How To Write A Song

or: Just Sit Down And Write It

First a disclaimer. I am, by no means, an expert in song writing. In fact, to be an expert I really ought to be familiar with lots of different methods. As it is, I've never really bothered finding out how other people write and just sort of worked it all out for myself.

To clarify on that last statement, yes, I'm self taught. Not in that Read Lots Of Books On It way. I just sat down and did it (more on this in a bit). I began with the production side of things doing mash-ups back in 2002, felt limited by the sounds available to me, so began figuring out how to write. Sure, I looked at books, but never bothered with more than a few pages of most because I'm an asshole. I have passing familiarity with the basics of musical theory, but don't actually fall back on it very often. The most useful thing I've learnt is how to write and read (*cough* veeeery slowly *cough*) musical notation, because it allows me to remind myself just what notes I'm playing on the keyboard without needing to figure out just what bloody chord it is.

Oh, and when I was about twelve I got grade 1 in guitar. Woooo-hooooo! It only took me like four years of lessons.

Anyway, learning how to make music has been an interesting process for me. I've lacked structure, rigour, and much awareness of how other musicians work. Beyond "minor chords sound sad" or the Circle of Fifths I'm all at sea with the theory (oooh, "All at sea;" I like that phrase and must stick it in a lyric). I have, however, come at it from a producer's viewpoint and gotten very good at picking tracks apart as they're playing and seeing just what's going on there. Try it on Graffiti My Soul by Girls Aloud if you want to have your mind blown by the pop songwriter's art. Xenomania, who write all the good Girls Aloud songs, are bloody brilliant. First question for you with that song is "Which bit is the chorus?" See? Amazing.

Anyway, I basically work more or less instinctively since my lack of formal education means I don't think "Ah, now I'll play a lovely rich B major..." not least because it'd take me a second or two to work out how to play B Maj. This is a weakness and a strength. I'm sure plenty of other songwriters are the same too, so don't worry that you aren't classically trained. That's Lesson 1: There's no right or wrong way to do this and you should find what works for you.

So, enough waffle; how do I write a song?

Well, the short version is "You sit down and write a song."

Obviously though, there's more to it than that. First, let's be clear here, you will almost certainly write some crap. Looking at my hard drive I have over 150 tracks that I've started working on. The majority of them are crap. Occasionally they have a halfway decent nugget of an idea, but mainly they're crap. This is the toughest part for me; without a structure within which to write, I wrote an awful lot of rubbish before I started to get the hang of it. Spending over half a decade flailing around in the musical wilderness like that is, I'm not gonna lie to you, a depressing experience. I still find the process emotionally difficult and draining and there are times when it's distinctly unpleasant. So, I suppose, this is Lesson 2: Be prepared for disappointment and be enough of a stubborn, self-destructive prick to carry on even when it pains you to do so.

So, assuming through trial and error and looking at what other people have done and whatever you've reached a point where you're reasonably familiar with your chosen instrument, what then? Well, you're not going to remember every nice sound you happen to stumble upon so it's crucial you have some way to record it. I use a combination of musical notation (print off free sheet music at the very excellent BlankSheetMusic.net by the way), carrying a notepad to write down ideas, MIDI programming, and just making an audio recording. Hell, I have a dictaphone application on my phone that's good for getting down a melody I've just thought up. Lesson 3: Learn how to record what you write.

MIDI, by the way, is bloody brilliant. I feel sorry for those of you whose chosen instruments don't use MIDI. I use a keyboard; a 61-key twenty year old Yamaha PortaSound PSS-680 that was languishing in a loft, unused for a decade and a half since I was a kid until I realised that despite it being a bit rubbish and having very few decent voices or velocity-sensitive keys, I could hook it up to my PC and use it to control software synthesisers. The thing was an entry-level machine when it was new, and it'd probably go for £20 or less on eBay, but it's built with clumsy children in mind so is rock-solid, and using a PC has given it a fantastic new lease of life. I also use a Boss Dr. Rhythm DR-660 drum machine which I picked up second hand on eBay for £45. This, or the SR-16 if you can't find one, will do the basics just fine and is also MIDI compatible. My PC is a Windows XP box I built myself a few years ago for about £400. It has a 2GHz Athlon processor and 512Mb RAM, so not anything Earth-shatteringly high-powered. I was using the very excellent Reaper until I got a free copy of Samplitude off a magazine cover. Once you have your Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) set up, there's a wealth of free plug-ins that you can control with MIDI. Start by picking up a copy of Computer Music; their cover DVD has everything you need to get started plus they and the other music mags supply a load of samples each month too.

