i need help writting a song!!!

[winterbaby]

So I really love to sing. I would sing every thing from a song on the radio to reading the nutritional facts on cereal!!! I was thinking of writting a song but I honestly don't know how to write a good song with great lyrics. Ive looked up stuff on the Internet but nothing is working. I cant even get the song started!!! Please help me!!!

[NinjaRealist]

Originally Posted by winterbaby

So I really love to sing. I would sing every thing from a song on the radio to reading the nutritional facts on cereal!!! I was thinking of writting a song but I honestly don't know how to write a good song with great lyrics. Ive looked up stuff on the Internet but nothing is working. I cant even get the song started!!! Please help me!!!

As a lifelong writer and songwriter for many years I can tell you that songwriting is in some ways easier than writing a good poem and definitely easier than writing a novel or screenplay/stageplay/comic book script. However, in my case, I already had a strong background in most forms of creative writing and my poetry background especially was extremely helpful to writing a good song.

What I'm really trying to say is that everyone's approach to song writing is different, so I can only tell you about my own process. However, you might find your own process, or someone else's to be more effective for you than mine. So before I talk about MY process let's talk about processes in general.

There is one small step that must be decided before everything else. I'm gonna say that, as a beginner, you should write all of your music in 4/4 (if you are from Mexico, 3/3 might be a more familiar time signature for you). 4/4 is the basic rhythm of 90% of music that you hear on the radio. Depending on how long each line is, people will call this time signature 2/2, 8/8, or 16/16 but it's all the same thing. It is equivalent to Tetrameter in poetry. I always write in 4/4 so I don't even have to think about time signature, but here's my attempt at an explanation.

What 4/4 means is that there are 4 beats in each measure though you dont have to play or sing on all of them. A measure is basically just like a line in poetry. However a beat is not like a metric foot in poetry, because music is measured in units of time not syllables. So you can have five, eight, nine, any number of syllables in a measure so long as you can sing them in such a way that they all fit into a measure. If you dont have a time signature ( or non-western equivalent) it will be impossible
to keep tempo because you wont have an easy way to keep all your notes at relatively equivalent sizes. So sorry, but this is technicality has to be understood.

After this step you can either write the basic melody or writing the lyrics. Since, I usually start with a melody that just pops into my head, the melody writing comes first. Definitely use a piano for this unless you are a master at some other instrument. The piano is the easiest and best instrument to compose on. A basic melody, for me, is just a sequence of chords played in time with your signature/rhythm way. I really can't offer much advice for how to choose these chords, but most people who enjoy a lot of music can instinctively identify what emotions a chord represents. The only way to develop this is to immerse yourself in more music (I recommend classical/jazz/big band/blues not Modern Pop music. Modern pop music is way too complicated and subtle for beginners to figure out easily.)

After (or before) you create the melody you should write the lyrics. Again I can't tell you what makes good lyrics though it is definitely a good idea to rhyme them whether you choose end rhyme or internal rhyme or both. Rhyme matters a lot more in music than in written poetry. Also, with music it is important that the lyrics sing easily (obvious I know, but some people don't think about this). If something sounds awkward when you sing it, change that something. It is very important that your lyrics match the rhythm and the time signature of your songs and don't feel too awkward. Otherwise, I promise it will sound like crap. Even the messiest punk bands usually sing with a consistent tempo.

After this the next steps are arranging/recording/mixing and mastering. But I'm not gonna even delve into these subjects because you are clearly nowhere near that step in the process. Just read this and then ask me to explain better the parts that are confusing to you.

Also, here is one of my songs to give you an example of how i write and where my advice is coming from:

http://soundcloud.com/marchtothesea/...soul-b-preview (Written in 4/4 tempo at 138 BPM; notice that the key changes at 1:59)

[james0246]

Question has been answered sufficiently, so I'm going to close the thread. If there is further need for it in the future, then the thread will be reopened.