How To Write A Song

“If you write it on guitar
Place your guitar upon your knee
If you write it on piano
Don’t do that”

- Harry Nilsson, the Sandman album

The impulse to create and share music is so strong among people I know that it leads me to believe that there are only two kinds of folks out there, those who are songwriters and those who wish they were songwriters. So universal is this desire that even techies and the science types, busy as they are with their isosceles triangles and hieroglyphs in Greek, are not oblivious to its sway. I suppose it was by way of popular demand that a respectable science magazine once had an entire section devoted to music and the art of song writing. This article is about one techie’s attempt at reducing that theory to practice by attempting to actually write a song.

Start with the Title

Starting with the title helps to crystallize that vague idea you may have for a song and make it more concrete. The subject matter could be about anything, but it helps to choose one that your listeners actually care about. Songs about love, faith and redemption are universals that reflect the human condition and you’re more likely to connect emotionally with your listeners if you choose one of these as your subject rather than say the history of whale hunting, which only Newfoundlanders may find thrilling.

Like many of my peers, given a choice I would like to write a simple, uncomplicated love song. But most regrettably, what comes to my mind as I write this is not love, but a certain speech given by a Native American hero, Chief Joseph (Hmm… the brain certainly works in mysterious ways!).

The reason why that speech is so clearly etched in my memory is because of the poignancy of Chief Joseph’s words and the simple truths they proclaim which touches the heart. As speeches go I rank it among the most eloquent given in history. The text of his speech can be found by clicking here.

So with nothing else to go on with, I’ll commit the very sin I had warned against and choose a parochial subject, an arcane piece of Americana for my song. I’ll call it “From Where the Sun Now Stands” after the famous words uttered by Chief Joseph.

Use a Template

A blank slate is an impediment to creativity. The conflict between the freedom we cherish and the reality of having to live and work in a world full of restrictions, creates that creative tension which is responsible for many of the marvellous inventions that the human mind has wrought. We see examples of this truth everywhere we look. From the laws that govern human conduct and act as social glue, to the behaviour of the minutest atoms and molecules in nature, where constraints imposed on the freedom of the constituent parts leads to the emergence of a spectacular range of attributes, and a multitude of hues and colours. I think I now have a better appreciation of Baha’u’llah’s words in the Kitab-i-Aqdas when he says “Think not that We have revealed unto you a mere code of laws. Nay, rather, We have unsealed the choice Wine with the fingers of might and power.”

But I digress, this is an article about songwriting, not a discourse on philosophy.

The upshot is this, if you want to create a song fast, use a template. It will get your creative juices flowing in no time. The standard format for a song is verse/chorus. A typical song will have three verses arranged as Verse1/Chorus, Verse 2/Chorus, and Verse 3/Bridge/Chorus. This is the structure we will use for our song. Other variations are possible and you may want to google the lyrics of your favourite songs to find out how they are structured.

Make it Rhyme

How are we doing so far? We’ve decided on the title, so we’ll use that to fashion a storyline. Then we’ll use a rhyming dictionary to convert our story into a prose that rhymes. Again other alternative arrangements are possible. Try listening to some of the songs on the charts for examples.

If you haven’t read Chief Joseph’s speech, I would like to suggest that you do so now. I used that speech and a short biography of Chief Joseph I had read on the web to inspire the following verse and chorus:

Provisional title: From Where the Sun Now Stands

Verse 1:
Thirty days were all we had
To leave our homes or face attack
Down snow capped mountains to Idaho
General Howard’s orders were we had to go

But mounting troubles lay ahead
Our young men wanted the settlers dead
For stealing horses and kayaks
And to put a stop to their sneak attacks

Chorus:
From where the sun now stands until forever
While our voices start to tear
Our people will endure

From where the sun now stands until forever
This truth our hearts hold dear
That freedom is forever

The lyrics sound a bit contrived, but at this stage we should not be too concerned about that. We should instead strive to maintain the momentum we have generated and move on to crafting the next most important element of our song: the melody. The words can always be changed later.

Get it to Sing

Now that we have some words to work with, how do we create the melody? We can start by playing a sequence of chords to find one that matches the mood evoked by our lyrics. As usual, I’ll rely on my old three chord trick on the mixolydian scale (chords I, IV, V). I play around with these chords to get a feeling for the song. Hmm…that sounds pretty boring. But I know just what will perk it up - a minor chord (VI) thrown in for gratis. So that’s it, these are the chords we’ll use: I, IV, V and VI. We will play these chords in a loop and read our lyrics aloud, and let our brains suggest a tune.

I do just this, and find a melody that I think will be acceptable. It is important at this stage to write down or record whatever melody that suggests itself. It is so easy otherwise to forget that fleeting tune that crept into your head. As a result that inspiring flight of notes you stumbled upon might be lost forever.

Here is an excerpt from a recording, warts and all, that I made after following the steps I had mentioned [Caution: there are off-key notes in my singing which I haven’t gotten around to correcting, so turn down that volume while listening. You don’t want to scare the neighbours, or yourself!]

When I listen to the way the chorus resolves itself in the final line, the original title for the song doesn’t sound compelling anymore. So I’ll change it to “Freedom is Forever”. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself doing this to your own song. 'Tis the way these things work.

So What’s Next

Write the rest of the lyrics and modify the words and music as appropriate until you achieve a result that you like. During this critical process, you may find yourself throwing up your hands in frustration and deciding that the song you are crafting is not worth the effort, that it is intractable and totally misguided. Relax, this is normal.

Having gone through this exercise in songwriting for the purpose of writing this article, I've come to a conclusion of which I’m pretty much confident: I shouldn’t be thinking of quitting my daytime job anytime soon. But the experience sure was fun!

I hope you’ve found this article to be useful and mildly amusing. If it was neither then perhaps you’re a songwriter! If that's the case I proffer my profound apologies, and as atonement leave you with another Harry Nilsson quote. I started this article with a quote from him, and it seems appropriate to it end with another: "I get nervous when they start shooting piano players"