Songwriter

I’m Too Happy To Write

Posted on by IJ

© I.Woloshen

I was at a songwriter‘s night recently where two writers said they hadn’t written anything for months because they were too happy! Does this mean that you have to be miserable to be creative? Well, that my friends, is a songwriting myth!

It’s obvious that when you are in one of your dark periods, you can better tap into the emotions that go along with it. But if you feel that you are a slave to your moods and can’t produce without them, you haven’t tried hard enough yet. How would staff songwriters at publishing companies ever eat if they had to depend on their state-of-mind?

First of all, you limit yourself if you think that the only good songs are miserable ones. You may be attracted to them, but they are only a small portion of what you are capable of. And you ALSO limit yourself if you decide ahead of time that an uplifting song is going to be crap. Have you ever written a happy song? Trust me, I write lots of ’em and they can be a lot of fun to write! So my first piece of advice to you is to write in opposite feelings than you are used to…spread your wings a bit and try a different emotional feel.

Secondly, you are not new to this world, you’ve been here awhile (even if you’re only 15!). You have had many experiences already, some of them quite traumatic, that you can draw from if you insist on writing something miserable 🙂 But getting to that creative “place” will take a little work.

Here are some ideas: If you’ve ever meditated, do so. Clearing your head of all present thoughts and feelings will also clear your emotional slate and give you a chance to really remember those times. If you don’t know a thing about meditation, it is really about releasing yourself from thinking for a little while. It’s hard to do at first, but keep at it…just sit there and think of NOTHING. Hard to do, eh? 🙂

Once you feel you are ‘blank’ enough, go back in your mind to a time when you were really unhappy, angry, sad or distraught. Only YOU know what those times were. Close your eyes and visualize that period of time…think about how that emotion felt in your body, picture every detail about that time that you can. The more detail you remember, the closer you will come to re-experiencing it. Spend a little time there, and then pull out a pen or your instrument, whichever you use first. Either write out a description of those feelings…all of it, physical, emotional, everything…or play some chords that get close to that feeling. Just a warning though…once you’re finished, DO take the time to visualize yourself back into your present, happy state 🙂

I’ll give you an example of something that I often use in my writing, especially when trying to express sorrow or grief. It is a picture I’ve had in my head since I was 14…it is my mother’s bedroom, she is dying of cancer, she is holding my hand and that act alone is scaring me. She is saying goodbye, although at the time I don’t realize it’s her last goodbye. To this day, I become overwhelmed when I think of that scene. I have used it many times to get myself into that emotional frame of mind.

I have also used memories from wonderful, flirtatious experiences to write romantic or lustful songs 🙂 And if I want to write something self-effacing, I remember some stupid things I did in my life…you see what I mean? You’ve already got a headful (literally) of experiences to draw upon when you are “Too Happy To Write”!! Oh yeah, how about not taking a bath or shower for a couple of days? That’ll make you pretty miserable 🙂







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Publishing – A Brief Beginner’s Guide

Posted on by IJ

© I.Woloshen

First of all, I want to emphasize the fact that my experience with publishing has to do with having my music on television series, which is different in some ways from having a song contracted to a publisher. Most of what I’ve learned has been through connections with other published writers or publishers themselves. But I do occasionally get emails asking what publishing deals are, or how to “sell” their songs (you don’t outright sell your songs, but more on that later)…and of course most people are curious as to how they can get a deal! Let’s start at the very beginning and discuss what exactly it is. Warning: Music biz lingo ahead! I’ll try to explain the terms that may be unfamiliar to you.

First of all, let’s discuss what a publisher does. A publishers’ main job is to create a catalogue (collection) of songs that they can pitch (promote) to artists or producers, anyone who might potentially get a song recorded or on a project. Larger publishers are often also connected with, or even a branch of, a record label. Kind of an “all in one” package. In this case, if a performing songwriter is signed to a label, her/his songs are usually published through that record label’s publishing branch.

