Originally Posted By: Samuel Davis
I've written many different ways but what works best for me is doing lyrics first with a basic melody in my head. Sometimes I will also use my acoustic guitar to get a basic chord structure going at the same time.

I usually start with a chorus or hook idea. Once I have it pretty well in place I will start on the verses and then add a bridge if needed. If I haven't already I will then use my acoustic guitar to figure out what chords fit the tune and plug those into BIAB. By this time I usually have a rough idea of what style the song is going to be so I go into the style picker and narrow it down by genre or sub genre and tempo. After I find a style demo I think will fit the song I let it generate and see if it works. I may try many different styles to see what works best or I may just change out different real tracks to create a unique style of my own.

Lately I've been writing a lot of music to prompts or to spec for licensing opportunities. I find the process I listed above very good for this kind of writing. It tends to be more streamlined and organized (at least for me) and allows me to pump out a tune rather quickly. I wrote and recorded my latest tune "Take Me Away" using this method in about 4 hours.

That's all super informative. I am sure that others can find that information very useful. Starting with a hook is a great idea. It's almost like a writing prompt, and then just building from that!

Cheers,
Ember