Having written songs for awhile now, I'm often asked how, or what my process is.
When I was typing up notes to send to people, I'd keep a copy.
This essay is more or less a refinement of multiple notes sent out.
Songwriting process:
I’ve been doing it so long, I don’t always consider the mechanics of what I’m doing. I can say that having a phone in my pocket with 'voice memo' and 'notes' functions is incredibly useful.
When I have that initial spark, I always want to pursue it as far as I can immediately.
There’s a few different starting points for me. But it’ll usually start in one of three ways.
1. I get a little melody in my head.2. I get a phase or line in my head that’s a good lyrical base. 3. Something falls under my hands while at an instrument. Could be chord changes I find interesting, or maybe a rhythm.
#1.
So, I can be doing mundane things, and I'll just start to hum. Maybe it's a song already, or at times I just kinda hum, putting notes together in my head. Just a little melody. If it's interesting; Immediately I try to associate words to hang off the melody.
I'll hang “got those fever eyes again” against the melody... (just as an example) temporary words just help it stick in the brain, it’s a rhythmic placeholder. What do those words even mean?!? It doesn't even matter. This is not the time for questions. They’re placeholders.
Voice memo that. Get it stuck in your head (loosely). Take little leaps with the melody, play with it. If you have the initial spark captured, you are in no danger of losing it.
Grab your guitar, piano, whatever. Find the chords that fit. Record it quickly. Keep that so you don’t lose that initial idea.
Now, play and record again. This time, add verses on the fly. It’s an improv game. I find my brain will go into panic mode a little and spit out words (sometimes it’s just oohs or whatever). You keep the tape rolling as you will occasionally jump around with melody or words against the chords. This can lay the groundwork for better words, or lead to a more interesting place.
I also find it helpful to attempt to just go ahead into what might be a chorus... sometimes it falls out. Sometimes it doesn’t.
This stage, don’t edit... It’s about doing something with it before it’s permanent in structure... while it’s still new enough you might make interesting jumps.
If I didn’t feel a pull towards a chorus, I won’t go there yet. Sometimes, you feel the verses leading you to a chorus... don’t be afraid to make that jump with the tape rolling.
From here...I know the verse chords.I have a sense of what the melody is.I also have an idea of what the lyrical meter is.
So...I might put to paper a loose verse. (Option 1)(Probably just a placeholder, unless something strong enough fell out when I was playing around). Then see what I can slide in for words to get a verse or two. If I’m going this method... I’m still wary of editing things.
I’ll just keep filling verses... if I can quickly hammer ten out, later those might be four solid verses.
At this point, I think some picture of what I’m writing about should become clearer.
(Option 2)
If I don’t have a lead on the chorus... I’m walking around with it. I’ll randomly decide to grab the piano, and record me playing it... again, just improvising the words, and hope a chorus falls out. If needs be, refer to the key to point to chorus chord options.
When I have a feel for the chorus, that’s when I’ll absolutely work harder on the lyrics.
This is the point where I’ve gone from a creation stage to a more serious editing stage.
Sometimes a line will fall into your head. If you’re like me when this happens, it’s never a convenient time. Turn that phrase until you have a next line. Grab a notebook and scribble it down. If you’re still in that moment of spark, keep going.
Don't worry too much if the story isn't presenting itself yet. Sometimes you're busy shaping the scene that it doesn't always present itself. There's times where I feel I'm uncertain of the meaning myself.
It might be helpful to use a placeholder melody that ties to the implied rhythm to guide.
You want to grab as much as you can now, as it’s hard to get back to this moment.
You can also find a placeholder melody to help guide this, or if you have a flow, keep going. If this melody was copped from somewhere, when the lyrics feel relatively complete, let them sit. Hopefully when you return; that borrowed melody has escaped your brain... leaving it open to put to music.
If something musically doesn’t come, file it. Wait until something musically falls under your hands... maybe these words will fit comfortably with that.
Explore new rhythms and chords. Try new instruments. Things have a way of falling out of the sky. You find chords rolling together nicely. Getting quick initial ideas recorded can be an life saver at times. Maybe you look into your notes for words, or you sometimes just see what you can bounce off the chords. Something sparks. Roll the recorder again, try to improvise a melody line on top. Place holder words. Try to keep firing. Find more chords. If you start to lose it, go back to those first two chords. If you have to. Stop, listen to the quick recording.
