What's the best way to write a song???

Hiya,

Go for a walk - to the shops, the bus station - anywhere. What's the first thing you notice? Rhythm - that's what. Left-right-left-right left-2-left-4 1-2-3-4 - and that might not be as fast as you want your song to be played, but you can always try the next step to a jog or a sprint.

Talk the lyrics back over that rhythm. You'll find that talking them back leads to a natural melody and you can start singing them back over the rhythm - not so easy if you're jogging or sprinting.

So, you've got the melody and the rhythm; you need to write them both down in whatever form works for you - just make sure you have the melody recorded in some form or another. Once you've got that, you can fine tune (no pun intended) the melody, and then you can start adding the chords in the background. At this point it helps if you know a "little" music theory, so you can get a handle on what key you're in and what chords will fit that key.

And that should do it.

I guess eveybody has their own preferred method. This is mine - can't wait to read some of the others.

Best,

A :-)

I wonder if tahts how the Red Hot Chili Peppers came up with "Walkabout".

The best way to write songs = the way to write songs which give you the best result.

There aren't any rules.

i usually start with lyrics, they mess around on the guitar playing single notes until in can fit the words to it. i.e. write the vocal line first. after that i just expand it into chords/scales the i know will work with the vocal notes.
its not the most original idea in the world, but it works and keeps things sounding sweet.

however as omega said there really is no hard and fast rules, whatever works, works :)

I think of songs as composed of 3 primary "writable" elements:

1. Melody
2. Chording
3. Lyrics

Songs I create usually come when I hit something from one of these three categories that I really like, and then build the other two around them. So far I've had a moderate degree of success with starting with chording, but I'm hoping to improve the fluidity of my lyrics by starting with them on my next song.