Songwriting – Practical Approaches

Getting started on song lyrics and melodies can be tough, here are some techniques that may help you get started.

1. Free Writing – Try non stop writing for a pre-determined amount of time an hour, 1/2 hour or maybe 15 minutes. Something might start to take shape. Of course this is best done at an outdoor café in Paris !
2. The Big Idea – explore different themes through reading, writing, the news, or anything else that inspires you.
3. Improvise over a chord pattern or riff using nonsense lyrics. A melody or theme may develop.
4. Start with an existing melody, like folk tunes, nursery rhymes, even a full song. A musical phrase might just get you started down an interesting path. I know a person that when he runs out of ideas for jazz improvisation, he starts to play the bars of the melody backwards in time !
5. Write a Poem, or use an existing poem and set to music. Of course if you intend to perform or publish your work you should get permission from the author.
6. Random Melody Generator – OK, there are only 12 different notes ( in “western music” ) , so why not randomly select a hand full and play them as a melody. Easily done with a pair of dice or you can use this random number generator.