When recording like this, you hope a line falls out of your mouth and gives you an idea that will carry it into a song.
Unfinished words
Often, I’d get great one liners. They would sit in my notes on their own. A line or couplet.
I now try to keep those to a single note page.Put spaces in, and start a new idea. It keeps me looking at the words... but also, if I have a melody in my head, I can refer there to see if it fits. (And have multiple options available).
I also find it helpful that when a line jumps in your head, write it down immediately. If you can, sit with the words for a few minutes... get as much down as you can. Doesn’t rhyme? Don't sacrifice meaning for a rhyme. Just keep going, edit later. All you’re trying to do is capture that thought... and if you can build it enough to give it an identity or mood or story, it’ll be easier to resume.
Go back to your page of one liners and couplets at times. Like a cross word puzzle, can you connect the ideas? Gut them and edit mercilessly.
Read. Read. Read. Listen to some good shit. Read more.
There will not be output without input. You need to feed ideas. Read Shakespeare sonnets. Sylvia Plath. “The love song of J. Alfred Prufock” by TS Eliot Is a goddamn revelation of words. Strange language. Medical terminology in unexpected places... “like a patient etherized on a table”. I wanna quit that’s so good. Listen to good lyricists to write better lyrics.
Do not confine yourself to only musical disciplines for input. “On writing” by Stephen King is a fantastic book, and 90% could directly apply to songwriting. Hemingway is sharp at short prose, relatable to lyrics. Francis Bacon paintings. David Lynch films... he can take mundane things and instill them with a sense of dread so real, immerse them in dreams that you are compelled into the subject. They all are storytellers.
Songwriting is storytelling. Not all stories are linear or clear. Some are abstract. It may be a vignette, it can take place in a moment, an hour, a lifetime, ad nauseam.
Your voice:
Is strong enough that any influence comes through you and is filtered by it.
Even when we are starting out, and 90 percent is imitation, our voice is still there.
If we can hear a song and feel connection to it, it says to me that perhaps some of my stories or experiences aren’t completely alien, and perhaps I can give something back to the tower of songs that exist.
It is completely expected and fair to write bad songs that no one else will ever hear. The only way to improve, is to do more songwriting. If you work best by separating the lyrical work from the musical, do so. If you need the textile feel of a journal, then have one available to you. It can't get started until you make that first step.
I believe in a certain amount of honesty in a song, but I do believe that it is a vehicle for storytelling. And we should be allowed the artistic license to elaborate or create scenes. Don’t be afraid to exaggerate feelings for a story. Take details of events or scenarios and blow them out of proportion. I rely often on the “unreliable narrator”...No one says your character has to tell the truth. No one says they have to be right. It’s their perspective.
I think if you maintain some line of honesty, it will come across real, because it is. If you’ve never been to California, don’t write about it... even if you have, there’s enough songs about California, so don’t write about it. Don’t be ashamed of where you’re from.
I used to consider it absurd to write about where I’m from... then I became a better listener... Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, John K Samson, Joni Mitchell, Gord Downey, all sing about small towns. There’s something very grounding in that. Not every story happens in California; and hearts break in places other than Toronto.
If you wrote about a “yellow dress” 100 people may relate to that.
If you write about a “thrift store yellow summer dress in fall”, maybe 20 will relate. But the personal connection to a “thrift store dress” would be stronger than the mass appeal. The people who relate to that can see that dress. It’s finding those small, relatable details that are what sets your voice apart. Which is either your voice, or the character's voice in song.
I like the idea of incredibly short stories. They can be mini movies. You only have so long in songwriting to convey what you want.
The chorus:
I always feel the chorus is the opportunity to lay out the 'mission statement' of the song. It's for the folks who don't listen to the verse words, and need to know what a song's about. I often use it for the punchline of the song.
Serving the song:
From the onset of an idea, to the recording or performance of it. Our goal is to serve the song. Whatever the song needs is more important than a guitar solo, or harmonies, perfect drums. Keep the song at the forefront. It is your job to protect the idea.
All in all, our job is to absorb influence and ideas, and refine them through our own voice and experiences.
-from 'A Field Guide to Ghosts of Ontario', Mike Procyshyn, ©2023