Are you a songwriter? Take my songwriting survey

Are you a songwriter? I'm just getting into songwriting and am asking other songwriters how they do it so I can learn.

1. How often do you write songs? Specifically, about how many songsdo you produce a year? About how long on average does it take you to write the first draft of a song? By 'song' I mean anything from first draft of songs in rough demo and arrangement form, all the way up finished songs that are professionally recorded.

-I have been writing a song a week, usually a rough first draft of a song, for a couple of months, I'm far from experienced at it

2. How long have you been writing songs? How long did you work at it until you came up with an original song you loved?

-a few months for me, I came up with exactly 2 good songs so far, and they're not even that great

3. What songwriting methods and tools work best for you?

-I tend to jam on guitar until I come up with a riff or chord progressionn that sounds like the guitar part for the verse or chorus of a song, I flesh the guitar part out until I have a tentative arrangement for a song - verse and chorus usually, sometimes a bridge at this stage. I record this into my iPhone or to Garageband, then I listen to it for a while. Usually as I play I come up with a half formed vocal melody in my head. I walk around and hum along to the recording for a while until I settle on a vocal melody. Once I have a vocal melody in place I bash out lyrics using my imagination and a rhyming dictionary, using my joural as inspiration.

4. What is the best tip you can give to a beginning songwriter?

THANK YOU, I really appreciate any responses

hey john!

WHATEVER YOU DO, KEEP YOUR SHIT OFF ITUNES -- THATS MY BEST TIP

Don't get caught up in just simple modes, learn a few odd chords, learn about the circle of fifths, try writing something using Lydian melodies.

1. not very often
2. not very many
3. come up with as batshit a melodic narrative as is humanly possible, usually by writing down some lyrics and seeing what tune fits the cadence, then embellish it with bass + keys tinkles, attempting to make it as deviously pleasurable as it can be (odd chords, weird cross-rhythms etc), then paste everything meticulously together w/ computer
4. don't get caught up in just simple modes is the main one

1. not very often these days, not in an active band anymore and have work/life stuff cutting into my free time - maybe averages out to one a month at this point. I work pretty quickly on songs, don't usually spend more than a week on a song, although sometimes I have a song part that sits around for a while before it turns into a full song.
2. I was in my first real band when I was about 15, and we started writing original songs pretty much right away. I like basically all of the songs I write, otherwise I wouldn't write them. Not saying they're all "great" songs or whatever but they all appeal to me in some way at the time that I write them. But I probably didn't write a song on my own that still stands up to me today until I was like 17. Started figuring out more things about song construction/arrangement around then.
3. I have two different ways of writing songs. One is a more traditional, structured method where I sit down with the guitar, starting with some kind of idea like a lyric or a melody, and then piece together verses and choruses and whatnot until I have what feels like a complete song. The other way involves starting from scratch, with no ideas, just putting together a drum track, then probably a bass track, then other layers, adding stuff, taking stuff away. So I guess one is more structure-focused, and the other is more sound/arrangement-focused.
4. Don't be afraid to do something that seems totally stupid or ridiculous.

serious answers:

1 - I try and write something every day. That may not result in a complete song, but I'll at least write some words/riffs/beats. In 2009:

• songs started (not all of which were finished), 414
• recorded (finished) songs, 256, plus about 20 demos that were discarded
• there are about 12-16 songs from that pile that I think are good enough to play to other people

2 - Started writing songs when I was 16 (which was 1990 because lol snoball is old). Never got much finished, maybe 3 or 4 songs a year for about a decade. Took the decision to really sit down and finish more songs in 2001. Probably didn't write a song I was really happy with until the end of 2008. Or another way of putting it is that was the first song that I wrote that I can still listen to today.

3 - I used to always write the lyrics first, then come up with the riffs/melodies later. I'm consciously trying to write tunes first about half of the time these days. But everybody has their own method and it's important to come up with ways of writing that suit you. (which leads on to...)

4 - Keep coming up with different ways of writing. Also you can stretch your songwriting and instrument skills at the same time, by for example deliberately writing a song that uses a chord you've never used before, or a key you've never used before, etc..

Also under point 4: do cover versions, really picking apart the songs and putting them back together to sound different compared to the originals.

ILX is full of very good songwriters - next time there's a big compilation project, Mr Lennon, muck in! You can hear the fruits of previous endeavours in the following threads...

