the white notes). If you place your thumb, index and third finger of your right hand on the white keys, each with one white key inbetween, you should have either a major or a minor chord, all in the key of C. How easy is that? If you want, you can play the bass note further down with your left hand, which is the same note as your thumb on the right hand. You could also do this on a keyboard. Playing on the piano gives you a totally different feel to the guitar, and makes you write songs you otherwise wouldn't write.

A brief summary of how I write songs

Usually I use the method in tip no1 to find a decent chorus or hook, then I have my theme for the song which makes it a lot easier to write the verses. The usual format I use is Intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, instrumental solo (seeing as I'm a guitarist), then double chorus and end. Sometimes I'll throw in a bridge before the solo, but usually I'm too lazy. The way I figure it is that if it works without it, why bother. A lot of the time, there's a good while, like maybe a month or two before I'll actually get down to finishing a song. One of the things I've discovered with song writing is that, If a song doesn't want to become what you want it to become, it usually becomes something else. I think the key to a good song is that it writes itself. Don't force it, just let it happen the way it wants to. A good example of this would be a song I wrote called "It could've been such a lovely day", also called the hangover song. I was trying to write a song called Shy boy blues, but no matter which way I tried to force it, it just sucked. The lyrics were corny but the music was good, so I just let whatever wanted to come out of my mouth come out. Sometimes your subconcious knows best what works. Here's the key. You don't own the music. The music comes through you, your job is to learn how to open up the channel so the music can flow. The best way to do that is to write and write, and then write some more. Song writing is about intention, like most things I suppose. Intend it, act on it, and keep at it. that's the best song writing tip I can give.

Writing tips for creating hit songs

The one thing that just about all hit songs have in common, is that they appeal to the emotions of the listener. Sometimes though, they're just so groovey that the emotional content is translated into the extremely catchy rhythm. A good of example of this would be Queen's Another one bites the dust. Brian Adams is more of an emotional song writer, and woman all over the world are in love with either him or his music. Even my Ex Wife told me that he really understood her, and she could really feel what he was singing about. I'm a guy, so that part of his music didn't really affect me that much, but when there's a song that you can identify with and the music is good, you're going to like it and listen to it a lot. The bottom line with any song, is to get some agreement going with the listener, whether it's through emotional means or the groove. Sometimes a song will be a hit because it's funny, but you can only laugh so many times to something. Personally, I've never really analyzed what I do all that much, until recently. The more I look at it, the more I see just how many things are actually going on. Half of it is subconcious, like melodies from past songs coming through in unique and different ways, to whole songs that virtually write themselves as I go along. Sometimes though, you need a helping hand to get the most out of your songwriting. A good book on how to write songs can take your songwriting to a whole new level, especially if the author really knows his stuff. Here's a guy I regularly get emails from who's song writing tips are rock solid. Shamir at SongWritingTipsOnline.com Hit songwriters are worth millions - Become one.

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