If you have any kind of artistic tendencies, you know that creating a piece of art-be that with paint, clay, stone, music, etc., is a pure joy! But, as is the case with any art form, the artist has to develop his craft. No one is born knowing how to paint like Rembrandt or sculpt like Michelangelo. The God-given talent may be there, but it has to be nurtured and developed. Song writing is no exception.
I write a lot of songs--and like many guitar players, I don't have any formal music theory training. I've just picked up bits and pieces here and there...enough to get by. Along the way, I've learned that there are a lot of ways to approach song writing.
HERE ARE THE TWO MOST POPULAR SONG WRITING METHODS:
1) Begin with a chord progression that you like--and then create a melody and lyrics to sing over it.
This is my favorite way to write a song. I think that's because I'm a guitarist first, and a singer second. I just naturally gravitate toward writing chord progressions that I enjoy. For me, once I have a chord progression - it's very easy to build on that and create a melody and lyrics. I just play the chords and noodle around, humming different melodies over the chords until I discover something I like. Then I write lyrics that work well with the melody and rhythm of the music.
2) Come up with a melody and lyrics and then build a chord progression to accompany it.
This is sort of the mirror image of method number one. I suspect that this would be the method most singers gravitate toward. My wife is singer-and every song she writes begins this way-with a melody and lyrics.
I've written a few songs this way. I just got inspired with a melody that I really liked and decided that I wanted to build a song around it. Here's what I do in these cases.
FIRST: I determine the rhythm and tempo of the song--is it 3/4, 4/4, etc? Is it a fast, medium, slow song?
SECOND: I determine my "starting note"--I.e., I play around with the basic chords A-G (or minor, 7th, etc. forms depending on the kind of feel I'm going for) in order to find THE chord that seems to work best with the starting note of my melody. This is a trial and error process. I just "hum and strum" until I find that "sweet spot" where my first note blends well with a chord.
From there I take my time and feel out what the next chords should be. I just sing (SLOWLY) through the melody and play what I think, the next chord should be, until I have it all worked out. And of course, the whole time I'm doing this I have a pen and paper handy writing all of the lyrics and chord changes down! It's also very helpful to have some kind of recording device handy to record your ideas so that you don't forget them. How quickly that awesome moment of inspiration can fade into oblivion if it's not captured on tape!
IN THE BEGINNING song writing is a lot of trial and error. You just have to work at it until you discover the chords that work best with your melody. But, as you do it more and more--you will get much better and faster at it. You'll develop a sense of what chords work best with each other and how to combine them with melodies. So, the very best advice I can give you is-write lots of songs! And it never hurts to become a student of song writing. There lots of great articles out there on this subject. Type "song composition for guitar" and "song writing for guitar" into a search engine and you will discover a lot of helpful resources.
