How to write a song – How to Write a Song

“I tried to look at writing a song almost like solving a mystery. The song was there, buried somewhere in my brain. All I had to do was follow the clues until I figured it out”
―Jon Skovron, author, Struts & Frets

Someone once said, “All great songs are unique, but all bad songs are the same”.
It’s also true to say that all bad songs share common faults.

The purpose of this book is to identify and highlight many of the most common songwriting errors so that you can try to avoid them in your own songs.

If it’s important to learn from your mistakes, it’s even better to learn from someone
else’s…

That’s why this is more of a ‘How Not To’ book rather than just another ‘How To’ book on songwriting.

There are many excellent publications about songwriting theory, song construction, chord theory, the craft of lyric writing and so on. And there are many heavyweight tomes that can teach you the language and notation of music and the theory of composition.

But you don’t need any note-reading ability or a knowledge of chord numbers and the like to be able to follow this book. The content is presented in a way that is designed to make it easy and quick to digest, even if you only play by ear.

That’s because you don’t have to be able to read and write music to create great songs.

Hit songwriters who have done okay without music notation skills include John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Jimi Hendrix, Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Neil Diamond, and Irving Berlin (in fact, Berlin could only play the piano in one key). Whether you read music or not, there are a number of key components that are consistently found in the structure, melodies and lyrics of all hit songs. This book analyzes the errors that are commonly made when building these various elements into a song.

When a new idea suddenly hits you and all the pieces drop into place so quickly that the song almost writes itself it’s very easy to fall into the trap of rushing straight into a studio and recording a demo. You then confidently submit the song to a music publisher or record company believing it’s the best thing you’ve ever written only to suffer the agony of having the song rejected.

Sometimes it is best just to slow down, take a step back, and re-examine each element of your new song. If you don’t spend a little more time polishing it, there is a danger that it may still contain some weaknesses that you failed to spot first time around. A new song often needs several re-writes before you have the final version. That’s why one of the purposes of this book is, in effect, to give you a detailed checklist that you can measure each of your own songs against, no matter how ‘finished’ you think they are. The aim is to help you develop your own unique writing style while avoiding fundamental mistakes at each key stage in the song development process.

The research for this book has highlighted many frequent causes of songwriting problems from having the wrong mental attitude and an unsatisfactory song- writing environment … to common mistakes in the basic construction of songs. From getting the blend of core ingredients wrong, to flawed choices when it comes to song titles, melodies, lyrics, hooks, choruses, intros, bridges, pre-choruses …and even the demo itself.

Music companies have been going through major changes in recent years. With music buyers now able to download only the individual songs that they really like, the music industry has become a singles market again and pop is once more the dominant force.

As a result, there are once again great opportunities for new songwriters who are capable of crafting hit singles with memorable melodies and lyrics that touch everyone who hears them. This applies whether you’re writing songs for yourself as a self-contained artist, or for your own band, or for other artists.

Gone are the days when an artist could get away with releasing an album that included only a couple of hits and the rest of the tracks were just uninspiring ‘fillers’. These days, if artists want audiences to shell out cash for an entire album, they have to include a generous helping of hit songs on the album.

Even major artists can’t simply release ’album tracks’ any more. Everybody is looking for hit songs.

This means music publishers, A&R executives, record producers and artist managers have become even hungrier for new writers who can come up with exceptional songs to fill the slots that artists and their producers can’t fill themselves. At the same time, though, competition is intense and music industry standards are set very high. So it’s more important than ever to avoid the pitfalls that other new songwriters fall into and make sure your songs are the best, and stand out from the crowd.

I should emphasize that this book is primarily aimed at writers who want to create self-contained songs the kind of songs that still sound great when it’s just one singer and one instrument playing them in any music genre. So we’re not talking about songs that are ‘productions’ which can’t be replicated without all the latest studio frills and gimmicks.

As Christopher Cross once remarked: “If you can’t play it on an acoustic guitar or a grand piano then it’s not a song.”

Despite the proliferation of digital technology, Billy Steinberg co-writer of hits such as Madonna’s ‘Like A Virgin’, ‘True Colors’ by Cyndi Lauper, The Bangles’ ‘Eternal Flame’ and ‘So Emotional’ by Whitney Houston—believes the music industry is increasingly turning to talented songwriters again.

“Even though there are some songs, especially heavy rap or dance songs, that are more about the track and computer-driven music, I think it’s coming back around,” Steinberg said in 2013. “I think there are more real songs written in the last 12 months than the previous five years.”

I hope this book will help to guide you and your songs along the bumpy (but exciting and potentially rewarding) path to songwriting success. Good luck!

Brian Oliver, March 2013

Category: How to write a song

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART 1: GETTING STARTED

PART 2: SONG CONSTRUCTION

PART 3: COMPONENTS OF A HIT SONG:

PART 4: RE-WRITING

PART 5: RECORDING YOUR DEMO

PART 6: OUTRO

INTRODUCTION