But many publishers are strictly in the business of creating their catalogue in the hopes of getting one or more of their songs on a hit record. Why? Because part of the money that is made from a successful recording goes to the publisher. This is how it works:

When a song gets on the radio it earns royalties. You’ve probably heard the word “royalties” before. Simply speaking, the song being “exposed” to the public in some way, either on radio or television, in a restaurant…wherever you hear music publicly, earns money. Any company or organization that uses music in some way as part of their business, has to pay a lump sum fee to a “performing rights organization” such as SOCAN, ASCAP, or BMI…every country has its own performing rights organization (PRO). This PRO collects information on when a song was played and how much, and distributes this money to its members (publishers, songwriters, etc.). The more exposure a song gets, the more money the publisher (and songwriter) makes. Bingo.

For the songwriter, the advantage to having a song with a publisher is that the publisher will hopefully have some good music business connections and will work hard to get the song on an artists’ recording. They are interested in finding great songs! This is where you come in because you’ve got the great songs! But how do you find the publishers? How do they know about you?

One book I recommend you get yourself is called Songwriters’ Market. Check your local bookstore, or buy it online from any number of online sites, including mine. Not only does it go into detail as to what a songwriter can do to get her/his song heard by publishers, but it actually lists names and addresses of publishers to send your songs to! There are articles written by people in the business and it gives you some standards to adhere to as far as looking and sounding professional (very important!) This book is a great place to start gathering information on the business side of songwriting.


How do you get a deal with a publisher? Well, first of all, let’s discuss what a publishing deal is. There are basically two types of deals: a single song deal and a writer’s deal. The single song deal is easier to get, and simply involves signing only one of your songs with a publisher. The writer’s deal is extremely difficult to get…this involves essentially working for a publisher where the rights to all of the songs you write during this tenure are assigned to them. You do get paid, but only as an advance on potential future royalties. In other words, your songs have to eventually make money or they’ll dump you! These days a writer’s deal is even MORE difficult to get. Many labels and publishers are doing the ol’ “downsizing” and employing fewer writers.

So let’s assume that you’re only looking for a single song contract. You make your list of publishers to send your demo tape to, you ship them off and you wait. You get a call from a publisher (hey, if that happens the FIRST time you send your song out, consider yourself either LUCKY or an incredible, undiscovered writer!!). The publisher says he’s interested in the song and thinks he can pitch it to an artist who’s in the studio right now and looking for more songs to consider recording. What happens next? The publisher sends you a contract, you are hopefully smart enough to take it to an entertainment lawyer (!!), you decide it’s a good deal, you sign the contract, and voila! You have a publishing deal. Does this mean that the money starts rolling in? NO! The contract only gives the publisher the right to exploit the song for a period of time. “Exploit” seems like a dirty word, but it is the term used for trying to get a song heard. If during that period of time nothing comes of it, the contract runs out and the deal is off. That’s it.

If, however, the publisher manages to get someone interested in your song…what happens next? Does this mean the money starts rolling in now? NO! The producer/artist/record label has simply put the song on “hold”. A hold means that the publisher promises not to pitch the song anywhere else until the artist/producer, or whoever, decides if they want to use it. It sits in limbo until the decision is made one way or the other. If they decide to record it, you’re in business! Does this mean the money starts rolling in? Not yet. Once the song is on a CD and then manufactured, the first money you’ll see is a part of the mechanical royalties. Usually there is a contract between the writer/publisher and record label or artist for these royalties. The last I heard, mechanical royalties are just a little over 7.5 cents per CD. If they manufacture 10,000 CD’s, you’ll get a part of $750.00. In some cases, the publisher splits that with you. Doesn’t sound like much, does it?