ILX Wire Covers Compilation 2010
NO LINE ON THE HORIZON

...and coming very soon...

ILX Compilation v4: Tiny Music (Deadline/Submissions/etc!!)

a link to n/a's quite excellent songwriting was given on one of the U2 covers-project threads: let's release the U2 album before U2 releases the U2 album

Yea, N/A ruled the Wire comp.

yeah he has been MVP in the past two compilations - and that's with a VERY strong field both times - his other solo stuff is really really worth a listen too

however with only 77 seconds at his disposal I don't suppose he's gotten the hat-trick...surely...

aw thanks guys. I didn't actually get anything in for the 77-sec comp. I was excited about it but kept forgetting to work on it and then I threw something together but it wasn't working so I didn't submit it.

Ach well, maybe next time. :)

And there will be a next time.

― John Lennon, Monday, November 22, 2010 11:52 AM (7 hours ago)

so cryptic, this guy

imagine there's no socks, it's easy if you try

1. How often do you write songs?
I've written about 80 songs this year. The pace had been a couple a week at band rehearsals & otherwise, but since I made my move to Virginia I've been doing one almost every day.

2. How long have you been writing songs? How long did you work at it until you came up with an original song you loved?

I wrote my first song at 18 and was really proud of it at the time, but I didn't really write anything I really like and want to share with people until this year.

3. What songwriting methods and tools work best for you?

-I have a long walk from my office to the train every day, and lately I've been kinda lazily singing to myself and coming up with snatches of lyrics. Just that process, kinda meandering into melody, followed by work on lyrics on the train, usually has me with something I really wanna record by the time I get home.

4. What is the best tip you can give to a beginning songwriter?

-Do some kind of work on it every day, and reading a book about songwriting doesn't count. ~Do~ something, whether it's learning a song you really like and seeing how it fits together or writing a riff or working on lyrics. The only way to get better is to keep doing it.

1. How often do you write songs?
Hardly ever these days. I do have ideas for songs, and have a small Moleskine notebook where I put the titles, and one day I shall write all the words in one splurge, and it will be the best album ever written.

2. How long have you been writing songs? How long did you work at it until you came up with an original song you loved?
Since the age of four, probably. I found some old scraps of paper at my grandma's house with "Hey, won't you be my pal", a three or four line song. Which is a little earlier than my second song "Who's that in my trousers", which I was banned from singing.
My first 'proper' song would be when I was twelve or so, "Flashback", which was alright and definitely pre-punk. The quality was variable, I liked them at the time, and a few of them aren't too time-beholden to not do them now.

3. What songwriting methods and tools work best for you?
Pen/paper. Try and get the tune down on a dictaphone without instruments. Soon as you pick up an instrument, you end up limiting the tune to fit into what you can play.

4. What is the best tip you can give to a beginning songwriter?
1) Write
2) Avoid writing songs based on titles that already exist, or song concepts that exist also.
3) Our Alice heard "Stove" by the Lemonheads once, and said "you know, you can really write a song about anything, can't you" and that's the fact of it.
4) Then again, sometimes a tune will force or promote a set of ideas. So, never limit the flow.
5) Brainstorming is fine. Write a load of one-liners on a page, each line not necessarily following logically from the previous, but keep to rhyming couplets (for example).

The rest I'm saving for the book.

1. How often do you write songs?
In fits and bursts. I go through long periods of not writing anything, but honing existing songs; playing around with structures and technique etc. I tend to write songs when I'm going through bouts of sadness or depression.

2. How long have you been writing songs? How long did you work at it until you came up with an original song you loved?

Tunes (electronic ones) since about 1997. The first one that I thought was perfect and I got the best feedback from was written around 2002. I started writing "song songs" in 2006, some of which I'm still gilding.

3. What songwriting methods and tools work best for you?

Yeah, just fiddling around with guitar chords until a rhythm or sequence works, and then trying out variations really. A vocal line will pop out sooner or later, and then I sing nonsense lyrics until I can be bothered to sit down and write something cohesive.

4. What is the best tip you can give to a beginning songwriter?

Inspiration comes at the most awkward of times. Use everything you have available - if you have a dictaphone or notepad, you'll find these invaluable when a great idea hits you as you're running for the number 21 bus or w/e.