What are /r/Songwriting's favorite Products & Services?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Keep practicing. If you want a cheap amp alternative for practice I suggest one of these and some headphones.

If you’re looking for lessons JustinGuitar.com is the best and a favorite of this sub. Follow his lesson map with some discipline and you’ll be rocking in no time!

In terms of specific advice, work on proper strumming technique. Work on both down and up-strumming. Practice with a pick as well (some guitarists think it’s best to use only your fingers, I think it depends on the requirements/sound of the song).

Also, it’s great that you’re using your thumb but it’s really not necessary for where you’re at. The thumbs will come into play later when you play chords and want to free up your other fingers but before you do that focus on getting down the open chords (E, A, D, G, C). And never underestimate the power of a metronome! Often the wrong notes played in time sound better than the right notes played out of time.

Really quickly, before they turn off signups, go sign up for Pat Pattison's Songwriting Course on Coursera.org. It's free.

You can download the lecture videos and watch them later. The course technically ended on June 6, so you're right in the nick of time. The course is really extremely good and will answer all of your questions about songwriting.

Here's how good it is: I studied music composition at university for eight years. I thought I knew all the things about all the things. I filled a notebook with notes from the six week Pattison course a few years ago when I took it. There's a longer non-free set of courses on Berklee online that I'm planning to take based on the strength of this one freebie course. Seriously, grab the videos and you'll be a leg up on lots of other songwriters you know.

(I make the music first, personally, because it's really easy to get some chord progressions and melody going just noodling. The lyrics are more difficult, because you need a theme and lots of patience with revision. Sometimes, I just make the music and never get around to writing the song. I'm trying to fix that, though.)

Good luck!

ChordPulse can let you quickly choose and modify chord progressions (with backing instruments) that you can loop in lots of ways. That way you don't have to record anything.

It comes with lots of musical styles too. The 30-day trial is free and after that you can buy it or use a lite version of it. I can't hear a looping chord progression without getting ideas so I try not to do it too much.

http://www.chordpulse.com/

Part of the magic is that as the progression is playing, you can instantly drag your mouse to alter it. For instance, you might stretch out one chord, inject a new one and alter an existing one as the music plays. You can even build an entire song because it lets you place different progressions on different "pages" where each page might represent a song section.

I never tried reading poetry at the same time, but that sounds like a good idea. I'll give it a try.

As with any writing, you have to expand that vocabulary! English is full of hyper specific words just for this function! A la Dead Poet's Society: "A man is not very tired, he's exhausted. A man is not very scared, he's petrified."

Another great place to start is meditating on your image and zero in on what sensory information would be present. Temperature, color, smell, taste, texture. Personify objects, tint things with emotional aspects.

Play around with new words and new angles of perception and suddenly green backyards become "verdant carpets" and your mediocre ex is a "threadbare lover".

Finally, read some poetry! Cathy Park Hong is a master of imparting emotional vibes into her imagery. Check out the preview of her book <em>Engine Empire</em>

My tip is an app - Audio recorder (Android). Never miss a thought a melody or a snippet. It's a dead simple app and free. Must have for catching an idea as it blazes past you. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sonymobile.androidapp.audiorecorder

It's been mentioned here before, but the Coursera songwriting course (taught by Pat Pattison) is superb. Lots of excellent tools and techniques for turning ideas into sings: https://www.coursera.org/course/songwriting

Very hard to really comment on something that's just lyrics without hearing it to music, or at least a melody of some kind, sometimes things that don't look right written down work perfectly the way they're sung.

I'd work on having some more contrast between verse and chorus, really the chorus looks like it could be another verse.

Certainly don't stop writing songs if it's something you think you might enjoy - there's a free online course that will get you thinking about all sorts of aspects of writing a song HERE.