What about radio airplay? Since most royalties come from that, you’d be really interested in your song getting on the radio, wouldn’t you? But that only happens if your song is chosen as a “single”. The record label decides which songs would be good as singles, songs that are chosen to represent the CD. If your song is not chosen as a single, you won’t see much in the way of royalties, certainly not to begin with. OH, it’s a long and complicated process, isn’t it? 🙂

Next, if the song DOES get some airplay, eventually you might see some royalties. Might? Well, you have to get a LOT of airplay for your song to be noticed. In Canada, where I live, radio stations send in a sample log to SOCAN (the PRO) once a month. What’s a log? It’s a stack of papers that show the songs and commercials and everything that was broadcast on that station for a day. The log that they send in has to have your song on it, in other words, it had to be played on that radio station that day for it to even show up as having had airplay. If your song played the day BEFORE, well, you’re outta luck! Doesn’t sound very promising, does it? Sometimes it takes months for a song to catch onto the listeners out there…sometimes a radio station will give up on it long before that. Not only that, but politics are involved. Record labels work hard at convincing radio stations to play their artists latest recording, but the programming managers at the station have to like it. Arrgghhh….! Let’s get back to the publishing deal…

All single-song contracts should have what is called a “reversion clause” written into it. Be aware of this! A reversion clause means that after a period of time (could be 6 months, could be two years) if the publisher is unsuccessful in exploiting your song, you get the publishing rights to the song back. Then you start all over. There are many songwriters out there with single song contracts, getting the song on a recording is much more difficult. A lot of publishers these days are working on getting songs placed in movies…this is another way for the song to earn money. Although movie theatres do not pay royalties like radio or television stations do, the song would be recorded on the soundtrack as part of the movie promotion. Just about every movie has a soundtrack these days! Getting your song on a television show is another way that you can earn royalties. I wrote music for several television series’…everytime that music plays, I get royalties! The beauty of my situation is that I am my own publisher, so the most I end up doing is paying a part of the publisher’s portion of the royalties to the producers of the series. This is a slightly different situation than the publishing deal you’re likely in search of. But as you can see, there are all kinds of possibilities out there.

Some things to be aware of:

If a so-called “publisher” asks you for money to record your song, or for any other reason…RUN THE OTHER WAY. This is NOT what a legitimate publisher will do. You should NEVER pay money to a publisher for anything! If they want to re-demo the song, they will do it themselves.

If a publisher wants to “buy” the rights to your song…again, RUN THE OTHER WAY. A legitimate publisher knows that you can’t buy people’s rights from them. It is not done. Well, maybe in some countries, but don’t be fooled!

Most publishers listed in Songwriters Market are legitimate…occasionally you’ll come across one that isn’t. How do you know? When they start making all kinds of promises to you. The old saying “If it sounds too good…” you know the rest. For the most part, it is not in a publishers’ best interest to start a bad reputation! They want to develop a good relationship with you, one that will benefit everyone.

Most publishers will want ALL of the publishing rights to your song. You may have heard of situations where songwriters own some of their own publishing. They are usually well-established songwriters who have a little more clout and can negotiate these kinds of deals. In the beginning, expect to compromise to some extent. Do you want a deal, or would you rather not? This is often what it comes down to. Later on, when you’re a famous writer 🙂 you can get yourself a better deal!

Is a publishing deal all it’s cut out to be? That’s up to you. In my case, I’m a performing songwriter and not as anxious to get published because I perform them myself. That doesn’t mean I won’t in future, but for now, it’s not in the cards. If you are not a performing songwriter, the only way you’re going to get your songs heard is by somebody else performing them. You may be able to find a group or an artist on your own! That’s the sign of a savy songwriter! But if you’ve decided you’d prefer a publishing contract, and after this article STILL think you want to pursue it, here are a couple of other resources you might check out:

For a more thorough description of royalties and how to get ’em, read Nancy Reese’s article for the Muse’s Muse…Publishing 101.

Robert Carter has also written an article for the Muse’s Muse explaining the sources of Publishing Income.

In fact, for a whole bunch of questions about publishing and copyright, why not take a cruise through Nancy Reese’s many Q&A articles for the Muse’s Muse…you might find your answer right here!

