5 Strategies to Ensure You’ll Never Have Another Unfinished Song
If you’ve ever been stumped when trying to finish a song, understand that you’re not alone. You may feel that it’s because of a lack of inspiration. However, inspiration is only one part of the equation when it comes to finishing songs. In this article, we’ll go through 5 strategies that I use to help push my songs to the finish line.
This article is a summarised transcript of our video “5 Strategies I Use to Finish Every Song”. Click here to watch the video for more details, explanations and examples.
Understanding the Songwriting Process
Before we delve into the strategies themselves, it’s important to understand the various stages of songwriting. This is because each of the strategies applies to different stages in the process.
A great analogy to use for this is a cocktail glass. Think of the popping bubbles at the top of the glass as inspiration. As you go further down the glass, the inspiration slowly runs out. Eventually, you reach the narrow part of the cocktail glass. You can think of this as the first time you get stuck when developing the song. This would be the time when you’d apply the first 3 strategies.
If you were still stuck after this, that would be when you’d engage the last two strategies.
Strategy #1: Finding a Title
While the word ‘title’ will bring to mind the label of a song on Spotify for many, that’s not what we’re referring to here. In this context, we want to think of the title as the phrase that repeats throughout the song. It has to capture the essence of the song’s story.
By choosing a title from the very beginning, you create limitations for yourself. You decide what the story is about. In turn, this creates momentum in the songwriting process. After all, it is only by making decisions can we create the opportunity to make even more decisions.
However, remember that throughout this process, the title is allowed to change, and is not set in stone.
Strategy #2: Choosing a Song Map
In essence, a song map is a plan for the direction of your song. It outlines the beginning, middle and end of songs. Although this may sound trivial, the truth is that many songwriters get stuck when writing songs because they’re unclear of the song’s direction. By knowing where your song is headed, you can ensure that you meaningfully write each section to contribute to the song’s story,
The other important thing that a song map helps with is that it allows us to plan how each section will approach our title. Through this, we can shed new light on our title every time it appears. After all, one of the ways we can progress a song is through repetition. The challenge is to ensure that the repetition has increasing value, rather than decreasing value.
A song map helps ensure that each repetition helps the song go further and deeper, rather than shallower.
You can download our free Song Map Template to help you plan your song here now:
Strategy #3: Deciding on a Song Form
It’s important for us to preface this section by again saying that this isn’t meant to be a decision that’s set in stone. By making a decision, you’ll then be able to discover more options, which can help bring your song to the finish line.
A basic question to ask when deciding on a song form is “Will this be a song that has a chorus or not?”. Once you’ve picked one, you should then decide what kind of chorus or non-chorus song it should be. For instance, you might choose to have a refrain instead of a chorus – which is a line and melody that repeats in two or more verse sections.
Although there are many variations within each of the pathways, choosing one allows you to gain momentum. As an example, if you decide that you want to write a song with a chorus, then one of the first things you would do is write a chorus – assuming you haven’t already. The momentum and clarity gained from such decisions helps in finishing songs.
Strategy #4: Invite Invisible Mentors
This strategy involves inviting artists you respect into your headspace, and listening to them actively. Active immersive listening is when you turn on a playlist of songs you like, and listen to them while holding the song that you’re writing in your mind. All sorts of ideas can come up when you employ this strategy.
Another useful tip is to do this immersive listening whilst going for a vigorous walk or run. The combination of movement, and increased oxygen flow to your brain helps create a flow of inspiration which can result in interesting, new ideas.
Strategy #5: Seek Deadlines
There’s something magical about deadlines. They create a sense of urgency, which encourages the flow of inspiration. However, as humans, it’s easy for us to break our own self-imposed deadlines. A great way to overcome this is to join a songwriting group. After all, deadlines are the most powerful when combined with the use of an accountability partner or group.
If you’re interested, we offer songwriting groups 5 times a year, and anyone is welcome to join. Each group lasts for 8 weeks, during which you’ll be assigned to a group of 8 other songwriters, and come up with a total of 4 new songs. You can find out more about our songwriting group at the link here.
Conclusion: 5 Strategies to Ensure You’ll Never Have Another Unfinished Song
Overall, we can safely say that finishing songs is a multifaceted process that involves more than just waiting for inspiration to strike. By employing specific strategies, you can help give yourself direction. So, you’ll be able to help provide yourself with a map and compass to navigate the vast sea that is songwriting.
If you would like more details, explanations and examples, then be sure to check out the video now.
