Writing Music From the Heart Part of Your Head

There are lots of books that will tell you how to write “hit songs,” and there are plenty of standard formats and rules you can learn to better your chances of writing a top tune. After you learn all those rules and all that theory, though, you may be able to crank out some nice, but ordinary-sounding material. The thing that tends to make a song stand out, though, if you listen, is how it is in some way different from the rest—there is a special something there that touches you on a level you didn’t expect. True, you need to write songs that will pass a rep’s scrutiny, and fit into the genre you are writing for, but it still needs that tidbit that only you and your experiences can give it—and that comes from you, and not some book. Let’s take an uncomfortable look inside your noggin, now, and see what kind of special songs you and only you can write—it’s all in the heart part of your head.

YOUR EXPERIENCES

Only you have lived your life. You experienced things growing up that many people have, but not in the exact same way as the rest of us—that’s what makes you special. Now you need to bring that to your songwriting, and find those special things that make your music your music, and not someone else’s.

If you are a lyricist, you may have a wonderful or painful memory that caused you to write a dozen poems—why not pull some of those out, dust them off and reexamine them for a bit. There are some camps that say that you shouldn’t write things that are really personal, because you are the only one that would understand them, but it’s also been said that the more personal it is, the more universal the truth behind it—we have all been in love, all been dumped, all had someone die, all lost a friend, all made friends, all moved to a new home, and most have seen pretty scenery or known what it’s like to go to school, or enjoy a party. Once you have this poem, you can always omit names and other things that may get you into legal trouble, or change them to protect the innocent, but if it touched you, it will probably touch others, so try giving it a rewrite to make it sound acceptable to your now learned mind, and see if it can be reworked into something you could hand to someone without wincing. If you have a sense of humor, let that come out. I tend to write sometimes in a cute and quaint manner, sometimes, and some of my most popular songs have been when I was at my silliest, lyrically. If you like to use really deep poetry, write something really good—it certainly hasn’t hurt rockers like Sting (The Police), Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin) or Neal Peart (Rush) to be poetic. Get religious, get naughty—both seem to be acceptable in the current musical climate—but realize that this may offend some, so, as always, pitch it to people who would find any of these ideas acceptable, not waste time tossing them out to people who won’t.

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