I feel as a musician and creator of music we all try to work from our heart. Our individual unique expressions and creations. My posts here are merely to encourage deeper thoughts and to hear others take and experience on certain topics. My posts are in no way to be critical of anyone or their efforts.

In my fist bias posts about instrumentals there were a few take aways from that for me.

1. There are great instrumentals that evoke emotions and are memorable and the title will contribute to the overall prosody of the song.

2. Good music can carry bad lyrics, but never the other way around. Good lyrics cannot carry a bad composition of music.

3. There are personal preferences of people who just enjoy instrumental music over more lyrical compositions. My husband was an alto sax player and he prefers really good instrumentals with the saxophone.

Saying that and as a lyricists my personal pet peeve #2 is about bad lyrics and not understanding what someone is trying to communicate in a song. Maybe it is too poetic or too personal feelings orientated. And I am sure I can sometimes be guilty of that also, but I hope to continue to learn to be clearer.

To learn to be a better songwriter we all have to write bad songs first and learn from them. Not every song will be successful and people's opinions and tastes will vary from what they like.

To date I have written about 270 songs and recently I have been trying to approach what I write a little differently as my learning continues.

1. When I come up with an idea or a topic, I first ask why might this be interesting to someone or to the audience? Would a lot of people be able to indentify with this song? If a song is too personal or maybe too unique, the majority of people may not relate to it.

2. Then I plot out my sequence in a logical pattern, what would be the story in the first verse and how will I follow that up in the 2nd verse in a sequential progression.

3. How will these relate back to my chorus or my hook? Everything in your song needs to relate to the main idea of the song.

4. If I have a bridge, how will that relate but be different, show a different perspective or have a conclusion.

5. I then start freewriting about my idea. I also start collecting imagery and metaphors that relate to my topic or story.

6. Then I start the song writing and the rhyme patterns. And the most important part revise and rewrite, maybe several times.

7. Then review my own song and try to be objective. Does it work? Does it say what I wanted in a way that others can relate and understand it? Does it show a lot and not just tell?

Anyway for others who write, I would be interested in what you do and how you approach it. I did listen to Floyd James excellent video on his approach and highly recommend others to watch it.

Last edited by Belladonna; 02/12/18 05:31 AM.