Some define a good song as one that makes the listener feel emotions and gets his or her mind ticking. While music plays an important role in making a song great, it is ultimately the lyrics of a song that have the most powerful impact because we can relate to them.
So how do we write better songs that pull at the heartstrings and affects the way our listeners feel? Accomplishing this is not an easy task but over time it can come naturally with a little more effort and practice.
How to Write Better Songs?
It is Important to Find Inspiration
Finding inspiration is vital to writing better songs. And while some people say that they come up with songs out of nowhere for most others this cannot be true. You create best when you have something that inspires you whether it be an idea, a feeling or something you have read, seen, heard or experienced in some way. This may be at the subconscious level and you may not even be aware of it.
For instance, there are some songwriters who feel more inspired when they are feeling down and generally low. Writing songs for them during these times acts as therapy. While many of these writers are not great at talking about their emotions and feelings, writing emotive and more meaningful songs is their way of dealing with their downtimes.
Develop Your Own Style of Writing Lyrics
Lyrics form the core of a good song because it is what listeners can relate to personally and it makes them feel connected to the song. You never know, the lyrics of your song could help listeners through a breakup or even inspire them to get through tough times! Writing lyrics is the most difficult part of writing a song and is complicated considering that every language has so many words.
There is no right or wrong way of writing lyrics for your song. Just follow your own unique style and with time and quality practice you will find your words flowing more freely and naturally. So you can brainstorm and use particular words and phrases that you feel best to describe the story you want to convey in your song. Put everything into your lyrics from your emotions, feelings to your tears.
Do Take Short Breaks in Between
Irrespective of whether you are writing lyrics for a song, recording ideas or experimenting with chord progressions or melodies, you need to take regular breaks. This will clear your head and ears and is necessary for preventing writer’s block where creative people get stuck in a rut bogged down by little things.
During these breaks make sure that you expose yourself to fresh sights and sounds that cleanse your mental palette and get new ideas to flow faster. While this may be difficult to do if you are working against a deadline, it is still important if you are hitting your head against a brick wall and finding no real answers. This could be with regard to rhyming your song, finding the right melodic hook or the correct chord progression.
Structure Your Song
While structuring your song offers flexibility and you can do it any way you like, just remember that song structure plays a huge role in the impact, success and reach of a song. Therefore build songs with structures that are solid. Whether you love writing folk, electronic or pop songs, you can choose to use the same structure every time if it works well.
Or you could simply sit down with a pen and paper in hand and follow the song structure of your favourite bands, songs or music pieces. You can of course attempt experimenting with a variety of song structures in different song genres and could come across something very unique. See what works for you and continue to use it.
Find a Hook for Your Song
You can again listen to your favourite songs and study the hook of these songs. Find out what the hook is in them. Is it the melody or the lyrics or the delivery of vocals? Listen and study these and try to replicate them. Find a hook for your own song as by now you know what works.
