Rock & Roll Safehouse, Part II: How to Write and Record Your Own Song

Last week, we explored how to make a music video without leaving the editing room. Its sequel article is a deeeep dive into the songwriting and recording process.

I tried to write the sort of article I would search long and hard to find when I was starting out learning how to play guitar and writing songs. Speaking of which — how do you get started writing a song?

Ed Driscoll said:

Speaking of which — how do you get started writing a song?

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With either a great lick or a great lyric line, then I go from there.

rockabilly69 said:

With either a great lick or a great lyric line, then I go from there.

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Is it difficult to build out from that first kernel of an idea? How do you go from there?

Ed Driscoll said:

Is it difficult to build out from that first kernel of an idea? How do you go from there?

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Well if it's from a lyric line, I start thinking of other related lines I can come up with and then start organizing them as I would develop any story. When I get a few lines, I just start singing them out loud to myself. BTW I never let anyone into the room while I'm writing, because I don't want to be self conscious about it. That way, I can just just spout out anything that I'm feeling, whatever comes to mind. Fortunately I have a nice room in my house to record where I generally keep a vocal and guitar mic up all the time. And while I'm singing generally a few more ideas start to emerge and I make sure to write them down (I keep notepad open on the laptop). Typically while the lyrics are coming, the music is following. After a while of doing this I grab a cup of coffee or whatever and just listen to the ideas in their rudimentary form. It might be a bunch of crap, but if I do it long enough I instinctively know when I hear something good and keep on developing that idea.

Because I'm a vocalist/guitarist who sings many covers for a living, I generally have a good feel for what makes verse, chorus, bridge, etc. You sing enough songs by the Beatles, Stones, Creedence, Paul Simon, Neil Young, etc, (or whoever inspired your musical path) you generally learn song structure by osmosis. To test my songs out when doing sets, many times I will sing an original song between the greatest covers I know. I will do this for an hour at a time. It's a pretty good acid test for song writing if your own songs can flow with the classics.

I'll tell you one thing though, like anything else, the more you do it, the easier it becomes, and although some of the greatest songs ever written were simple ideas that just seemed to come out of nowhere, most of the good ones come from sticking it out with patience until just the right lyrical phrases match up with the music the evokes the proper feeling of the lyric.