If I recall correctly, Thom Yorke has written quite a few songs by writing one liners, putting them into a hat, and picking a handful and ordering them. Check out this article:

http://www.openculture.com/2015/02/bowie-cut-up-technique.html

Can't agree with this more. It's such a useful book. He has also essentially turned the book into a free Coursera track, which is good fun and you can interact with others in the same position as you do the course. I really enjoyed it. https://www.coursera.org/learn/songwriting

The author also has a songwriting Coursera course which I believe is open and free at the moment. In case you're interested in the free or multimedia approach.

Create first, critique later. If you think why am I writing this for every word, you'll never get anything down. At the end it may be a crap song. But you still have a song, maybe a cheap imitation of Ed's. Then tomorrow you'll write another and it'll be marginally better. Then the next day your song will be even better and slightly more 'you'. If you have a chance sign up for the songwriting course on coursera: https://www.coursera.org/course/songwriting If you want some instant tips, watch this seminar with Pat Pattison, a songwriting tutor from Berklee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4svcglLnlA Good luck!

https://www.buzzsprout.com/216381

Here's a pretty obscure one that I think deserves way more attention, where the host writes songs in real time. He is the frontman of the band Seeming as well as a music professor at Ithaca and he explains things very well.

One of Sia's creation methods is listening to a track and coming up with melodies and sometimes lyrics. On a YouTube video you can hear her stumble upon the words "shine bright like a diamond" as she was singing sounds to a track. That song became Rhiana's "Diamonds" song.

I often hear music and words whenever I hear something playing. Others do too. For me, what's playing may be something as simple as a metronome, a simple rhythm track or music I barely hear in the distance. That also happens when I hear chord progressions.

But that's only one method in the creation process. Maybe you are naturally suited to hearing beats or music and coming up with melodies and words. You might want to capture those you think are good.

Those snippets of lyrics and melodies aren't songs however. You'll have to create an actual song and some of the things you come up with may in some way be used in songs. Since rhymes are important in hip hop, you'll need to factor those in too.

You might try the free trial of ChordPulse. It can play chord progressions you create or those that come with it. You can lower the volume on tracks you don't want to hear. Tracks are percussion, chords and bass. That flexibility will let you only hear percussion if that's all you want to hear.

John Williams once said he wrote complex orchestral movie sound track scores on paper. If you want to write orchestral parts, you can use a free tool like MuseScore.

You could use other tools such as DAWs if you want to create productions of your music. My assumption is that John didn't produce the music we hear in theaters but he wrote it.

I recommend this book to lots of people. Everybody who is creative fights the same struggles. It has helped me out immensely. Quick read too.

The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles https://www.amazon.com/dp/1936891026/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_A7ZWDC8ME3DMF5E82PRB

It's really hard to write lyrics without a musical context - even if you try to follow (or not follow) a certain structure, until you've given those lyrics a melody (or some other musical context, like chords or a riff or a beat), they aren't lyrics, they're poetry. Even if you go into writing thinking "okay, these are gonna be lyrics this time", without some kind of musical idea to support it and mold it, it's still just poetry. Some people do have luck starting songs by writing lyrics first, and then trying to write a melody that fits them, but personally I've had much better luck starting with musical ideas (a melody, a riff, a chord progression), and a really broad topic for a song (like "this song's gonna be about heartache" or something), and then writing lyrics that fit the rhythmic stresses and topic. Even if you do successfully write a song starting with lyrics, you'll often find yourself tweaking them anyway to fit the music you end up writing (and if you don't, there's a solid chance of your lyrics turning out awkward and forced).

I highly recommend checking out Pat Pattinson's Writing Better Lyrics from your local library / buying a copy if you can - I can't overstate how much it's helped me get into lyric writing in a more intentional way.

This book... it has a thousand typos but it was a game changer for me learning how to beat music procrastination. It helped me build a process and refine that process over time. I know what I'm going to do when I sit down to write now.

