How To Write Songs

Category: Melody Writing

  • What’s Your Song’s Focus? Find Out with The Campfire Test!

    What’s Your Song’s Focus? Find Out with The Campfire Test! Imagine you’re sitting around a campfire with a bunch of your friends. The sun is setting, and someone hands you a guitar. As you go through your list of songs trying to choose something to play, you’re also asking yourself the question “Which one of…

  • 3 Expert Tips to Write Killer Choruses Instantly

    3 Expert Tips to Write Killer Choruses Instantly Crafting a memorable chorus can feel intimidating for many songwriters – even the most experienced ones. But what if you knew the formula for writing an amazing chorus? In this post, we’ll unpack three radically practical tips that will help you write a knockout chorus every time.…

  • Uncovering Songwriting Techniques with Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now”

    Uncovering Songwriting Techniques with Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” Joni Mitchell is a songwriting legend whose techniques continue to inspire musicians and lyricists around the world. In this article, we break down one of her biggest hits—“Both Sides Now”—to reveal six signature songwriting moves that you can incorporate into your own creative process. This article…

  • How to Write a Song – 5 Simple Steps

    How to Write a Song – 5 Simple Steps Have you ever struggled to turn your lyrical or melodic ideas into a complete song?  Whether you’re an experienced musician or just starting out, finishing a song can be one of the biggest challenges in the creative process. In this post, we break down how to…

  • Write Stunning Lyrics And Melody With This Remarkable Technique

    One of the hardest technical and creative challenges for songwriters is creating a natural relationship between lyrics and melody. In our tutorial on our YouTube channel, I break down how to master the rhythm of your lyrics, so that writing lyrics and melody together becomes natural – no need to sacrifice one for the other!…

  • A Songwriter’s Main Struggle and How to Fix It

    Every songwriter has 2 main struggles: Struggle #1: To consistently make work you are proud of. Struggle #2: To have lots of people listen to and love your work. One of these is something we have immediate control over (hint, it’s #1!). Let’s look at the one we do have control over right now: consistently…

  • 5 Practical Tips For Beginner Songwriters To Embrace

    5 Practical Tips For Beginner Songwriters To Embrace Over the years, a common question we’ve been asked by budding songwriters is “What are some of your top tips for beginners?”. In this article, we aim to answer that question with 5 practical, and actionable tips that we wish we knew when we started out. This…

  • Musical Onomatopoeia – The Secret to Writing Amazing Hooks

    Musical Onomatopoeia – The Secret to Writing Amazing Hooks If you’ve ever heard a catchy, relatable hook from a songwriter you like and wondered how you can write like them, know that you’re not alone. This is a common question asked by many songwriters. Fortunately, we can study these techniques, and emulate them to create…

  • The Secrets to Noel Gallagher’s Songwriting Success

    The Secrets to Noel Gallagher’s Songwriting Success Known to many as the primary songwriter, guitarist, and co-lead vocalist of British Rock band Oasis,  it’s undeniable that Noel Gallagher is one of the most prolific songwriters of his generation. As songwriters ourselves, it’s important that we take a step back to figure out the thought process…

  • How to Use Arpeggios to Spice Up Your Melody

    How to Use Arpeggios to Spice Up Your Melody We received a message from one of our Patreon members about how their melodies always feel boring, bland and seem to have something missing. This is a common problem amongst songwriters. So, in this article we’ll tackle one of the methods you can use to create…

  • Step #7 of Writing Great Melodies – Write More Melodies

    Step #7 of Writing Great Melodies – Write More Melodies The process of composing melodies for your songs doesn’t stop just because you’ve managed to develop one long melodic phrase. If we consider the first long melodic section we created as a verse, then we would still need to come up with melodies for the…

  • Write a Song Within an Hour

    Write a Song Within an Hour A lot of songwriters often talk about how they can’t finish songs. You hear it all the time – tales of abandoned notebooks, lone voice notes and old sticky notes on the wall. Well, this blog post will help you solve that problem by showing you a 5-step process…

  • Step #5 of Writing Great Melodies – Repeat the Phrase

    Step #5 of Writing Great Melodies – Repeat the Phrase As most songwriters know, repetition is important when trying to write great melodies. After all, an earworm can only be formed if a melodic motif is drilled into a listener’s mind. However, we can’t just duplicate phrases note for note. We have to create variation…

  • Step #4 of Writing Great Melodies – Create Rhythmic Interest

    Step #4 of Writing Great Melodies – Create Rhythmic Interest Although the notes that you choose for your melody are important, that’s not the only thing that matters. We also need to think about the rhythmic variation of our melodic phrases. In this blog post, we’ll discuss creating rhythmic interest in our melodies. This article…

  • Step #3 of Writing Great Melodies – Use Steps and Leaps

    Step #3 of Writing Great Melodies – Use Steps and Leaps A common trap that most songwriters fall into, is not making enough variations to keep a listener’s interest. In this blog post, we’ll explore the importance of combining steps and leaps to make melodies more interesting and emotionally resonant. This article is a summarised…

  • Step #2 of Writing Great Melodies – Create a 4 Note Melody

    Step #2 of Writing Great Melodies – Create a 4 Note Melody Songwriters commonly assume that using as many notes as possible in your melody is a great thing to do. However, the truth is that when you first start composing a melody, it’s best to limit yourself to using 4 notes from the scale.…

  • Step #1 of Writing Great Melodies – Figure Out the Scale

    Step #1 of Writing Great Melodies – Figure Out the Scale Many songwriters often wonder where they should begin when trying to write melodies. In this blog post, we’ll demystify the first step to creating great melodies – figuring out the scale. This article is a summarised transcript of step one of our video “How…

  • Writing Great Melodies in 7 Steps

    Writing Great Melodies in 7 Steps Writing great melodies often feels like a mysterious art. In this blog post, we’ll break down the melody writing process into 7 simple steps. Of course, there’s no one right way to write a melody and these steps are just designed to show you the essential elements of melody…

  • How to Write a Song – Creating the Melody

    How to Write a Song – Creating the Melody When it comes to songwriting, one crucial element that can make or break a composition is the melody. The melody carries the emotions and conveys the message of the lyrics, acting as a musical thread that binds the song together.  In this article, we will explore…

  • 20 Songwriting Prompts

    Wanna know how to write a song? Start with one of these 20 songwriting prompts that will kickstart your creativity and fuel your songwriting on any given day. And a huge THANK YOU to the 20,000 subscribers of our YouTube channel who have supported us, inspired us, and contributed so generously to our growing community…

Weekend Songwriting Intensive - January 4-5

Ignite 2025 with an immersive weekend of songwriting, led by Keppie and Benny.