Hopefully, this information will give you a little insight into the mysterious world of publishing…Good Luck!

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Success – What’s Standing In Your Way?

Posted on by IJ
A digital sound recorder
Image via Wikipedia

© I.Woloshen

“Success” is a relative word, and your idea of it can change as you inevitably do. For instance, in my teens and 20’s (ugh!) I measured success by my position, my income and the number of friends I had. Well, the part about friends hasn’t changed much 🙂 But everything else has!

These days I define my success much more simply…I ask myself, am I doing what I want and love to do? Most of the time, I’m happy to say, the answer is yes! But it took me a long time to get here…

I believe that the largest hurdles we have in front of us are the ones we put there ourselves. Never mind what the “others” say, what are the things you tell yourself? Have you ever listened to your own thoughts? I know, that sounds weird and new agey, but have you? What kinds of things do you tell yourself? Do you encourage yourself and keep a positive attitude, or do you tell yourself over and over “I’m a terrible writer, I can’t do this, I’m not going to make it”? Creative people, on the whole, tend to be extremely sensitive…it is that sensitive part of ourselves that gives us the insight to our own creative juices, but it can also be a burden. The downside to sensitivity is the old chip-on-the-shoulder syndrome when things aren’t going the way we’d like.

But knowing all of that, what can we do to get a little closer to our idea of success? Being songwriters, sometimes we lose our ability to come down to earth and establish some structure in our lives! But structure, organization, plans and work are all necessary ingredients! Here are a few steps you can take:

1. Identify – write out what your idea of success is! Sometimes we meander around the subject without really clearly identifying anything about it. What is success to you? You can give yourself a time line, if you like. “In five years I’d like to be…” Work your way backwards, all the way to what you can do today!

2. The Steps – what steps can you take to achieve your goals? Make two lists…one will be the more major steps (ie…I want to get a publishing deal, I want to record a CD…etc.), the other will be the little steps! I can tell you right now that the little steps will be the most important!! For instance, if you want a publishing deal, there are several things you need to do to make that happen. You need to identify the publishers who might be interested in your songs, you have to have a decent recording of your songs, you need to collect addresses, make a list of who you’ve sent to, etc., etc.

Perhaps your primary goal is to become a better writer. Well, that goal is never off my list! Again, you would benefit by sitting down and determining what it is that YOU NEED in order to begin achieving that. Do you need to improve your lyric skills? Do you need to be around other writers? A few visits to some open mics? Are a couple of piano lessons in order?

3. Be Prepared To Change – For heaven’s sake, if something isn’t working, let it go! It’s okay to move onto something else! Stubbornness and determination are admirable qualities, until they are just plain stupid!

4. Opportunity Meeting Preparedness – I’m sure you’ve heard that expression before. People who have achieved success weren’t just sitting around waiting for it to fall into their laps. Well, most of them anyway! They were able to recognize an opportunity when it hit them square in the face. You may think that is obvious…but you can never be sure exactly when it’s going to hit, or how. A little story, if I might: When I’m almost finished recording a song, I tend to make a DAT copy of it (digital audio tape) just so I can have it there to listen to for myself, and for whatever else I might need it for. A couple of months ago, my husband and I had a business meeting with an old friend in our home, not related to songwriting in anyway, just an investment opportunity. This friend brought his business partner with him, and we spent an hour or so discussing this new business. At the end of the talk, we started chit chatting about other things, and it so happened that this friend mentioned to his partner that I was a songwriter and had a studio downstairs. Lucky for me, I’d cleaned it that morning 🙂 So I invited them down to see the studio. I happened to have my DAT machine hooked up with the tape in it, and my friend wanted to hear the latest version of Catnip (a song he’d participated in recording). It JUST SO HAPPENED that his business partner was ALSO a songwriter and NOT ONLY THAT, but he had a line on a guy who was looking for material for an up and coming group, so I played him some of the songs…was that a coincidence? No, it was opportunity meeting preparedness 🙂 What comes of it doesn’t matter, but I was ready!