Music Habits - The Mental Game of Electronic Music Production: Finish Songs Fast, Beat Procrastination and Find Your Creative Flow

Another thing that helped me was signing up for an online mixing and mastering school called Next Level Sound. Classes run 400-600 bucks. It may not sound like mixing would have anything to do with finishing songs, but I think part of my problem before was that I was getting too caught up trying to get something to sound good. Would have the same 8 bar loop going on repeat for months but I just couldn't quite get it sounding good so I just kept getting critical and would get stuck. Now I can do a tiny bit of "production mixing" and can actually start to tell if it's a good mixable sound that I can work with later. If not, then I know I need to change my sound choices up. It keeps me out of that critical place and moving forward now that I have the mixing chops to pull off what I want to hear. Happy mixing

In researching this stuff yesterday I actually found quite a few on Amazon with that exact purpose. Like this one.

This book is a beast, it's called Writing Better Lyrics

I should probably follow my own advice and use it more. haha

It's a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) app on the computer and on smartphones. It's not free but really inexpensive. I've also find one (around 2 $) android app :EasyBand App but there may be others that are free ?

Hey, thanks for the feedback!

I used an [AT2020 Cardioid mic](https://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-AT2020-Cardioid-Condenser-Microphone/dp/B0006H92QK) and a little 2-input focusrite preamp. Then I use Reaper to record.

I somehow completely overlooked bass on this track, which makes me feel dumb haha...

As for the scratchy guitar, it probably has to do with how I'm recording it. I probably need to watch some videos online and get an idea of good ways to record. I've always recorded the guitar the same way so I guess my ears are attuned to how it currently sounds heh.

Again, thanks so much for the comments!

I just searched to be sure, its montage collage type approaches they use. It seems similar to what you did as your song lines make sense in isolation

http://www.openculture.com/2015/02/bowie-cut-up-technique.html

(101 Songwriting Wrongs and How to Right Them)[https://www.amazon.com.br/101-Songwriting-Wrongs-Right-Them-ebook/dp/B01CUXLQXE]

Wrong number #1: not being prepared to write/record an idea when it comes.

Have a songwriting resource feature. For instance, I took this for free and it had some great tips:

https://www.coursera.org/learn/songwriting

There are also a ton of songwriting and music creation inspiration apps. A weekly review of such apps would be fun.

I sort of wished you'd asked this a few weeks ago, so there'd still be time for you to download the videos from Pat Pattison's fantastic Songwriting Course on Coursera.

Seems a lot of people figure the perfect chord progression will make a song come alive. Or a righteous melody. But, if your lyrics are ho-hum, none of the other stuff matters a bit. All of those songs that use the same chord progression are driven by well-written lyrics.

As soon as that Coursera course starts again, you should take it if you want to write songs well. You'll learn to follow the box method, learn about different rhyme types and song structures.

How good is the course? I took more than 50 pages of notes during the Coursera course, downloaded the videos, and go over them regularly. From Pattison, I learned about structuring verses, using instability as a tool, and finding the core of an idea. I learned about using a rhyming dictionary and a thesaurus to grab a ton of idea words that lead to other things that can take my songs somewhere unexpected. I learned about prosody, how everything fits together.

It's super easy to get on the guitar or the keyboard and start comping through a bunch of chord progressions, wrangling up a couple of melody ideas, and chucking some half-assed lyrics at our brilliant new kernel of an idea. Learn about song craft and I think you'll have a more productive time.

If you need some backing tracks you could use Chordpulse. You can use it's built-in chord progressions or make your own. It also comes with lots of built-in song styles you can tweak. You could sing along to the backing tracks and play a guitar if you like. A multitrack recorder can make that possible. If you feel comfortable using Audacity these days, you could use that to record it all.

Good luck with the proposal. It sounds like fun. And since you want to make a fun song, maybe there won't be much pressure you might feel to make a serious one. Once you get a song, you're not far from putting it into a music video. There are easy ways to do that too.