So, you're reasonably competent with your instrument and able to record what you write? So how do you write? Shit, I dunno; all I can tell you is how I write. There's no set start-point for me. I just try and kick ideas about beats, basslines, melodies, harmonies and lyrics around until I find an idea that I like. This is crucial, and Lesson 4: If you're not actively trying to write a song then you're not ever going to write one. I keep that notepad with me almost everywhere. It's full of lyrics or ideas for lyrics. WRITE IT ALL DOWN! I keep what I call a recyc pile, which is where any odds and ends that aren't a complete lyric go. If you're stuck for inspiration then look there first. I do often start with the lyric. What you should be thinking about is writing something that has some meaning or relevance to you. It never hurts to mention the name of the song in the chorus either. Think about all the great songs since the 50's that you know and love. I'd be willing to bet at least 90% of them mention the name of the song at least once in the chorus, if not several times. The song effectively advertises itself. For more on this sort of thing, go read The Manual. I know, I've said it before (and I will continue saying it), but it really is one of the best things about making music I've ever read. It's certainly one of the only things I've read all the way through.

I also like to scroll through the sample library I've built up via coverdiscs, looking for sounds that catch my attention to construct a track around, and I like to fool around with my instruments. At this point it often feels like a complete track is a million miles away, but you need to take that first step (if you'll excuse the awful metaphor) if you're ever going to get there. Play notes at random, hum a tune that you improvise, play word-association games or look for rhymes to words you like. But do it.

If, after all this, inspiration still fails you, then allow me to quote Picasso; "Bad artists copy. Great artists steal." There's plenty of material out there that you can appropriate and make your own, and much of it is stuff you're legally entitled to use. For example, Project Gutenberg is building a database of books who's copyright has lapsed and are now in the public domain. The complete works of the Romantic Poets, Shakespeare, and countless others are yours for the plundering. The same is true of music. If you really want to rip-off the melody of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star for example, there isn't a damn thing anyone can do. Well, except point and laugh, but you get the idea. Oh, and a final tip; the black keys on the piano are much more fun than the white keys. There's probably some good theory behind this but I've never bothered looking it up.

So, once I have an idea, where next? This is where things get a little more formalised for me. First, I sort out a beat. Between the drum machine, my sample library, and my own imagination, finding a beat isn't too difficult. You need to ask yourself what sort of song you're trying to write. Is it a slow ballad, a big stomper, or what? Find another song with a similar vibe and listen to it's beat. Failing that, just get the sound of a kick drum hitting the beat twice a second (i.e. 120 BPM). This is a good enough foundation for any song in 4/4 time (i.e. four beats per bar, also called common time). Hell, all House music is explicitly built around this structure. The type of beat and how quickly it repeats are the tempo.

Then, in my experience, you need to work out what key you're going to be working in. Someone who is well educated about music would be able to give you a detailed answer here. Me though? I'll give you the simple one; it's the note at the heart of the piece. It's often the one you start on and/or end on, and it's certainly going to be the one you keep coming back to. When you sing the title of the song in the chorus? That note, right there, is almost certainly the key of the song. Let me make it even simpler for you though. Sit down with your instrument. Now hum or sing a note. Now find that note (don't bother with chords; just find the individual note). There's a fair chance it's one of the 5 sharps/flats in an octave (those black notes again). Ta-daaah! You've just selected the key of your song. And so, we reach Lesson 5: Pick a tempo and key for the song. See? You can now say "My song is in common time at 120 BPM in the key of D sharp" and sound like a proper musician. That was a piece of fucking piss, no?

Next, let's combine that drumbeat with a bassline. You could over-complicate things and get very clever here. I am not that clever though, so I say stay in the same key. The bassline doesn't need to be very complex. The twiddly stuff happens up in the treble, but the bassline is the bit that grabs you by the intestines. I wouldn't even bother with chords unless you're feeling very adventurous. Just get a big fat bass sound that makes your bones vibrate and play some simple tune along to the beat. Something kinda catchy, almost like a big dark dirty nursery rhyme. Play around, and listen to what other people have done. A good current example (at time of writing) is Sweet Dreams by Beyoncé. Fire up Spotify and go have a listen. Those four bars just keep on coming throughout the song (and it's on those black keys again) and I only count 14 or 15 distinct notes there. That's less than one note per beat, and yet I've read a bunch of reviews that praise the groove set up by the bassline and the beat. You could do that, right? Thus ends Lesson 6: Write a bassline over the beat to establish a groove.