5. Critical Line – ever heard of this expression? It refers to the steps that have to be taken in order to achieve goals. Even at their jobs, most people spend a great deal of time doing the peripheral things that aren’t getting them any closer to getting the job done. Like sharpening pencils and tidying the desk, or getting distracted by something entirely un-job-related. Try to spend 1/2 an hour each day completely devoted to your critical line…doing something you need to do, even if it’s just a boring “little step”. Time is everything! So is discipline!

6. Discipline – is not one of my strong points. I consider myself a naturally lazy person, and have had to battle with myself most of my life to do what I need to do. This can be applied to just about anything in your life…but in order to succeed, you need discipline! Instead of throwing too much on yourself too quickly, take those “little steps”…see how important they are? But taking just one of those will make you feel better! And when you feel better, you’re likely to do more! It’s magic 🙂

7. More Irons in the Fire! – I know you’ve heard quite the opposite…that you can’t have too much on the go, but I’m here to tell you that when it comes to writing songs, the more your songs are “out there” the better it is for you! I don’t mean that you should be careless about it, BUT, if you’ve ever listened to some of the stories of how songwriters got their music heard, most of them had quite a long trail of opportunities. Someone just happened to hear a recording in the other room that someone’s cousin was playing that just happened to be sitting on the top of a pile…you know what I’m saying? Great songs aren’t just AUTOMATICALLY HEARD BY ALL THE “RIGHT” PEOPLE! It can take years for a great song to get the attention it deserves! So multiply your opportunities…let other people perform your song, play them at every chance, let people hear ’em!

8. Diversify – You’ve heard the saying “putting all of your eggs in one basket”. Having any kind of career in music means you have to diversify. The statistics are that less than 1% of songwriters make more than $5000 a year from their writing. That means that more than 99% of us have to have some other kind of income. I teach guitar, write music for television, write and perform…when some areas are not as profitable or emotionally satisfying, others are! As long as it is music-related, I’m happy. If it comes down to employment (and it inevitably does!), try to find work that is related somehow to your music, or at the very least, find work that allows you to BE a songwriter, go to open mics, or run off to the bathroom and record an idea when you have one 🙂 Then again, a job that is completely non-music related is sometimes perfectly satisfying! I’ve met writers who LOVE songwriting, but also love their jobs. Wouldn’t that be nice? 🙂

Okay, well there you have it…some ideas as to how you can achieve your idea of success. You know, half the time I write these articles as much for myself as I do for you 🙂

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You’re As Strong As Your Weakest Part

Posted on by IJ

© I.Woloshen

I used to be a lousy lyricist…maybe I had nothing to say, maybe I just let that part of my songwriting go, maybe I was just plain lazy! It was something I swept aside in my frenzy to write great music, especially when I was in my 20’s. I was impatient to finish…ever feel that way? These days, I have an endless supply of patience, but I digress…

When you get to the point of looking at the first draft of a song is when your weakness becomes most apparent. What is it that you’re skipping over in order to get the darn thing written? You know yourself better than anyone else, and this is when you have to be the most honest. When I say to be honest with yourself, I don’t mean that you need to be hyper-critical, just that you have to come face-to-face with the part of the song that isn’t “there” yet. This is the part of the song that will stand out to those who spend hours and hours listening to amateur songwriting, the people in the business. You can bet that they’ll pinpoint your weak point instantly!! You can’t hide it!

This weakness in your songwriting may take some time to strengthen, so be prepared! You essentially have several choices:

1. You can spend the time necessary to develop your skill in this area…for instance, because of my weak lyrics, I did a lot of reading and worked at writing a journal over a long time. When I would write in my journal, every now and then I’d come up with a line or phrase that stood out…that was the beginning of knowing I had my own point of view to express. If music is your weakness, push your envelope! Get out there and learn something…take a guitar class, learn some theory or join a choir and get a feel for how melodies and harmonies work together. There are endless possibilities.

