Songwriting

I love to talk about songwriting! Since I first discovered music I have been mesmerized by songwriting.I think all musicians have wondered if they could write a song like the ones they hear on the radio. Sometimes you think,

"I could do that!" or "why not me?."

There are many ways to approach the writing of a song. It first starts I think with a creative desire. You do need some proficiency on the instrument you are writing on, but you do not have to be an "accomplished" musician. Many great songs were written by folk musicians that knew nothing about the technical aspect of music. In fact, sometimes you can over think the music and stop writing from the heart, which is where a great song comes from, after all.

Experiment

If you are new to songwriting, start experimenting first. Take a melody that you know, something simple and write new words to it. I find this can be a great exercise and fun also. You can write about the people you see at work or at school or the news or many other subjects.

This will begin to get your creative "juices" flowing, so to speak and start you learning how to place words on top of an existing melody.

Allow me to illustrate what I am talking about just a bit.

Let us take the tune "happy birthday". Everybody knows it and it will show you what I mean.

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday, dear Susie

Happy birthday to you

I am sure everyone can hear the tune to this in their head.Now just take it and try to keep the "rhyming " scheme the same while changing the meaning of the song. Such as:

I love you I do

I'll always be true

I love you my Susie

Will you love me too?

As you can see I have kept the "rhythm" of the lyrics while changing the meaning entirely. I did not have to come up with a new melody line and I got some much needed practice in lyric writing!

Now you try it as you go through your day and see what you can do. If you can begin to think like this, you will begin to sharpen your lyric writing skills. Soon you will be able to publish your own songs or lyrics. Enjoy it and have fun.

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