Now your song has a solid base, the other key bit you still have to write is the melody. This is the tune you sing. This is going to sound familiar, but go back to those black keys and whatever key your song is in and play something over your groove. Start with the chorus, because this is the bit you want other people to be able to sing too. You're looking for something that has a hook. This is that thing that lifts the song; that makes it stand out somehow. Other people will tell you the hook can be anything, and they're absolutely right. Me though? Have a hooky beat or bassline, sure, but I don't see why you can't have more than one hook and if you're going to put it anywhere then it makes sense to put it in the bit that hopefully people will sing along to. This is the hardest part in my opinion; writing a melody that sounds great. Beyond sticking to your key and the black keys more or less (though throw a few white ones in there too), I'm out of suggestions. Experiment. This is the unhelpful message of Lesson 7: You can simplify and streamline the process of writing a melody, but ultimately it's down to your creativity. Hopefully though, those other technical barriers that keep your creativity from getting a look-in are gone and it all hangs upon your own musical ability. Good luck.

Ahhh, we're getting there now. You should, by this point, have a beat, a bassline, and some lyrics you can sing to a melody over the top. This is a song. You have written a song. Consider The White Stripes. There's Meg providing the beat, and there's Jack who takes care of the groove and sings the melody. They've had international success. Granted they're bloody good, but theirs is song writing at it's most distilled. You are probably not as good as them though. I'd certainly feel egotistical comparing myself to them. No, I need to pour some extra sprinkles over my songs at this point to really lift them to a point where I'm happy. Harmonies are a good start. Try playing along to a recording of your tune, accompanying the melody but not playing the melody. I learnt to do this by playing along to the radio. Just switch Radio 1 on, to a show you like, and play along. Arrogantly embellish other people's tunes. Now, go back and do it to your own tune. Be careful not to overcrowd things. Assume your audience wants to get to know the main bits of your song first, before you throw anything extra in. The harmonies shouldn't distract from the melody. Try turning them down, or panning them over to the left or the right a bit. During your chorus is a good time to go for it though. The tune behind the chorus doesn't have to be the same as the melody you're singing, and it can seriously add a kick to the tune. Also, and this is important, singing one tune and playing a different one and having them work well together will make you seem very clever. You can also try singing some harmonies as a backing track to give you more layered vocals. Why not try going out of your genre's standard set of instruments too? If you're a rock band, throw a bit of synth in there; in electronic music slap some heavy metal guitar-chugs on the track. You can extend the idea of harmonies when it comes to the breakdown/middle-eight section. Go as sparse or as wanky as you like here. Just keep it in key and ask yourself "Does it sound good?" There, Lesson 8: Harmonies are easy but impressive.

Finally, because we live in a sexy digital wonderland, you can finish the lot off with some cheap and easy production tips. In electronic music try throwing some little blips and bleeps in there to garnish your track. Richard X is good for this; if you listen to his ...Presents His X-Factor Vol 1 album they're all over the place. You can also use noise sweeps - stick a band-pass filter on some white noise and gradually sweep it up the frequency range over a couple of bars to create some tension and drama ahead of an important song point (usually to lead into the chorus). That trick is used all over the fucking place in electronic music. Do more than one vocal take. John Lennon and Kurt Cobain were into doing a double take of their vocals and playing them simultaneously, because they didn't really feel confident about how their voices sounded. If it's good enough for them, right? Hell, in the chorus why not have four or five different takes? Mute parts of your track here and there to keep things interesting, e.g. try dropping the drums just before your final chorus, then when they kick back in it'll sound even more awesome. Don't forget your track is in stereo. Just panning instruments or vocals (especially your harmonies or your multiple vocal takes) a bit left or right of centre can create a much bigger, widescreen sound. Finally, when you mix the final piece down, try hard-limiting it. This is a type of compression, meaning the dynamic range (the difference between the loud bits and the quiet bits in your song) is compressed, making the quiet bits louder while keeping the loud bits loud. There's plenty of theory out there on dynamic range compression, but do you care that much? The short version is that to our brains louder = better. Most modern music is compressed for this reason. Give it a try, play with the settings of whatever software you use (most DAWs support this or accept freely available plugins that can do it for you) and see what works. And that's Lesson 9: Production tricks can't polish a turd, but can take your track to the next level.

Phew. This article turned out longer than I expected and has taken me far longer to type than I thought it would. I'm supposed to be finishing off a song of my own right now. We'll see whether my tips are enough to help me. And that's where our final lesson comes in. Lesson 10: Play the track for other people and ask for honest, brutal criticism, then act upon it. Like Ben Franklin said, "Our critics are our friends; they show us our faults."

Good luck.

Seej 500

Yorkshire, UK, 20/8/2009