2. You can skip the learning part and get yourself a co-writer. Find someone who has the skills you are missing…maybe they will be missing what you have! It isn’t easy at first to find someone suitable, but there are many, many songwriters out there who co-write. On Jeff Mallet’s site Lyricist.com you’ll find a huge list of songwriters broken down into lots of categories, including location.

3. If songwriting is your hobby, as opposed to a career pursuit, you have the luxury of time and little pressure 🙂 You may not be driven to change anything about the way you write, but even hobbyists like the idea of improving on the craft! Most of the books you’ll see on songwriting are primarily geared towards commercial writing, but there is a great book called “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron which focuses mostly on the creative side of yourself that you may find very helpful. It deals with “recovering your creative self” and although it doesn’t speak specifically about songwriting, I’ve heard many songwriters recommending it highly. If you are interested in other songwriting books, check out the Muse’s Muse for a whole list of ’em!

4. “Time…is on your side, yes it is…”…but for a great period of time in my songwriting “life” when I wasn’t focusing on improving it, I didn’t! There is no magic formula or pill. If you wanted to play better golf, you would probably consider taking lessons, or practicing as often as possible, maybe on a driving range…in other words you would focus in on your game and give it the time it deserved. The same is true of anything, including songwriting. When I focused in on my weaknesses, I learned to write better songs. Simple as that.

You will probably always feel more comfortable with one aspect of your writing, the part that comes naturally…it’s easy to ignore the rest when it’s too much “work” to fix it. But if you’re interested in getting your songs heard by others…it’s something you can’t ignore anymore!

PRODUCTION WEAKNESSES:

If you are considering sending your demos out to publishers…here are some problems that relate to production that you may not have considered (some I’ve heard and been guilty of from time to time myself). Seriously think about going to a professional studio to do a decent production on the song.

1. If you are a great keyboardist, vocalist, etc., etc., but you can’t program drums worth a damn…THAT’S exactly what the publisher is going to hear first…those lousy drums! Don’t you dare think you can hide them 🙂

2. Vocal buried in the mix…it doesn’t seem to matter how many times I’ve heard publishers, etc., say this, songwriters STILL forget that the lyrics are half the song and if they can’t hear ’em, they won’t listen any further!

3. Self-indulgent solo leads…come on, maybe your favourite part of recording is putting down that nice over-effected guitar lead that you just can’t play enough of…but that’s when the machine is going to get turned off. I’ve had demos sent to me when the songwriter raved about his guitar part, as if the song itself had very little to do with it!

4. Bad tempo shifts – I hate over-quantification, don’t get me wrong…there’s nothing that beats a “real” feel or groove in a song. But it’s got to be tight, it has to feel solid tempo-wise. Even if you’re just playing a simple keyboard or guitar and vocal, keep it on time!

5. Forgot to tune – oh, there’s no excuse for this one! Tune all of your instruments first…new strings on guitars if you can, don’t give somebody another reason to hit the “stop” button!

6. Lo-o-o-o-o-ng Intros – are for performing songwriters who can get away with it…if you’re pitching, don’t bother with much of an intro, get to the song as soon as you can! Equally true with long extros…nobody’s going to be listening that far into the song anyway!

7. And last but not least – REAL fancy production, but weak song. Let me tell you right now, you can’t hide a lousy song with great production. Somebody’s going to see that one right away. Make sure your song is “there” first before you even THINK of anything else!

Well, as I said, you are as strong as your weakest part…as soon as you figure out what that weak part is, you’ve got it made!