MasterClass describes Snowflake. That's a very popular writing method that fiction writers have used for ages. Some parts of the method can apply to song writing.

It's a cross between

1. outlining a plan for your narrative
   
2. extreme freewriting where you have no idea where you're going

Stephen King discovers his story as he goes along. One way he does this is by asking "what if" questions along the way. This is the 5W question-asking method that many writers use to get ideas.

On the other hand, J.K. Rowlings does extreme planning before she writes a Harry Potter Novel. The Snowflake method is a compromise between those two extremes.

Instructor Pat Pattsion comes right out and says other writing methods are fine, but he's found his way to be the most efficient. He writes good songs quickly and doesn't get writer's block. In a video he shows how he quickly gets more interesting ideas than he can use.

Here's an example where Pat shows several versions of a narrative outline of a song about a sheriff. He points out problems with the first versions even though to many, those versions might seem fine. But one problem is that those first versions are boring and go nowhere. His final version is more interesting. A song's objective may factor in as far as how much work we want to put into it.

I'm not sure anyone could find a way to boil that down in a reddit comment.

My recommendation is to listen to a lot of the kind of music that you wish you could write, and learn to play some of them. In no time, you will observe how that composer "builds" their songs.

I played a lot of Yann Tiersen's music as a teen and, when I reacquired a keyboard ten years later, I was playing them again and noodling around. I realized that all his music (at least the music in the Amelie movie) has a simple repeating baseline, a melody that goes from simple -> moderately complex -> complex -> simple, and a bit of playing around with the dynamics. I started writing a song trying to "channel" Yann Tiersen and ended up with something pretty good (at least I think, and I am my worst critic) and original.

If you rely more on formula to write music, there are books to help you understand the science behind eliciting certain emotions. I have had this one recommended to me.

Happy new year!

You want the Flip Dictionary — like a thesaurus but better.

Back when I was writing headlines for a newspaper it was solid gold. And I use it for songwriting as well.

Yeah there’s no use in running into a door that wont open over and over again. Sometimes your mind tells you when something is done before you can fully admit it.

I haven’t officially released anything yet that isn’t lofi hip hop as I’m too damn lazy to get past the demo stage (perhaps my greatest weakness as a musician) but I do have some demos floating around in the internet. I post all sorts of stuff to my bandlab profile (https://www.bandlab.com/rpcmusic1 and soundcloud (same exact name).

Hello! I was inspired by Syd Barrett and The Fratellis for anyone interested, let me know what you think :) All instruments written and performed by me!

https://www.bandlab.com/revisions/39f5cdff-ac0f-ec11-981f-a04a5e798978

it will be available with my EP everywhere October 1st but for now you can hear them on this profile of mine. thanks to those who listen!

For software, I really like using LMMS for writing and editing MIDI tracks because the interface is super user friendly compared to other DAWs I’ve used (Garageband, Pro Tools, Soundtrap). And it’s free!!

Unfortunately, you can’t currently record audio directly into LMMS, so I export my MIDI tracks as audio and then put them in a new Garageband project file and record vocals/other live elements into that. If you don’t have a MacBook, I would recommend using either [Soundtrap](soundtrap.com) or Audacity.

Drawbacks of Soundtrap: You have to be connected to the internet to use it, less creative control because of the limited effects available, and you can’t download your song as a .wav unless you pay for a subscription.

Drawbacks of Audacity: less user friendly, but that’s just a natural consequence of how much more powerful it is than Soundtrap.

Audacity is also completely free!!

Yeah! May I add a suggestion also looking up synonyms of keywords you are using? They can help you think outside the box as well. A nice tool and website for this could be: http://www.thesaurus.com/ For example if you put in the word "happy", thesaurus gives you synonyms like "cheerful", "delighted" and "thrilled" amongst others. Hope it helps. Grtz James

The staff at MasterClass in their simple 7-step songwriting guide went all in and said

Step 1: "write the melody first."

