Humming song melodies, whether it is a personal favorite, a recent overplayed radio hit or a bad 80s hit stuck in your head, we all do it; however, there are those interested in the mechanics of those melodies.
Song writing is a process that can start at a number of different places, and by places I mean ideas. These ideas are usually melodic, instrumentally, lyrically, a phrase or personal situation. Whatever your inspiration is, or wherever it comes from, it can lead to the development of a song.
Sometimes the inspiration is so strong the song just pours out of you and everything just works exactly as you imagined, and, at times, even better than you could have imagined; however, those are rare cases and are what I like to call “gifts”. More often than not, you will have that original idea and it stops there. You are then left wondering “where do I go from here?”. That is the question I will help you answer.
There are three basic components to writing a song that I will discuss as starting points: melody, instrumentation and lyrics.
If you are starting with a melody there are a couple of ways to figure out how to get to the next step of the writing process and moving forward. First, figure out what key that melody is in. This can help expand the melody and provide a basic structure of what the possible chords, and chord progression could be.
If you came up with the melody vocally, meaning you started humming the melody, then try to write the melody on staff paper or try to play it on a piano or guitar. If you cannot read music or do not play an instrument try to find someone who can do at least one. Do not be afraid to ask for help. Most of the greatest songs resulted from collaborations.
Once you have found the key, the instrumentation will only be that much easier. The next step would be to put lyrics to your melody. Now some people are not lyricists and that is okay, but hopefully they know someone who is or else it will make song writing more difficult. But if you are a lyricist, then simply think of something or someone you want to talk about and see where it goes.
The definition of instrumentation for the purposes of this article is a guitar groove or a chord progression on whatever your instrument is. Again, after your original idea, find out what key you are playing in. Finding the key gives you some boundaries and also some freedom to explore more options musically and expand.
Another step is to play your guitar groove or progression of chords over and over, and really feel it. Then simply try to hum or freestyle lyrics to put together some semblance of a melody. For beginners this may be difficult because playing an instrument and singing can prove to take time to be able to do. If this is you do not be discouraged, with time and continued practice it will come. But for now, there are a couple options: record, or have someone else play your instrumentation and you sing over it.
Starting with a lyrical idea takes a different approach. For the musical side of it, think about what you are trying to say. Is it happy, or is it sad? More upbeat, or more melancholy? Also, think about how you want it to sound. If you want it brighter and happy, then try playing chords in a major key. If you are going for darker and a more melancholy vibe, try a minor key chord progression.
These tips have helped me get you over the hurdles that are inevitable in song writing, and will hopefully do the same for you so that one day people have your songs stuck in their heads.
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