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Putting Music with Lyrics

Posted on by IJ

Here’s an email I recently received:

“Dear Irene,

I play guitar (lefty), just started, and i find it sometimes abit hard to get songs i like (like, by famous people, from the radio, whatever) abit hard to play, because i can’t get the exact tune. So i wanted to start writing my own songs. So i sat down to write some, and i couldn’t. i mean, i wrote a couple, but i can’t seem to accompany my voice (which isn’t very good) with my guitar. i like chords more than notes, so i just go through all the chords i know, just the main ones, and try to fit it together. Anyway, the whole point of me writing, is to say thankyou, you’ve helped me quite abit. But could you please put abit more about putting music with lyrics.”

I began writing songs for the same reason you did…I couldn’t play my favourite radio hits! In fact, over the years I’ve met many songwriters who started for the same reason.

When I was in Grade 12, I was given the opportunity to write some music to several poems in the play “Through The Looking Glass”. The idea was that I would play and sing them during the performance with the cast…I was put up in a loft at the back of the stage with a sound system. But the first REAL challenge was writing the music. I had always come from a “music first” place in my songwriting, and never before had tried it the other way around, so when I first sat down with all of these strange poems, I had no idea where to start. After succeeding with one of them, the others came more easily. Here’s what I learned, and what I use to this day…maybe some of it will help you:

1. A song lyric should have a built in rhythm, or “meter”….which means when you read it out loud, you can sense a beat to the words. This will help you to establish the time signature…4/4 is most common, four beats to the bar. Simply speaking, the strum pattern on your guitar should reflect this time signature.

2. Before you even establish the chords, you need to find a melody that matches the lyrics. Don’t go near any instruments until you’ve tried just singing the lyrics accapella (without accompaniment) and found a melody. This takes practice! Look at the structure of the verses…how many lines are there? Are the lines the same length of syllables, or are they different? If you’ve got an even number of lines, say 4 or 6, try singing one melody for the first line, and then another for the second…repeat the first melody for the 3rd line and the second melody for the 4th…see how that feels. Keep it simple. When you get to the chorus, that should be a different melody. Try singing it higher up…the chorus is a kind of climax, if you will, so it needs to be more dramatic in some way. Raising the melody at the chorus is one way of achieving that. If there is a bridge…sing that differently too. Essentially, each part of the song has its own mini-melody, but they all fit together. Creating a great melody is not achieved instantly! Well, not in most cases anyway 🙂

3. Let’s assume you’ve found a melody…now what are the chords? There are several ways you can go about this, most of them take time! First of all, you can randomly look for a chord that “fits” what you’re singing. Knowing a little bit about chords will take you a long way. Is it a sad song? Should the chords be minor chords, or is it upbeat? Do you hear chords around it already in your head when you sing the melody? If you play guitar and have a capo, use that as a means of getting into a key that suits your voice and the melody…you don’t have to play barre chords or fancy progressions, just use the capo up the neck until you find something that’s close. Get yourself a chord book and find out what chords are in a key…which chords go together, in other words. Try out some of the other chords in the key you decide on.

4. When should a chord change? This is where your “ear” really comes in handy. When you listen to a song on the radio, can you hear when the chord changes? If you can, you’re already half way there. Start out simply, by playing one chord all the way through the first verse, let’s call it “Chord 1″…when you hear that the melody doesn’t “fit” that chord, that’s where you should change chords! Okay, so now you need to find “Chord 2″…look in your chord book at all of the chords associated with and in the same key as “Chord 1″…and try them each out. Most likely, one of them will fit. So now we have “Chord 1” and “Chord 2”. Maybe your verse looks like this:

Chord 1
La, la, da da da, la, la, la

Chord 2
La, da da, la, da da

Is the rest of the verse repeating these phrases? Or are they different somehow? If they are the same, use the same two chords again. If they’re not, try another “associated” chord, or a chord in the same key. Now maybe you’re getting a feel to your song. Use the same process for the chorus, if you have a chorus, and the bridge, if there is one.

That is a beginner’s approach to writing melodies/chords to lyrics…remember to keep it simple! And when it gets “boring”, make a change! No one can write those melodies for you, it is something you learn to develop in yourself over time and with much patience (and sometimes none 🙂 Good luck!

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