songwriting format

My Songwriting Format

There are dozens and hundreds of songwriting formats which different songwriters have used in the past and use everyday to create memorable music, lyrics, hooks, and just songs in general. songwriting format

I myself juggle and find inspiration for songwriting from a number of different sources and write in different formats.

In this article I’m going to identify a great songwriting format which I use from time to time which is great for beginners and seasoned writers alike because anyone can use it.

The first thing and one of the biggest hurdles when writing a new song is coming up with your first section of your song. Once you have come up with a melody or a hook, you can decide where in the song that it will fit best and adapt the rest of your song around it.

Before we can do anything else in nailing down a surefire songwriting format, let’s focus on coming up with a title. It’s an important first step in this songwriting format because the title dictates a lot of things about a song. A title sets up the listener for what to expect from that song without having heard a word of it.

This is important, because you the writer can put yourself in the listener’s shoes and anticipate what the song will sound like based on nothing but a title. Remember that the more interesting the title is, the more that you can get out of it and the more that title will convey. The best lyrics are clever and universal, so that they can be related to by everyone but at the same time the listener will say to themselves “I never thought of it that way”.

Putting powerful lyrics in the chorus or as the title itself magnifies that chorus’ impact, so it really is important to come up with something unique and powerful.

Once you have your title, pick apart and identify how many syllables are in that title and begin to hum different arpeggiated notes for each part. While doing this, play chorus in that key underneath of that melody. Keep playing with this until you find something that you like. Once you’ve locked down a vocal melody to deliver those title lyrics through, play different chord progressions underneath it to give it a different sound with each progression.

Once you have that title melody, you can begin to branch off of that initial melody to complete that section of the song (the chorus) and then you can branch out further to complete the adjoining sections of the song by imaging what verse that chorus will flow into.

This is one specific songwriting format but it still might not work you for generating parts out of nothing. I say this because it doesn’t always work for me, either. This is why I have dozens of methods for stimulating ideas out of nothing which I’ve developed over 10 years of songwriting and compiled them all into one complete and definitive resource on how to write a song which covers the basics, terminology, writing lyrics, writing hooks, how to come up with song ideas, how to finish songs, how to overcome writer’s block, and much much more.

You can see for yourself by clicking on this link for how to write a song.

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