5 composition tips for the lazy

It’s funny, being a songwriter myself, I always find writing songs can be a chore sometimes. But why do you feel this way? Isn’t this supposed to be my passion? Isn’t this supposed to be something I never get bored of?

… Well not exactly. Everything gets boring from time to time, even the things you are most passionate about. So from time to time I like to take the lazy man route to get things done. And surprisingly, I often produce very good results.

So listen. If you’re new to songwriting, or even if you’ve been at it for a while, I’m going to walk through a couple of simple tricks that will help you start the songwriting process in a matter of minutes.

Here we go…

Step 1: Review a particular situation in your day. It could be at work, during your travels or at home. It can be with your co-workers, your family or your friends. Any situation that has affected you positively or negatively.

An example of this would be “when you’re at work, your boss keeps harassing you. But the only thing that keeps you going all day is knowing that someone in the office has a crush on you.”

(the above is a very dry example… but try to work with me here!)

Step 2: Write as many words as you can think of that relate to your situation.

Let’s follow the example from before:

anger, pain, sadness, joy, excitement, nervousness, anxiety, misery, impatience, relaxation, silly, sophisticated, annoyed, frustrating, antagonistic, elegant, sexy, cool, pretty, smile, etc, etc.… you understand 🙂

Step 3: Write short random sentences about your situation, including the words you mentioned in step 2. So let’s continue with our little experiment…

“the way he talked to me really pisses me off” “If only he knew the pain I went through inside” “When I see his pretty eyes light up, it makes me smile” “I have to act cool and sophisticated, I don’t want to get frustrated” “He doesn’t know what gets me through the day I don’t want to be in this misery much longer. Etcetera etcetera. So at this point, it’s important to note that you don’t have to use all the words you mentioned earlier in step two. As you can see, I even started making up my own lines *without* any of the words too! Sometimes, I am rhyming the words without even realizing it. And this is exactly where the magic starts to happen…

My example was very normal and simplified, but you can use an example that is a bit more dramatic. You really should go crazy with your ideas! Really, let yourself go.

Stage 4: Listen to a ‘backing track’ (an instrument in a song) that you have NO CLUE about. As it plays, make up a melody. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just create a tune as you go. You also don’t have to sing any lyrics. Just ‘humm’ or ‘laaa’ and tune in until you’re happy.

Why do this? This is an exercise that will subconsciously prepare you to create melodies for your own chord sequences in the next step.

Step 5: Create a SIMPLE chord progression on guitar or keyboard. When I say simple, I mean *simple*. Maybe TWO chords for the verse and TWO chords for the chorus. Now create a melody on top of that chord progression. Record the song on tape. There you go.

NOTE: If you don’t play an instrument, connect with someone who does. After all, you’re practically halfway through the song now 🙂

Do you still think it is difficult to design an idea? You want to know more? I have *so much more* I want to share with you…