How To Write Songs

Category: Music

  • Lyric Exercise #4 – Contrasts

    Lyric Exercise #4 – Contrasts Contrast is a powerful tool in the songwriter’s arsenal. With it, we can create amazing imagery through combining opposing elements together. In this article, we’ll discuss why contrast is important and study how it’s used in songwriting. This article is a summarised transcript of the fourth exercise in our video…

  • A Guide to Finding the Perfect Chords

    A Guide to Finding the Perfect Chords It’s very common for songwriters to come up with great lyrics, but then become lost when they reach the stage of finding the perfect chords for their song. In this article, we’ll discuss how you can find a basic chord progression, and then make it more interesting from…

  • 3 Simple Systems to Help You Make Time for Songwriting

    3 Simple Systems to Help You Make Time for Songwriting After emailing the over 12,000 people on my mailing list and asking them the question “What is your biggest challenge with songwriting?”, one response from a subscriber by the name of Jesse particularly stood out to me. She commented on how she now has so…

  • Lyric Exercise #3 – Use Specific Imagery

    Lyric Exercise #3 – Use Specific Imagery People listen to songs so that they can be transported to a different place. To that aim, it’s important for our lyrics to help listeners paint vivid images in their mind. In this article, we’ll discuss how using specific imagery strengthens lyrics, as well as methods to practice…

  • The MAP Method – Finish Your Songs

    The MAP Method – Finish Your Songs Recently, I emailed the over 12,000 people on my email list, and asked them the question “What is your number one biggest challenge as a songwriter?”. After receiving hundreds of replies, we found that the most common problem songwriters have is finishing songs. In this article, we’ll discuss…

  • Lyric Exercise #2 – Upgrading Verbs

    Lyric Exercise #2 – Upgrading Verbs While every aspect of lyric writing is essential, the choice of verbs can make or break a song’s impact. In this blog post, we’ll delve into why verbs are important, and how you can upgrade your verbs to elevate your songwriting. This article is a summarised transcript of the…

  • 10 Essential Chord Progressions for Songwriters

    10 Essential Chord Progressions for Songwriters If you’re a songwriter looking for inspiration then look no further! In this article, we take a look at 10 essential chord progressions and some classic songs that use them. This article is a summarised transcript of our video “10 Chord Progressions Every Beginner Songwriter Should Know”. Click here…

  • 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…

  • Part 3 of The Songwriting Formula – The Song Map

    Part 3 of The Songwriting Formula – The Song Map It’s easy to think that once you have a concept and a title, that you’ll be able to plan out an entire song. In reality, a song requires structure of some kind. Similarly to how a building requires a good blueprint to model it after,…

  • Lyric Exercise #1 – Extending Metaphors

    Lyric Exercise #1 – Extending Metaphors A large part of songwriting is creating imagery for our listeners. By painting a vivid enough picture through our lyrics, we can draw our listener further into our story. In this article, we’ll discuss how extending metaphors can help put detail into our lyrics, and what we can do…

  • Part 2 of The Songwriting Formula – The Title

    Part 2 of The Songwriting Formula – The Title Songwriters regularly underestimate the power of a song title. Many think that a title is just a way of identifying a song and marketing it. However, this is simply not true and coming up with a title is a crucial part of the songwriting process. In…

  • 5 Easy Songwriting Exercises to Improve Your Lyrics

    5 Easy Songwriting Exercises to Improve Your Lyrics Are you tired of writing lyrics you don’t love? Maybe you constantly listen to your favourite songs, wondering how they wrote such amazing lines. In this article, we’ll discuss 5 incredibly powerful exercises for turning your ideas into lyrical gold. This article is a summarised transcript of…

  • Songwriting Tip #7 – Using Unconventional Song Forms

    Songwriting Tip #7 – Using Unconventional Song Forms In songwriting, it’s common practice for most of us to adhere to common or popular song forms such ABAB or AABA. However, this doesn’t mean that these are the only song forms we should ever use. Through analysing Queen’s “We Will Rock You”, we’ll discuss how using…

  • 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…

  • Part 1 of The Songwriting Formula – The Concept

    Part 1 of The Songwriting Formula – The Concept A common complaint that many songwriters have is that they’re unable to finish their songs. You can easily avoid this by ensuring that you have a clear concept before trying to develop your song idea. In this article, we’ll talk about how having a concept is…

  • Chord Tips to Learn from “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”

    Chord Tips to Learn from “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” is one of the Beatles most popular and well-known songs. Buried within this masterpiece are some truly amazing chord sequences! In this article, we’ll break down those chord sequences so that we can learn from them and use…

  • Songwriting Tip #6 – Keep It Short

    Songwriting Tip #6 – Keep It Short A common issue that songwriters often struggle with, is how to determine the length of their song. In this blog post, we’ll learn the importance of song length, by studying Queen’s famous rock anthem, “We Will Rock You”. This article is a summarised transcript of the sixth part…

  • 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…

  • An Easy 3-Part Songwriting Formula

    An Easy 3-Part Songwriting Formula Do you have folders full of half-finished songs? This is a common problem and you’re definitely not alone. In this article, we’ll go through a songwriting formula I’ve learnt that has allowed me to know whether a song idea will work, and write better songs faster. This article is a…

Weekend Songwriting Intensive - January 4-5

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