What is songwriting? What is composing? Do you really compose when you write songs or are you just copying?
If songwriters make a living writing, this will put a lot of pressure on them. Some songwriters constantly listen to what’s popular and try to imitate hooks in songs.
I can see two ways to go as a songwriter:
1. Listen to many hit songs and try to write similar songs. Listening to songs and reading a lot about what is happening, trying to feel what kind of songs will be popular in the near future.
2. Try to be yourself and work on creating songs that you like in the hope that others will feel the same way.
The last method is for me the most rewarding path when it comes to personal growth. I feel good and happy when I am creative as a songwriter and I feel like the process involves something about getting to know myself better.
In the long run, it could also create the best hit songs. The song Yesterday is just one example of a different hit song.
Songwriting can be a very rewarding activity and the level of originality depends on how you write your music. You can help activate the creative parts of your brain or use the more calculating parts or a combination of both.
Can I share some tips from my own songwriting experience?
1. Sit down to your guitar or piano singing or humming without expecting to create something brilliant. When you allow yourself to step away from your calculating parts of the brain and into the exciting forests of imagination and creativity, you can invent fantastic things.
2. Limitations can help your creativity. Give yourself some limitations, for example by using a chord progression like G Em Am D7. Many songs use this progression, but there will be room for more. Of course you can use a weirder one like ECC # m G # m.
3. Record yourself playing humming with your guitar or piano. Listening to what occurred to you a few days later can help you find interesting melodies or hooks to use in your songs.
Sometimes you may feel that you are not capable of writing songs like the songwriters you like, but they cannot write songs that are you. A comforting thought, isn’t it?