Elton John's good at putting music to words but his lyricist Bernie Taupin said he played a guitar while composing lyrics. Maybe in a way Bernie was writing words to music even if nobody else in the world heard his music. Perhaps the guitar helped Bernie with things like cadence, phrasing, etc.

I think John Lennon said lyrics weren't that important in the early days. My take is that I probably haven't bookmarked any songs that don't have music I like. However, for me the lyrics can be an essential part of a song. That's why an instrumental version of a song may not have the same impact on me as the same song with the lyrics. A good example is

• Moon River - played by Henry Mancini

It's a great song performed masterfully.

But for me it becomes even better when we hear Andy Williams sing the words or when we hear Aubrey Hepburn sing them in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

And then again, the early Beatles captivated the charts with simple perhaps throw-away lyrics in songs like "She Loves You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand."

I think in a song what is said is less important than the fact that something is said. Moon River lyrics could have been completely different and still resulted in a great short emotional journey. And when hearing some songs, I may only catch a few phrases that a singer sings. If a phrase is relevant to me, that phrase may have an emotional impact even if I don't consciously hear other parts of the song.

Good luck with the video. I'll watch it when it arrives. We have the early Beatles on one end of the spectrum and Moon River on the other.

The only small keyboard I have first-hand experience with is an Akai MPK Mini 2. It’s been… lackluster. It’s fine for getting the general gist of an idea down but the keys are so small it can get painful to play after a relatively short amount of time. The velocity response on both the keys and pads is inconsistent. The new version might be better but I don’t have much confidence.

I’ve heard really good things about the Arturia Minilab MkII though, the keys aren’t full size but they aren’t microscopic like on the Akai either.

oh which reminds me - if it's pouring rain or too noisey otuside, i'll put this on:

https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/

you can select a background noise and customize the levels of each sound (e.g., select "cafe" and adjust the chatter, clink of silverware, clattering plates etc).

I think just like any other type of streaming (video games, chatting, whatever) the key is interacting with people when they do show up and being sociable in that way.

As far as look and layout - depending on your setup you can use Streamlabs OBS which has all sorts of baked in themes, presets, and looks that you can just customize with your material.

Since I am a crazy person and because of computer limitations - I do all my stuff in regular OBS and built it all from scratch.

It's possible to write melody and words without using chords because you or someone can add chords later.

Chordpulse comes with lots of built-in chord progressions and patterns you can listen to and study. Ideally you could sing something as chords play. And it may be possible to sing or even hum something without hearing anything.

But even if that doesn't happen, you can examine Chordpulse's chords and arrange them if you like to make song sections. The chords in the built-in progressions work well together and you've probably heard some of them in songs. You could probably learn to play those chords on your real computer since you can visualize a chord's notes in Chordpulse.

http://www.chordpulse.com/

That's a trial. When the trial ends you can buy it or downgrade to a free lite version.

After you play a chord or before you play a chord you can say a word. Listen to songs and you'll see that in action. When you say something helps shape a melody.

you have a wonderful voice. This is a bit of a departure but want to try your hand at this?

https://www.bandlab.com/systemerror/scratchy-mcscratchy-866e8091?revId=c159e05e-c57d-ea11-a94c-0003ffd19c0f

Have you ever heard of Bandlab?
You can upload demos like you have there, and other people can upload their own revisions to it. Be it; vocals, instrumentation, a remix, or even mixing/mastering.

Might just find the help you're looking for and then some!

https://www.bandlab.com

Have you ever looked at Bandlab? It's a website/social platform that allows you to share and record with people online. It also includes an integrated DAW on the website itself; I personally prefer my own DAW over their's, but for a free service it's great for someone trying to capture an idea or get tehir foot in the door when it comes tor recording/mixing.

