How a song comes together, and in what order, can very much depend on your skills, experience, and most importantly inspiration. Sometimes lyrics will come first, and at others the music. The techniques used can also vary, depending on whether you are writing by yourself, or with a group of people, whether you are using instruments, or computer software, how many instruments you are actually using, and what genre you have chosen to write in.

Case Study

As an example, let’s look at the band Seven Summers. They are a new four piece band from Essex, who have a Drummer, Bass Player, Guitarist, and Acoustic Guitar/Vocals in their line-up. They work in the style of indie/rock, and combine this with folk/pop influences. Traditionally the songwriting process will start with acoustic guitar and vocals. Their acoustic guitarist will bring an idea for a verse and chorus to the table, with a melody for both parts. The rhythm section will then be built into the melody with the bass/drums, and finally the electric guitar will add what the band called ‘the colour and dirt’ to the mix. The end result is a song that can be stripped back to be performed acoustically, or performed to full effect in a full band line-up on-stage.

Writing The Song

Whichever technique you decide to use to write the song, you will have to consider the song structure, and all the elements that will bring your idea together. The structure will bring each part of the song together in a balanced, flowing way, and when you get it right then hopefully you and/or your act will have a strong track to record, and maybe release.

There are always artists/songs that will break the mould, and refuse to follow songwriting conventions when writing, but there are typical structures that mark out different genres of music.

A pop song for example, will traditionally be made up of two or three verses, with a bridge and chorus in between, and sometimes a middle eight towards the end, which often adds a unique twist to the song, both musically and lyrically. The chorus is often where the hooks, or memorable parts of the song come, and where the audience can sing-along. The verses and bridge will build up to this. In the finished product the lyrical story will then be layered over music that reflects the change between the different parts of the song. Other elements of the song include:

Melody: the main tune/chord sequence which the vocalist will sing along to.

Tempo: The pace or speed of the song. This can vary a lot between styles, and is measured by the number of beats per minute the musicians play.

Rhyme: Rhyming words are a common feature of so many songs, and can help add weight to a story. Rhyme is also a lot easier for the listener to remember. There can be words that are exact rhymes, partial rhymes, or words that just sound alike. It can be great fun experimenting with rhyme patterns, you just need to make sure the whole song follows the same structure, i.e. the first and third lines of all verses rhyming, and don’t try too hard to rhyme everything.

Producing: During and post recording, production techniques will come into play, and producers will use a mixing desk, and a variety of computer software packages to polish the recording. This could include pasting the best bits of several takes of the song together, enhancing certain elements like vocals, or just balancing the volume of each element of the song to get it sounding its best.

Remixing: Remixing is where you can alter, sometimes quite dramatically, the style of a song. You take the initial idea and use different beats/sounds over the top of it to create something new, most commonly used in dance music. One example of this would be the DJ Sammy song ‘Heaven’, which was originally a commercial dance track, and now has a softer, slower piano version. Remixes are common staples to fill out single releases, or to broaden the appeal of a song, taking a radio friendly track into the clubs for example.

Hopefully these tips will help you begin your journey into songwriting, or freshen up your tools if you’re more experienced. There are no hard and fast rules though, just unleash your inspiration, find a way of writing that works for you, and see what happens.