Five tips for Songwriting

When I first got started songwriting, I knew only what I liked to hear on the radio and how to play some basic chords on the piano and guitar. That is exactly all you need to know to get started on your songwriting journey! Here are 5 tips that I wish I would have started utilizing early, but now use EVERY time I write a song

Number One

Chord Progressions Sound really fancy, but they can be easily broken down.

Let's start with an example. I have been humming a tune that starts in D. Looking at the Fourth row, the following chords are ones that I can use to stay in that key, and write the rest of the song.

Em, F#m, G#m, G, A. Bm, and C#dim are the chords I plan to stick to. Do I know all of those chords? Nope, but I stick to the ones that I know and get my song to going. For those that I don't know, if I really need them, I use Number Three's tip and trick to find them.

Number Two

Use a note finder website to figure out what note you are singing. I wish I had perfect pitch, but since I don't I hum the starting note of my hook to figure out where I want to start in the chord progression.

Note Finder Website

Number Three

Learn how to use a capo. For many of the guys downtown, they hate when you use a capo, but that is because if you are dropping in with a band, you need to know the key of the song. This can be difficult when you don't have the cage system memorized or the capo transitions memorized. It's easy to determine the key of the song if the guitarist dropping in doesn't have a capo on the guitar.

For solo artist songwriters, capos are a wonderful tool.

Going back to my example above. I want to use some of the more difficult chords for my song. If I place my capo on the 1st Fret, play a C shaped chord, I will have the C# chord ring out. This also means, if this is the first chord of my song, then the key I am playing in is no longer C but C#.

Another example. I place the Capo on the 3rd Fret. I play the D chord because I still haven't trained enough to play a bar chord. The chord I am actually hearing is an F. The key of my song is now in F.

Number Four

Use thesaurus and rhyming web pages for inspiration. My songwriting is actually stemming from the art of poetry. I start with a poem or thought for what I want to say, but then I use the thesaurus and rhyming pages to find new and better ways to say those things.

Rhyming Website

Thesaurus Website

Number Five

Have a Hook Book. I saw this in the show Daisy Jones and the Six. She always had a notebook to write ideas that inspired her. After being down in Nashville more, I realized that most songwriters have a hook book that they bring to Co-writes. I keep mine on me all the time, and I have a second one in my phone for when I am unable to get my hook book out.

Just get writing

There's no official way to song write, but to start. I hope that these tips and tricks open up new ways for you to be inspired to make music.