I agree with all the comments here, the resources mentioned are great. Also I think there are some really inexpensive basic theory courses on udemy.com. I would suggest playing an instrument as soon as possible. Theory is great but playing is just way more fun and sometimes it's nice to be creative with out knowing what is 'technically right', you might just come up with stuff you would never have thought of other wise. For me, learning theory with out playing and instrument is a bit like learning a language with out being able to use it in a conversation. Even try a ukulele, they are really easy to learn. Good luck

A big Google Keep note for lyric bits. Melody bits hummed into a voice recording app. Audio recordings on laptop -- every song gets its own folder, so I can keep drum and guitar tracks, lyrics, old versions, etc. for a song all together. Then these folders are grouped by year.

I'm a software developer so I'm working on taking it further -- I like the concept of [tags](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_(metadata\)) so I'm trying to roll my own app for tagging lyric bits and plan to use TagSpaces to tag song directories. I haven't been actively writing lately so this effort has languished a bit.

I use Evernote. Runs as an app on the phone, as well as on the desktop as a program you install. It allows you to create a bunch of separate notebooks. I create one for each song and then can save a bunch of notes about that song in that notebook.

Anything posted to the phone is shared with the PC and vice versa. The data lives on their servers. There is a free version which works fine for me.

https://evernote.com/

And as for DAW, you can save up and use a free DAW that is as powerful as the paid ones. Cakewalk by Bandlab is pretty good. And then as for your audio interface, headphones and mic you could just go for this bundle https://www.amazon.com/Focusrite-Scarlett-Studio-Interface-Recording/dp/B07QTDKS59/ref=sr\_1\_3?dchild=1&amp;keywords=focusrite+scarlett+solo&amp;qid=1628608450&amp;sr=8-3

I've had this problem and have been working intentionally on getting past it. One of the things I did was read / go through the "Artist's Way" and start "morning pages" - basically you write stream of conciousness without fail every morning. Try for 3 pages or whatever you can manage. I found it frees things up. It also helped me a lot with anxiety over the pandemic, wildfires, etc, etc. I was able to write down my feelings and it really helped. Another thing, I tried recently is the 6 word poem.. you see it online a lot. Pick a word at random to start with and restrict yourself to 6 words / 3 lines to convey a story. I feel like it is "stretching" for songwriters. And the most important advice I give you (and myself) is to NOT critique yourself while writing... just get it out. Quantity over quality. Doesn't matter if it is dumb. Re-work/edit it all later. Things that I initially think are dumb become the linchpin in songs sometimes. Other fun exercises: re-write a song you love from another perspective. I read somewhere that "Love will tear us Apart" by Joy Division was written as a kind of anti "Love will bring us together" - so simple, yet effective. Last thing- I keep a notebook for songwriting with a section for just writing words, a section for those small poems and exercises, a section for lyrics in progress & different versions (and then another one for the music/ chord progressions). It helps me to go back and work on something else if I get stuck. These things have helped me. Hope you get past it. Cheers.

Try going for internal rhyming. The syllables that rhyme don't need to always be at the end.

I've been reading this book and enjoying it: https://www.amazon.com/Songwriting-Strategies-360-Degree-Approach-Music/dp/087639151X

Maybe you'll find some nuggets of wisdom in there.

Ghostwriter app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.homeforfiction.apps.ghostwriter

Song Lyrics Generator: https://www.song-lyrics-generator.org.uk/

Book 101 Songlyrics Wrongs And How To Right Them

Book Writing Better Lyrics

If writing good lyrics is a big goal of yours, I'd strongly, strongly recommend reading <em>Writing Better Lyrics</em> by Patt Pattison. I'm reading it now (among with a bunch of novels) and his explanations for good writing and all of the exercises you can do are really fun and helpful.

Another point I'd like to make is to simply... say, get a nice chord loop going on and ask yourself: "What mood does this make me feel?" If the first thing that pops into your head is "sad" or "melancholy" write that at the top of your note pad or Google Doc or whatever.

