Thoughts on Songwriting

In the simplest definition, songwriting is the art of creating a combination of melody, lyrics, rhythm, and harmony through chord progressions. This is usually done along with musical forms (such as verse, chorus or bridge) to define the song’s structure.

Songwriting is a very creative process and mostly cannot be done if writer’s block is in the way. Songwriters often need the right moment to have his or her flow of ideas running. Some might find it best to write in the morning while others prefer at night when the mind is really fresh and filled with creative juice.

In my opinion, songwriting can be a taught process. It is an art that can be mastered if you have a passion for it. Anyone can be trained with the right tools just like drawing or painting.

In the context of art, the difficult challenge is to attain uniqueness in your songwriting when compared to the works of other songwriters. But most songwriters are in a way influenced by their favorite composers or artistes. This can be good or bad depending on how you see it. You can think of your songs as being good if they can make a difference and otherwise if it sounded the same with other people’s works.

The most important thing is to know the purpose of your songwriting. Is it for your self listening pleasure or do you intend to commercialize its use? The difference between these two is whose needs you are trying to fulfill for. You can think of your listeners or potential music buyers as your clients and you work for them if you want to commercialize your songs. This is perhaps the hardest part of songwriting as you try to please many listeners.

Chord progressions are greatly used in songwriting. They really go hand in hand with the melody that you create. For instance, the melody that you create must be “harmonically” correct with the selection of chords that you use thus creating some form of restriction.

Some songwriters prefer to concentrate on creating the melodies first without putting much thought into the chords used. An advantage on this is that you won’t restrict your melody as proper chord progressions can be constructed later. Alternately, you can also focus on working out the chord progressions as the first priority. This can be too restrictive to your melody and it is advisable that you avoid doing this whenever possible.

Attached video: from Berklee’s instructor Jimmy Kachulis.
Description: “Berkleemusic instructor Jimmy Kachulis explains harmonic tools you need to learn to create effective moving bridges—the move from away to away and the half cadence.”