Start with a Great IdeaĪ great song tells a story, conveys an emotional experience, draws you in from the opening notes and holds you until the end. Good song crafter's can write in almost any style, but truly great songwriters can transcend genres. Once you master one genre, experimenting in other genres and styles is a great way to develop your craft. Consider The Beatles, who started out as straight rock ‘n’ rollers, but borrowed heavily from other influences as they grew as songwriters. The ability to ‘borrow’ select elements from another genre is just the kind of thing that can make your song fresh and interesting. Focusing on just one genre will allow you to learn how to be great at it. Every genre has its own set of ‘rules’ that you have to learn before you can break them. Most of us listen to a variety of music, but we all start writing the kind of music we like listening to. (For more about how to get feedback, check out our article, Start Your Own Songwriting Group.) Getting started. Along the way, it’s important to get feedback so that you can learn from your mistakes and get better. On the other hand, you have to write a TON of bad and mediocre songs to get to the truly great ones. On the one hand, you have to set high expectations, strive for greatness and not settle for ‘good enough’. (Now, that song might not have been GOAT-worthy, but it illustrates how craftsmanship stimulates creativity.) Years ago, in an interview on Bob Kingsley’s Country Top 40, Toby Keith admitted that his songwriting got better “after about the first 500 songs.” Keith later boasted that he could write a song about anything and penned the hit, ‘Red Solo Cup’. But in the intensely competitive world of songwriting, ‘good enough’ rarely is, and it’s usually far from perfect Amateurs will settle for the ‘good enough’ rhyme, the ‘good enough’ lyric, the ‘good enough’ melody and end up with a perfectly ‘good enough’ song. I like another Lombardi adage on the topic of practice even more: “An amateur works until he gets it right, a professional works until he can’t get it wrong.” And this is precisely the problem with writing good songs. If you repeat your mistakes without correcting them, you’re only reinforcing those mistakes. Sometimes a mistake can be a happy accident, but most of the time a mistake is just a mistake. Only perfect practice makes perfect.” That makes a lot more sense. He said, “Practice does not make perfect. You might agree with the idea that ‘Practice makes perfect’ but legendary football coach, Vince Lombardi sure didn’t. "Only perfect practice makes perfect.” ~ Vince Lombardi But it won’t be a great song unless you hit them all. Fall short in just one or two elements, and you will have written a good or even a very good song, maybe something chart-worthy. Every time you listen, you will hear instrumental embellishments - tiny details that work perfectly just below your conscious awareness.Īll great songs will move you, physically and emotionally, and each is so much greater than the sum of its parts. You’ll feel an infectious rhythm that you can’t stop bopping your head or tapping your toes to. There will be one or more ‘earworm’ musical hooks that you can’t stop humming or singing along with. In great songs, the other common elements - structure, arrangement, instrumentation, musical hooks, harmony, and production - all work perfectly with the lyrics and melody to achieve a ‘just right’ balance of novelty and repetition, tension and release, and a rising energy curve.Įach section will naturally lead to the next section so that you can’t stop listening.
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