Then, write down a list of topics that pertain to that mood. "suicide" "mental illness" "love and loss" "nostalgia" "regrets" Out of this list of broad topics, go with the ones you vibe with the most.

Then, once you've chosen a topic such as "regrets" you write as many paragraphs of text as you can about it. Just let your mind flow. You can tell a story about someone you read in the newspaper who "lived their whole life working for other people." You can take inspiration from your favorite book quotes. You can talk about how you regretted not going out with that cute guy and wondering what you could've had if you did. Don't think. Just write and spill as many ideas as you can. Perhaps set a timer for ten minutes to do this.

Once you have compiled your pile of "regret mental vomit", pick out any "gems" if you can. Don't just limit yourself to telling the story, show it through touch, hearing, smell, and taste. More concrete details will be more mentally engaging to your listener. Especially if they're paired up with instrumentals that suit the tone.

Anyway, I hope this helps. I learned these tips from the book I just mentioned above! It'll take quite a few tries before you get something you're happy with so just be patient. <3

Not at all! I mainly use it for lyric writing. The musical ideas I have usually stick with me but it's harder for me to remember a lyric if I don't write it down. Sometimes I'll jot down a rough outline of a progression here or there. I use this voice recorder app to record melodies or a chord progression if I need to.

I really like the site rhymebrain.com they have near rhymes as well as exact rhymes. It’s a good place to start for ideas

Also love the book “Writing Better Lyrics” by Pat Pattinson. I need to review it, but the big take away in his rhyming section is understanding how vowels and consonants can be grouped together. Eg open vowels. I highly recommend reading it!

Writing Better Lyrics https://www.amazon.com/dp/1582975779/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_q9AiFbT17G0TV

Edit: Added book recommendation and clarity

I would get a DAW like Reaper and cheap midi controller (I have https://www.amazon.com/midiplus-32-Key-Midi-Controller-AKM320/dp/B00VHKMK64 ) and just start messing around! There's a ton of really great youtube guides that can get you started, then the more you learn the more you can start experimenting and finding your own style :)

&#x200B;

If you have trouble writing chord progressions check out the app Chordbot, you can use that to piece together parts and then import the midi version into your DAW, change instrument sounds, all that, it rules.

Get a book. I used to think it was something you had or didn’t. It’s just something to study like every thing else. I’m still pretty amateurish but I liked this one. there are probably countless other books out there: Writing Better Lyrics https://www.amazon.com/dp/1582975779?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Here's an excerpt where the Song Maps author gives a few details about one of his song "maps" named &quot;Gradual Reveal&quot;

>" I love this Map because it enables us to create a deliberate s*ense of anticipation and suspense* until the payoff, which is saved for later in the song, e.g. the Bridge or last line of V3. It also enables us to paint a picture that starts with a blur and ends up in HD Quality before landing the payoff.

You can peek inside his Song Maps book at Amazon to read more. The technique involves planning a story and presenting it in a compelling cinematic way that leads listeners from beginning to end. Seven song maps (patterns) exist. "Gradual Reveal" is one of those maps. In a real story song you may have the opportunity to use novel and script-writing techniques such as a narrative arc to a limited degree. It's limited because songs no matter how long are short compared to novels and movies.

I mentioned this in a different thread, but learn how to work with rhetorical devices. They will turn your lyrical ideas into memorable material that draws in your listeners. The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Bob Marley, etc. all picked up and learned how to use rhetorical devices before they started finally getting success from their writing.

This book shows several examples that can be used in songwriting, poetry, and developing your writing style:

https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Eloquence-Secrets-Perfect-Phrase/dp/042527618X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=mark+forsyth&amp;qid=1576783295&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-1

&#x200B;

The same thing happened with Shakespeare. Before he started using rhetorical devices, his early works were not well known and rather bland compared to his later output that improved over time because he got the hang of learning how to use them in his writing.

