Introduction

So you want to be a songwriter, eh?

Good for you. You'll be a part of a tradition both sacred and profane. If you look around, you'll see most people are satisfied with a lot less. 

So what are you going to write a song about?

Whatever you choose as a subject, when it comes to writing a song, all I ask is that you take the high road and cut the crap. Get to the point. Make it and get out of the way. Anything else is conceit, which is fine in small doses as long as "the messenger" isn't pretending to be "the message." We're not selling colas here. 

"What do you know when you really don't know if what you know isn't what you're told?" from the song Domino Falls by Sunz of Alien Teknowledgy

Sure, you can listen to the sages who'll advise you to write about what you know but, if you don't know anything that hasn't already been rendered hopelessly trite or worse, does it really deserve to be restated in a song that I may have to listen to? Maybe you should write about that. Anything but another lame "I want you so much in an obvious way I can't think of anything original to say" songs.

Or try to do what I try to do every day and read a lot, rhyme a lot, rant a lot, workout with two different musical instruments (partly just to keep from going nuts from all the reading and rhyming and ranting) and get something/anything recorded for later review to redeem the time.

Allow me to overstate this: document your process vigorously.

Record all the time if you can afford it, if you can do it without letting it intrude into your real work. You KNOW that when you're in the throes of creativity you may have the least qualified P.O.V. to recognize the value in the lessons of your mistakes.

Take a break. That a sketch didn't work the first time shouldn't stop you from re-evaluating what made you hope it would. Keep all your threads. They may yet weave a tune. IF you find yourself disappointed that a song isn't working out, consider not abandoning the song but, rather, your expectations.

You know, expectation IS the leading cause of disappointment.

So what are you going to do about music?

With precious few exceptions, we all tend to use the same european music system of 12 tones over fixed beats with but a feeble fraction of the available English language utilized to express our inner most feelings and still we're able to write songs that have never been heard before. You should consider this encouraging. Now consider it a challenge. 

You're really in luck because the tradition includes a wide variety of models you can refer to for inspiration or borrow straight out. As long as you vary them enough to make them your own you won't need to worry about plagiarism.

All it takes to start a song is a phrase and a melody and both of those can be done with a single human voice at the same time!

If that's not enough music for you than you can begin the never-ending journey of discovering how easily your melody can be accompanied by a seemingly endless number of instruments, alone or in combination.

You may feel, as many do, that your lyrics demand a specific style of musical accompaniment but I strongly recommend that you at least toy with a few different musical styles before you settle on anything claiming to be definitive.