Songwriting Tips

Learn How to Break It

No matter how talented you are, you should always seek to improve yourself. If you don't have a formal musical education, take a course in basic musical theory. Educating yourself on timing, beats, arrangements and musical theory will help you improve your songwriting talent. By knowing all the "rules" of music and songwriting, you'll know how to "break" them and be original just the right way.

A Songwriter Writes Songs … Always

As writers, we never know when or where inspiration may come from. It's always good to be prepared when that perfect lyric comes to us at the most inopportune time. If you can't carry a pen and pad of paper with you, a pocket-size digital voice recorder is the perfect way to capture your lyrics.

Write What You Know

We all write from a personal level, but sometimes, we only scratch the surface of our resources. Dig deeper into your life experiences or go out and gain new ones. Our lives are multi-layered – out lyrics should be the same.

Mix & Match

Break the mold and learn different genres of songwriting. Mixing and matching genres of lyrics can produce very original works.

Don't Force It

Sometimes we write what we consider to the best lyric we have ever written. Sometimes we structure a song around it, but during editing and rewriting, the song can get away on us and the original line no longer fits the rest of the song. Or sometimes we think the line is so good that it can only improve a pre-existing song we have, so we try to fit it in. If the new favourite line seems out of place with the rest of the song, the best thing to do is take it out. Don't force it and break the flow of the song for the sake of one line.

Keep it All

Never toss out any of your lyrics. Through songwriting editing, your favourite lyrics may no longer fit into your song. Save them! You can fit them into another song, or write a new song based around those lyrics.

Writers' Block

All writers eventually get "Writers' Block", which is when we simply cannot think of anything to write about. Don't fret. Relax. Go for a walk. Spend time with friends. Observe people. Live life! When you're rested and relaxed, come back to your lyric writing.

Thick Skin

Try to find people other than friends and family to offer you constructive criticism on your lyrics. It takes confidence and a thick skin to have people critique your work, but sometimes we get too close to our work see how it could be better.

Enjoy!