Conscious Growth.com

July 22nd, 2007

Music is the gateway of the soul. This universal language expresses energy and attracts people of like energy. People connect to your songs without ever needing to understand a single word. When writing music, it’s easy for obstacles to prevent a good song from becoming great. Here are 7 tips for a better song writing experience.

1) Have Congruency - When sitting down to write, know exactly what energy level you’d like to convey. If you’re angry and pissed off at the world. Be that. If you see rainbows and bunny wabbits. Write about it. Whatever direction, have an absolute clear intention about it. It will help the music and lyrics flow effortlessly.

2) Break the Congruency - In general, you should experiment with new genres. Listen and learn other people’s music. Other styles. Especially the music you can’t stand (like country… ehk). This will expand your mind. By understanding a different genre of music, you’ll get a better feel for yours.

3) Don’t Think - For me, music flows. I’m not crafting it. I’m getting out of the way. Composition works best when it “just comes to you.” Find a way to relax and allow a song to write itself. It’s much easier. When it happens to you once, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

4) Rewrite Old Songs - Great songs usually aren’t written. They’re rewritten (I think someone famous said this). Go back and look at your past songs. Change up the lyrics. Try out a different melody. Look at the composition itself and make some changes. You might be surprised with what you get.

5) Pete and Repeat - Sometimes, I’ll just play a chord sequence (on guitar) over and over. I get a feel for the rhythm itself and then work on the timing of the melody. So on a simple 4/4 song, I’ll create a few sets of melodies that each chop and pause differently. I’ll then compare and contrast it.

6) Always Record Yourself - If you’re like me, a catchy little sound will flow out and then you’ll forget how it went. To solve this problem, you can download a freeware program like Audacity. It’s completely free, easy to use and will do an adequate recording for ya. When things start getting serious though, I’d recommend upgrading to Adobe Audition 2.0 or the like.

7) Be You and Play You - Don’t necessarily try to be other people. It’s fine to learn other people’s music. I recommend it actually. But learn to integrate into your style. As they say, imitation is suicide. If you like predominantly relaxing music, play it. If you like to yell at things, play that. Whatever the style, make it authentically yours.

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