Songwriting Blog

In his book, ‘How to write one song’, Jeff Tweedy outlines a useful exercise for finding ‘exciting’ new ways to pair words – to help you be more creative when writing your lyrics. In short, Jeff’s tip for writing better lyrics is to list verbs and nouns and then pair them in unusual ways. I’ll […]

The type of songs you write, your definition of ‘success’ and even your mental health will, to some extent, be dependent on your goals as a songwriter. So it’s important that you are clear about the reasons you write songs. Knowing why you write will allow you to choose goals that are in line with […]

This might sound like I’m blowing smoke up my behind, but it’s true nonetheless; I’ve never had a problem coming up with musical ideas. There’s a constant stream. However, that does not imply quality and it doesn’t imply great songs will flow from those ideas. I could easily write rubbish songs from now until I […]

Create hooks deliberately. Often you will be working on a song, you are well into writing the lyrics, but you haven’t given a single thought to whether the song has any hooks. Stop! Think! Can I create hooks out of what I already have? Can I express the point of my song in a memorable […]

A member of the Songwriting Magic Facebook group posted that she had came up with a song title but was really struggling to get any further. This was my reply. Connect your phrase to what is going on in your life or what has happened in your life. Write that story down. Don’t try to […]

Here is something I’ve learned lately – I thought I’d pass on – before it disappears from my head. It turns out that making ‘home videos’ of my songs to post them on Facebook is a teaching tool. Because when I watch them back I can see what works and what doesn’t. It’s an obvious […]

Reflections on Quarantunes so far My friend Jim Byrne asked me how I can be so prolific, so I thought I would gather my thoughts on that. For context, I have been doing a lot of writing and recording, and sharing the results on Bandcamp as 4 Volumes (so far) of Quarantunes, over about 8 […]

1.Learning to write songs is difficult Learning to write songs is difficult because learning any new skill is difficult. It takes time to become great. Along the way, you are going to get frustrated, make mistakes and write a lot of shit songs. That’s just the way it is. Accept it (and enjoy the journey).  […]

Unless someone has asked me to write something on a particular topic or I am co-writing, this article describes my songwriting process – most of the time. That’s not to say it the best way or even a good way, it’s just, my way. How do you I choose a topic to write about? I […]

If you type the phrase, ‘how do I get started on a song’ into Google – it’s almost guaranteed that the first piece of advice you will come across is, ‘Start with a winning title’. or ‘Pick a great title’. Aye – sure that’s a great idea – but it’s also facile and almost meaningless. […]

Use songwriting as therapy; a way to work out the issues in your life. There is plenty of research that says creating music can lower anxiety and help you feel happier. It certainly helps me; I couldn’t live without it. “I write first for myself as a therapeutic process, to get stuff out and to […]

Inspiration generates new ideas for songs, but craft is needed to finish them. Get yourself a copy of ‘Tunesmith: Inside the Art of Songwriting’ by Jimmy Web, the writer of ‘Wichita Lineman’ and many more hits. It’s a dense, technical book and not necessarily the easiest read; but it’s got everything in it you need […]

Hum tunes or make up nonsense words while playing along with chords or find melodies by picking out notes from the chords you are playing. ‘Can you hum?‘ was what Lionel Richie was told after asking the in-house songwriters how to write songs..

Play lots and lots of cover versions. Learn the songs from your favourite bands and solo artist. Playing songs teaches you the language and the vocabulary of songwriting. You will learn musical tension and resolution, chords and chord structures, common chord patterns and common song structures. Use the Udemy coupon below to get over 90% […]