Well, I'm beginning to write songs now, mostly in math class :lol:, and I'm stuck on how to start. I'm thinking, I could sit down and write lyrics allday, but how would I know how they would fit in a song? Would it be alot better to wrtie a riff or chord progression first, then make up words to get with it? Or would it be easier if someone had the words down, and tried to match it to some guitar stuff later on? Like in white room, you can hum the same part over and you would get all the tunes of the words in the chorus. Do all songs have to be like this?
It seems like it's a confusing question, so I'll try to clarify it later on
Thaks alot to eveyrone, this seems to be one of the msot important questions I've ever asked here.
Guitar first or second, it doesn't matter. It's been done either way for decades.
As for writing, you need a subject first, from there you need to know where you want to go with the song.
Verse 1 - Start of the story
Chorus - Overall statment about the song
Verse 2 - Midway through story
Chorus - same as above
Solo
From here you can follow with Verse (ending) and end with a Chorus or do whatever you want. It's you're song, do what you want.
Look at songs you like and use them as a template.
Good luck and have fun.
Might I humbly suggest Songwriting 101:
https://www.guitarnoise.com/lessons/songwriting-for-beginners/
Good suggestions from Tracker, and in Nick's article.
Why not come over to the Sunday Songwriters Group section of the forum where we try and write a new song each week? Give it a go. Nobody expects perfection and we're all trying to figure it out as we go along. :)
There's a heap of ways of going about it. Many songs (or operas and/or musicals) had different people writing the words and the music. Some pairs did the music first, others the words.
So it's the same if you're doing it yourself - no exact formula for everybody. I like to get a theme first and a rough idea of where I want to take the song. Then I'll start fiddling around with words, with the guitar in hand until some sort of "feel" starts to develop. Then I'll maybe concentrate on writing, re-writing, editing and generally whacking the words into shape. Then I'll work some more on the music. (But then I'm an expert - I've written three whole songs now!! :roll: It might work differently for you.)
The only real tip I'd give is to try and remember to give something to your audience. At least consider them occasionally when you work. Most first songs seem to be relentlessly self-indulgent. They rabbit on and on about the writer's internal problems, and are consequently as boring as batshit, and just like thousands of other lousy first songs. Try and put something in that's either original, amusing, interestingly worded, or just gives the listener some sort of buzz when they hear it.
Good luck. Start today. 8)
I second Chris on participating in the Sunday Songwriters Group. Its pretty important to get those creative juices flowing and having a goal of writing one song a week, in which someone else is choosing the topic, is a very helpful thing.
As for guitar first or lyrics first. It goes both ways. Somedays you'll be walking down a hall or sitting in math class :D and lyrics will just pop in your head. Then you have to go back and fill in the music. Other times you have been playing around with a little progression and you'll think "ahh these words would fit goot here"
There arent a whole lot of rules. Verse/Chorus/Verse or Verse/Verse/Chrous/Verse/Bridge/Verse/Chrous... or any where in between. Its really up to you and your style.
Probably the best tid bit I can leave you with is that you should work hard to finish each song even if you feel stuck and the lyrics just dont sound quite right. Go ahead and finish it, and as you are singing and playing along other, better words, will come to you and you can edit the song a bit. Nothing is set in stone til its recorded, stamped, distributed, ingrained in a billion peoples head.
Good luck and have fun with it.
Geoo
“The hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn” - David Russell (Scottish classical Guitarist. b.1942)
