The Songwriting Habits
Some songwriters just wait for inspiration, those are not likely
to succeed. Inspiration comes as a result of work; to get
inspired you have to work hard and practice. So, how can you
practice songwriting?! The habit of sitting down to actually
think about a subject, to look up words in rhyme dictionaries,
to play the piano for just the right chord...etc. All this is
just the habit of practicing.
As you practice more, HIT IDEAS will suddenly come to you out
of the blue!! Writing hit songs is the inspiration that you
worked hard to get. For example, you might spend a lot of nights
wearing your brains out writing melodies (that is practicing,
and organizing your songwriting thoughts), and then while
shopping for shoes an amazing melody starts echoing in your
head: That's your hit song.
This means that practicing doesn't get you hit songs or hit
ideas, instead it trains your brain to function better musically
and to become more aware of "songwriting potential" in things
occurring in your environment. There are other habits, besides
practicing, that are useful too. These habits are tools to help
the songwriter collect the fruits of practicing. Here they
are....
Habit One. Have a notebook with you at all times: Any
time a song idea hits you, a good verse, creative metaphor..etc.
Write it down for review later.
Habit Two. Have a digital recorder with you at all times:
You can use any thing to record sound with...Your "hit" melodies
will not be lost. (Sometimes I use the notebook to write the
notes of the melody -like D B A G..etc.-, you can do that too
and save yourself the trouble of having to sing in a supermarket
;).
Habit Three. Ask people what they think about your
creations: Showing them to friends is always a good idea.
However, showing them to other songwriters means great advice
and "professional" comments that would go beyond "Good work,
where are we going to eat?" :).
Habit Four. Keep your hit ideas organized: Now that you
have kept every amazing melody and every interesting lyric that
hit you on paper, It's time for you to put them together in a
great song. But how are you going to keep track of every single
melody, title, chord progression or lyric that you think of or
write?!! The answer is to have them organized in a way that
makes them easily searchable and accessible. You can still do
your organizing the old way using paper put in folders besides
the folder-sub folder organizing on your computer. There are
softwares that might help, like "TrackNotes" from "Virtual
Studio Systems".
Habit Five. Practice:
I have talked about this a lot. It's really important...You
will not be musically inspired unless your brain gets used to
music. Inspiration is HARD WORK!! Practice by reading for
successful lyricists, by listening carefully to great songs, by
struggling for days with one line to get the right word for
meaning and rhyme, by experimenting with chord
progressions...etc. There are lots of stuff you can
do...PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!!
Now that I have let you in on the songwriter habits, there
remains a warning: Not every idea that you get is an
inspirational moment, you will get a lot of "junk ideas".
Nevertheless, do not try to judge your ideas the same moment you
get them; record every thing and keep track of every thing you
think of. You can later review these ideas, save the good ones
and throw away the bad ones (you can better keep them in a safe
place too, every thing may come in handy!).
Finally, you don't have to go with all these habits. They are
habits that I developed because they were comfortable to ME.
You, also, can discover and develop your own useful habits. The
only habit that is crucial is!?!! You guessed right: PRACTICING.
This article is part of "How To Get Started" free songwriting online
course.