Hello,
My name is Shea and I have been writing songs for years. And I'm going to list my pointers that will help you to gain the ability to write songs.
If you would like to learn how to write songs the best way to start is by playing other peoples music. Why does this help? This gives you an idea of how music works, how it is formed, and what makes a song catchy.
Another tip is what I call paraphasing music. Just as you could paraphrase this very sentence into your own words, you can paraphrase music. Try it, you'll find it is fun. Start by changing the timing, or adding extra notes where there is pauses in a song.
Have you ever been just messing around, playing whatever comes out and you "accidently play" an awesome riff? Man, where does it come from? Some of my sweetest riffs came out of nowhere, just out thoughtless playing. A call it my beautiful accidents. Well, how do you use such accidents ? Take these moments of brillance and use the riff as the center of the music, the main attraction, or theme. There are so many great songs that are basically written and based upon one moment of brillance. Take for example Bob Seger song " I wanna get lost in your rock N roll", the chorus was the money winner. The rest of the song centered around the chorus, and the intro and verse actually kinda of sucks to be honest. But the chorus, man it sweeps the song away.
How do you work with a sweet riff you wrote but yet can't seem to find any thing to go along with it? Well, here is one thing you can do, and I hope this makes sense. Increase the timing of the riff making it longer by half, use this to play out during the verses, then when you go into the chrous just speed it up. Chorus should always be an upper from the verse and most the time the intro too. The reason being, is the chorus is kind of like the lights and sparks of the show.
Have you ever had two really cool riffs and wanted to connect them? I have had two cool riffs which I had written entirly at different times and made some awesome songs. I'll tell you how to know. First thing first, take the two riffs and compare the moods of them to see if they will work. Then if you want to connect them one way is by finding the means between the two riffs extremes. For example, say you have a soft classical and a hard rock sound you went to incorporate into one song. One way this can be done is by finding the means between the two extremes and using that as a bridge.In other words, Soft classical riff and a hard heavy riff can be connected by a bridge that is inbetween soft and hard.
I will be giving more pointers later. I hope this was helpful. Please use the blog to give feedback and if you are a song writer and would like to share your advice please do.
Shea,
