If you are like most songwriters I know, you are probably familiar with the frustrating feeling of being stuck in a rut. You know in yourself that it's vital to write something, anything daily; however, there are times when songwriting just seems impossible. Perhaps you don't have enough energy to do it, you could be missing out on the muse, you fail to internalize the essential tips for writing songs, or you are overly critical during your first few attempts. Whatever your reason is, there's still hope. It's still possible for you to get your everyday writing done in a productive way if you only incorporate some brand new exercises to your routine.
So the next chance you get, introduce some great tips for writing songs - a 5-day songwriting exercise. It's one of the perfect ways to start successful songwriting!
Day 1 - Do the research mash-up. First, it's important to give yourself some interesting material to work with. Go online, look for interesting reports, read the papers and go through stories that grab your attention, look for words and phrases that catch your attention. Notice the graphics that accompany those stories and get your descriptive skills to work. Jot down what the pictures are telling you. Get something that grab your imagination and allow some time for you to think about the topic till your next songwriting session.
Day 2 - Brainstorming. Get in touch with a friend, then send each other a list of at least 30 nouns with creative descriptors, like "sweet lies," or "golden keys." Go over your lists for combos that strike you. Then practice merging adjectives from one list to nouns from the other, combining new meanings and new phrases. Take note of the ones that make you want to write more.
Day 3 - Nuggets and Titles. Based from your brainstorming results, create some potential song titles. Remember that they can be anywhere from a single word to five, and should be original, interesting, universal and evocative. Don't try to hard to make it perfect, just use the phrase + word combo that appeals to you.
Day 4 - Surgery. Now, choose a well-known song that you like and rewrite the lyrics. Replace the title with your favourite phrase from your day 3 session, then forget all that you know about the song's original lyrics. Just make sure that the words that you use fit the melody of the song. Now you have a foundation.
Day 5 - Open season. Create your own work of art based on the lyrics that you wrote for the popular song. Next, separate the melody from the lyrics of the song and write your own music, editing your words as needed so as to conform to your own melody. Allow yourself to change the words as the lyrics and melody come together.
Here you go -- great tips for writing songs plus good entries that will help inspire future songwriting.
Jim Byrne is a musician and recording artist who has been writing songs for over 30 years. As well as writing songs for his own Folk and Country Blues albums he has written songs with other people including the pop star Marti Pellow of Wet Wet Wet and Jazz singer Carol Kidd MBE.
Visit Jim's website for more tips and to download two of Jim's latest songs for free: http://www.songsbyjimbyrne.com/freemp3music/index.html
