Can You think of your favourite song as you read through this piece?

Every song you’ve ever loved; those that eventually became a Hit and those that didn’t catch up to the masses but yet won your Heart.

Behind that particular melody, lyrics, harmony and whatever it is that gives you the feeling of comfort and satisfaction when you listen to that song, is the brainpower, sweat and tears of AN AMAZING SONGWRITER.

Sleepless nights, mental raking, many disappointments and all what not all to make a lyrically sound and balanced song (well for artistes who sing in a communicable fashion). But regardless of the song, Mastering the art of songwriting is a feat that every artiste should aim to attain.

Not all artistes are amazing song writers so they tend to hire others who have mastered the skill of writing to write songs and relinquish the rights of ownership of any written piece more or less like “ghost writing”. So as a Great songwriter, your skill is always in high demand in the market and also a great advantage to you if you’re an artiste.

Here are few tips and secrets that were implemented in most of your favourite songs that made them what they are:

SONG WRITING TIPS & SECRETS

After having gone through your routine to prepare you mentally and spiritually (depending on your genre of music) to write a song, 

• Know the type of song you want to write

This first point cannot be overemphasised as many artistes who try to write songs do so without deciding first the kind of song they’d want to write. They leave everything to chance and nothing done without intentionality stands the test of time.

GREATNESS IS NOT OF LUCK BUT IS INTENTIONAL.

• Build your song on your own peculiar pattern of music

This is a simple trick in songwriting. Many song writers and artistes don’t put this to practice in that they do not create a certain pattern in which their songs should go. They try to pattern their songs after what is reigning or selling.

Meanwhile all the greatest artistes and songwriters had their pattern of music that made them stand out and of course they made the big bucks.

We expect sensational, heart touching & relatable lyrics from Hillsong, Alicia keys and the likes; but from Jonathan McReynolds you can expect excellent vocals with magnificent instrumental expertise in accompaniment.

Every great song writer should learn to write in a way that’s peculiar to his style of writing and music.

• Never “Multi-theme” a song

The theme of a song is the central message the song is trying to pass across to its listeners. As a songwriter, you must learn the art of communicating your message “one at a time”. Never write a song whose theme is more than one -it will never do great.

At most if there’ll be such a case of writing a multi-themed song, the two topics must be related. For example, Michael Jackson’s “They don’t really care about us” has its theme as ANTI-RACISM and UNREST. Both themes are similar and relate quite well.

Other relatable themes are;

– Love and Romance

– Worship and Surrender

– Rebellion and Anger

Your best bet will always be to write a song that has just one theme especially if you’re an upcoming songwriter.

• Create a memorable and catchy rhythm for your song

The song writer’s jinx is the rhythm and quality of sound that accompanies his song.

Many times great songs are not great because they were written by great songwriters alone but because the song had a catchy rhythm or vibe that caught the hearts of the masses.

Sound experts work with songwriters and artistes (it would be easier if all these portfolios were summed up in one person though) to produce songs that can “hack” the mind of man, giving the listeners affinity for the song due to the sound and rhythm of the song; creating certain rhythms that easily jingle and keep reoccurring in the minds of the listeners or audience. 

• Learn how to use rhymes

Rhymes can be a very vital tool In W

writing great songs as they can make the song if used skillfully or break the song if used ignorantly. 

Learning simple principles of rhyming in songwriting is key to accurately using rhymes to build your song. For example, always follow the idea of the song if the rhyme or rhyming word is not in sync with the idea or better still find another rhyming word that best communicates the idea.

In using rhymes, the idea or theme is sovereign!

CONCLUSION

Great songwriters do not evolve by reading articles online alone but by putting to practice the knowledge embedded in those articles. 

Practice, Practice and Practice again; Learn, Unlearn and Relearn are sets of rules that cannot be broken if you must emerge as a great songwriter.

These tips shared here would go a long way to upscale your songwriting and production if you’d be diligent to follow up all these consistently.

To get more updates on becoming a better songwriter, promoting your music, various trends in the music industry, as well as gists, do well to follow Porch Music Box on all social media handles.

Author: John G-AuRa