3 Songwriting Lessons That Will Change the Way You Write

I’ve been making a conscious effort to write more of my own music lately.

Some sessions have given me songs I’m genuinely excited about.

Others have involved three hours of playing the same few chords and wondering whether I’ve forgotten how songwriting works altogether.

But both kinds of sessions have taught me something.

Here are three lessons that have changed the way I approach writing songs.

1. You can’t write songs if you’ve got nothing to write about

I used to think that setting aside time in my busy calendar to write was enough.

But if I haven’t also made time for living, what am I supposed to write about?

Songs need something to draw from. That doesn’t mean your life has to be constantly dramatic or that every song needs to document a significant event. Inspiration can come from a conversation, a relationship, a place, a question you can’t answer or a feeling you haven’t quite understood yet.

But we need to give ourselves opportunities to experience those things.

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your songwriting is leave the studio.

See people. Go somewhere unfamiliar. Read something. Pay attention to what makes you uncomfortable, excited, jealous, nostalgic or curious.

Writing time matters. But so does having a life worth writing from.

2. Songs can write themselves but you need to sit and wait to hear them

No woo-woo here.

I don’t necessarily believe songs arrive fully formed from somewhere outside us. But I do think we often give up on ideas before our feelings have found the right chords or before our melodies have found the right words.

We rush to fill the empty space.

If the first lyric doesn’t work, we decide the concept isn’t strong enough. If the chorus doesn’t immediately arrive, we change the chords. If nothing exciting happens within the first half-hour, we assume the session has failed.

But sitting still and waiting can be part of writing too.

That might mean playing the same progression for longer than feels productive. It might mean humming nonsense until a melody starts to reveal itself. It might mean putting the guitar down, closing your eyes and letting the unfinished idea sit in the room for a while.

Recently, I struggled through three hours of getting nowhere on my guitar. Then, after I stopped trying to force something to happen, I wrote two songs in the space of 15 minutes.

Those three hours weren’t necessarily wasted. They may have been the time I needed to clear everything else out of the way.

Not rushing the process doesn’t mean waiting around forever for inspiration. It means giving an idea enough time to become what it is trying to become before deciding it has nothing to offer.

3. Not everything you want to say needs to be said with words

This one is my favourite.

Lyrics are only one of the ways a song communicates.

You can say something through a pause. Through the shape of a melody. Through a chord that doesn’t resolve when the listener expects it to. Through a vocal that cracks, whispers, strains or pulls away.

How could the music say it for me?

That question has opened up some of my favourite creative decisions and changed the way I think about songwriting altogether.

What I’m learning

Good songwriting isn’t always about working harder or finding a more impressive idea.

Sometimes it means living enough to have something to draw from.

Sometimes it means staying with an idea after the exciting part has worn off.

And sometimes it means trusting the music to communicate what words cannot.

Which of these lessons do you most need to remember in your next writing session?