Songwriting 101

I started writing songs the summer before my freshman year of high school, so I've had a few years of practice. These are just some of the tips, techniques, facts, and experiences I've encountered in the past six years. If you're lazy, the important parts are in bold. But, don't be like that. Save a life. Read the paragraph.

1) Songwriting comes in waves. Sometimes something happens and I'm like "ohmigosh, I totally want to write a song about this!" And then I get all excited and sit down at the piano or with a guitar and either my laptop or my songbook, and then... nothing happens. No melody, no lyrics, nothing. And so I go to check with the Music Muse but she's got a "back in 30 min" sign on her desk (cept it doesn't say "30 min," it just has the little adjustable clock). So disappointing. But the thing about Muses is that they don't actually set the signs to be accurate. So usually that 30 minutes will be a day. Or a week. Or a few months. Hey, it happens.

2) No matter how hard you try, you will say something cliche. I know, frustrating as it is, it's a fact. You may not end up with a cliche in every song, but they'll pop up. There's a reason these things are cliche, after all. Ex: I end up writing about rain a lot.  However, if you do put any sort of effort into what you write, you can avoid coming up with something as cliche as, say, a Taylor Swift song. (That could be a whole different post: how to write something more substantial than almost anything by T-Swizzle.)

3) You will copy someone else's work. Not intentionally, of course. Unless you're just a huge fan of plagiarism and have no soul. (Also, spell check just informed me that I had no idea how to spell that word correctly. Hurray, for the squiggly red line!) (I mean "plagiarism," not" soul," fyi.) I sometimes end up beginning to copy someone's chord progression. I'll sit at the piano and come up with something really pretty, and I'm like "yeah!" And then all of a sudden a melody comes to mind, and it's like "awesome!" Then, voila! Words are a-flowing! And I'm so excited because I've never written a song so quickly and so easily, and - oh, wait, that's the Coldplay song I was jamming to in the car three hours ago. Poot.

4) You'll compare your works to others'. And vice versa. Friends, enemies, acquaintances, relatives, celebrities - it really doesn't matter. You'll flip on the radio and hear a song and think "wow, I've written things way better than this." Then you'll go to a small concert for a local band and all of a sudden you feel like you have no songwriting capabilities, whatsoever. Every smidgen of lyrical talent in the whole world was somehow redirected to these people, so you're just going to quit. Don't do that.

5) You'll get discouraged. And you'll want to quit. Don't do that.

6) Sometimes the song will write itself. And it's SO COOL when that happens. I think I've experienced it one time. I wish it happened all the time. But I guess that'd be too easy.

7) Sometimes everything will be super hard and super frustrating for no reason. And you'll want to quit. Don't do that.

8) You should save copies of your songs in multiple places. For some reason it seems more, I dunno - secretive? romantic? something - to just keep one little book of songs hidden in your room. That's dumb. What if you lose it? What if your house burns down? Then you have no songs. Oops. On the other hand, don't just save them to your computer. What if you're mid-song and it crashes? What if the zombie apocalypse begins and you have to use your laptop to defend yourself, and in the process it not only gets broken but also covered in zombie juices? Trust me, it's not worth risking your life to try to retrieve your work. Zombie goo can be toxic. Do me a favor and keep copies of your songs in multiple places.

9) Don't be afraid to write in sections. You don't have to come up with the whole thing in one sitting. Just write down what you've got and come back to it when you've got more. I've had a few songs sit for two or three years before I've come up with the right chorus or last verse or bridge.

10) Don't force it if it doesn't work. You can feel when something meshes or when you're just trying to squish it together. C'mon, don't arrange that marriage. Let them be together because they want to, not because you want them to. It can be a section or it can be a word - I've experienced both. If you leave it alone you'll come up with the right thing eventually.

11) Sometimes you will lose a song that you worked a really long time on. Or maybe it was a really awesome verse that came to you in the shower and there wasn't enough steam to write the lyrics on the mirror, (although I guess the obvious solution there would be to just take hotter showers) and then you couldn't remember them by the time you got out. Regardless, it happens, and it's really frustrating, and you just have to move on. I usually start singing things without thinking about them, and I'll sing a line that I really like, and then I build on it, and by the time I've built a verse I can't remember that first inspirational bit. A couple times I've sung something in a dream and then woken up in the middle of the night, made a mental note to remember it, and then in the morning I remember I came up with something but I have no idea what it was. Either way, point is that it happens, it's frustrating, and you just have to move on.

12) Your songs will get repetitive. You'll look back through things you've created and realize that some of them are just... the same. Music, lyrics, story, title, whatever. It happens. But why shouldn't it? They all come from your brain, and everyone repeats themselves from time to time. Don't worry about it.

13) You'll end up hating something that you loved a few years ago. Again, music, lyrics, story, title, whatever. I can remember being so excited about some things that I've come up with, and then I look back at them a year or two or six later and make a face and think "what, what, WHAT was I doing??" And then I look at my life and look at my choices. (Sassy Gay Friend? Anyone?) It's okay, and it's actually normal. Writers of any sort experience it (at least, according to my senior year British Literature teacher. And he was pretty much one of the coolest teachers ever, so I'm sticking with it.)

14) Oh yeah, lastly, take a break. Not even a creative break. Sometimes it's better to do something mindless for a little while. Let all the creative thoughts settle back down and then you can go back through and pull the ones you want. If you sit down and try to crank out a bunch of songs, you'll just get frustrated. And you'll want to quit. Don't do that.

That's all I can come up with right now. If anyone else has tips, techniques, facts, or experiences they want to share, I'd love to hear =^)

Happy Wednesday!

**OhwaitIforgot!
15) Ask for help! Send what you've got to friends for critique or assistance of any kind. I bounce new things off my songwriting/superhero friend, Elisa. We've collaborated before. And recorded together. Actually, check it out: https://soundcloud.com/cat_chaney and click "The Rain Forest Song."