How To Write Songs

Tag: writing

  • System #3 to Help You Always Make Time for Songwriting – Seeking Accountability

    System #3 to Help You Always Make Time for Songwriting – Seeking Accountability In a world where time is a precious commodity, finding ways to make time for songwriting can be a constant struggle. Plenty of songwriters have told us how they lack the discipline to stick to a schedule. In this article, we’ll discuss…

  • System #2 to Help You Make Time for Songwriting – Collecting and Organising Ideas

    System #2 to Help You Make Time for Songwriting – Collecting and Organising Ideas Songwriting is a fun process. However, it becomes frustrating when you try to sit down to write and nothing comes to mind. This can cause you eventually stop making time for songwriting. In this article, we’ll discuss how you can ensure…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Songwriting Tip #5 – Listening to Your Audience

    Songwriting Tip #5 – Listening to Your Audience As songwriters, we’re often focused on the details of our songs and the creative process. However, it’s important for us to remember that our audience deserves to feel like they’re a part of our songs as well. Through analysing Queen’s song “We Will Rock You”, we’ll discuss…

  • Songwriting Tip #4 – Turning the Chorus into an Anthem

    Songwriting Tip #4 – Turning the Chorus into an Anthem The goal in most songs is to shine a spotlight on the chorus, and really ensure that the hook sticks in our listener’s minds. In this blog post, we’ll analyse how “We Will Rock You” by Queen turns their chorus into a powerful anthem. This…

  • Songwriting Tip #3 – Moving the Story Through a Timeline

    Songwriting Tip #3 – Moving the Story Through a Timeline A common problem that songwriters face is not knowing how to structure our verses. Through analysing Queen’s hit song “We Will Rock You”, we’ll learn one of the ways we can develop the storyline of a song. This article is a summarised transcript of the…

  • Songwriter Habit #7 – Listening to Lots of Music

    Songwriter Habit #7 – Listening to Lots of Music As musicians, we often fall into the trap of listening to things that we’re used to. After all, the familiar is safe and comfortable. However, this is actually something that might be detrimental to your growth as a songwriter. Here, we’ll discuss why listening to lots…

  • 7 Traits of Highly Effective Songwriters

    7 Traits of Highly Effective Songwriters It’s one thing to be able to write a great song. However, it’s an entirely separate thing to be able to write great songs consistently and be a great songwriter. In this blog post, we’ll countdown what we think are the 7 traits of highly effective songwriters. This blog…

  • Study Your Heroes

    Study Your Heroes The importance of studying your heroes is often overlooked by most when learning the art of songwriting. Through this blog post, you will learn why studying your heroes is important, as well as how to use what you’ve learnt from them in your own writing. This blog post aims to summarise the…

  • Flip Method #2 – Magnifying

    Flip Method #2 – Magnifying Consider the commonly known cliché “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend”. It’s very relatable because it’s known so well, but at the same time, that makes it predictable. And when something is predictable, it becomes boring. In this blog post, we’re going to discuss another method we can use to…

  • Exploring Minor Line Clichés

    Exploring Minor Line Clichés Since we previously learnt about major line clichés in this article, we will now learn about its darker cousin – the minor line cliché. Among the topics we’ll discuss are what is a minor line cliché, examples of songs with minor line clichés, and how we can incorporate them into our…

  • How to Write Your Best Lyrics: The Flip Method

    Explaining the Flip Method Tired of your lyrics? Can’t seem to create anything that sounds interesting or original? Well you’re in luck because this blog post is all about helping you break free of cliched lyrics so you can start writing better songs!This blog post aims to summarise our video “The Crazy Easy Trick to…

  • Essential Songwriting Tips for Beginners

    Essential Songwriting Tips for Beginners Amidst all the doubts and fears, it can be difficult to know where to begin when songwriting. All too many times, songwriters get stuck staring at an empty page in frustration. In this blog post, we’ll explore three essential songwriting tips for beginners that will help ensure that this is…

  • Free eBook: The 14-Day Songwriting Challenge

    Get a free copy of the 14-Day Songwriting Challenge—a series of daily writing prompts designed to take less than 30 minutes, and to focus your creative energy.

  • Top 5 Exercises for Coming Up with Great Song Lyric Ideas—#2: Metaphor Collisions

    This exercise is one of my all-time favorites. It is the fastest way to show yourself that you are capable of coming up with totally original, unique ideas and ways to express yourself that no one has ever uttered before. More importantly, this exercise trains your brain to see the world like a songwriter—to make…

  • Top 5 Exercises for Coming Up With Great Song Lyric Ideas—#1: Sense Writing.

    In this series, I’ll go through my all-time Top 5 Exercises for generating lyric ideas, whether I’ve got a song idea going already or not.  These exercises don’t require inspiration. They mostly require 10 minutes and a pen. Just like anything in life, you can get better at writing great lyrics with practice. I hope…