There are lots of apps that can teach you how to play simple chords on a piano. It does not take much effort to learn this, and it will give you the ability to write your songs the way you want. Focus on learning simple triads first. You can an app like this for that: piano trainer.

No knowledge of reading music for music theory is required.

I think you should just bite the bullet and learn piano chords. They are not that difficult to master. Just a small amount of knowledge will transform your song writing process. It will open up new creative possibilities. Try just learning a few basic shapes, such as major and minor triads. You can use an app like this to help you learn these: piano chords. When you get to grips with chords you can move onto progressions. Most songs follow the same patterns, so learn a few common progressions will really be beneficial.

I also find myself terrible at writing lyrics. I just started going through “Writing Better Lyrics - The Essential Guide to Powerful Songwriting” by Pat Pattinson and it’s such a fantastic resource. Do yourself a favor and dig into this book.

Since music covers such a broad stylistic range there cannot be songwriting "rules". Genres can be broken down into idiomatic terms but I think what you're looking for is related to tonal harmony. The foundational "rules" of music theory can be applied to all musical styles and will teach you how to analyze a song to extract the patterns that indicate the musical style.

https://www.amazon.com/Tonal-Harmony-Stefan-Kostka/dp/125944709X

This is a pretty standard book which will teach you the basics of theory from the ground up. Hope this helps :)

Many musicians and singers work with specialist lyricists. Try /r/BedroomBands/

I like this: https://www.amazon.com.au/Writing-Better-Lyrics-Pat-Pattison-ebook/dp/B008Y0XH1C

Also these guys have some videos on writing lyrics to melodies https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDKiHSPstsj0silp519gt6w

I have only the highest praise for this book:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008Y0XH1C/ref=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o01_?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1

With lots of great advice on content and structure, I think it's worth every penny.

Interesting question. I'm curious to see what people come up with.

As for non-fiction books to help with songwriting and the creative process, I keep hearing about The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron and The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. I haven't read either, so I can't endorse them, but I've heard good things from other songwriters.

"Writing Better Lyrics"! From my experience, as you read the book, a couple of songs will come out of you, just by doing the exercises.

"Songwriting without boundaries" has some great daily exercises that you can do after reading the first book to get in touch with your inner writer.

About procrastination, try the "learn how to learn" course on coursera, I was in the same rut as you were but that did for me, it helped getting moving.

Check out "The War of Art"... I found the title off putting so it didn't read it for a long time, but it's hands down one of the best books about not dealing with your artistic endeavor.

Totally hear you! I struggle with this sometimes, too.

I have really loved a book by Pat Patison called, “Writing Better Lyrics” . Frankly, any of Pat’s books are incredible. Echoing what others have said about not giving up. And also, remember that judging your work before it is even on the paper will get you nowhere. B-grade is better than no-grade at all. Best of luck to you!

What's your budget?

Yeah, get a decent mic, and an audio interface (so you're not limited to USB mics or using you laptops crappy 1/8" input.

If you want to go super cheap, this interface doesn't suck. https://www.amazon.com/Behringer-U-PHORIA-UM2-BEHRINGER/dp/B00EK1OTZC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1478820786&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=uphoria+um2

and neither does this mic https://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-AT2020-Cardioid-Condenser-Microphone/dp/B0006H92QK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1478820827&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=at2020

That combo is only $136 and will do wonders for your recordings. If you have a bigger budget, you can do better all the way around.

Fantastic, Cowbey!

These are some EXCELLENT "mentors," which is what a call a writer or a song I learn from. Without Woody --> Hank --> Bob I'd probably be in shoe sales.

I read the biography of Woody by Joe Klein, it's amazing! Here's a link: http://www.amazon.com/Woody-Guthrie-Life-Joe-Klein/dp/0385333854

And yeah, I always tell people who are starting to play that with 3 chords you can conquer most of the known world. Five is fantastic, and 10, well, there's nothin' left after that!

Keep writing, it sounds like you're on a blazing track.

Chat more soon!

Alex