INDUSTRY NEWS

Making Your Songwriting Ideas Work

Making Your Songwriting Ideas Work

Mylène Besançon

Being consistently creative can be challenging for any songwriter. But it is possible to find relief from writers’ block and boost your creativity at the same time.

Songwriters commonly encounter mental roadblocks from time to time. Trying to get out of this rut can be a rather daunting task, resulting in overflowing waste paper bins or just blank sheets, begging for words.

Whatever the case, learning how to cultivate a constant stream of songwriting ideas is necessary to help you be productive, especially if you write songs for a living. Whether you’re an accomplished songwriter or a beginner, finding creative ways to generate new ideas is important to combat days when you might feel mentally bankrupt.

Having created several articles on the topic for Tunedly readers, my team and I had the idea to share a few useful tips we thought you might appreciate as well. Here are five ways to keep the creative stream running:

Read widely

Reading content from a variety of sources helps to build your vocabulary. In addition, what you read may provide you with ideas for writing songs on a wide range of topics, including current events, romance, religion, politics and anything else you might be interested in writing about. Read anything and everything that is informative and/or fun to read, including novels, magazines, newspapers, blogs, etc.

Keep and maintain a journal

Investing in a journal may be one of the best things you can do as a songwriter. Writing down experiences from your personal life and things you come across daily will help you to create snapshots that can give you a steady flow of ideas to draw on when you want inspiration to write a new song. Pay attention to the way you write stuff down and the order in which they are written, as this may make it easier for you to form the lyrics and structure for your song when you’re ready.

Find your "spot"

Most good writers tend to have a favorite spot in their surroundings where it seems easier to experience a “flow” state. This spot can be anywhere, from a cozy corner in the basement to a mildly windy rooftop; under a large tree outside in the backyard, or even sitting by a piano in the living room. Finding such a spot may be difficult if you are constantly changing addresses. But if you stay anywhere for an extended period, seek out that special ‘trigger-spot’ that sparks your creative juices. Of course, it could be all in your mind that such a spot is some kind of magical muse but if it works, why question it?

Run through your playlist

Sometimes listening to other people’s work may just be what’s needed to kick start the idea mill in your head and lead you to put pen to paper. Listening to other people’s songs, especially if you listen to various genres, can inspire you in a number of ways. For instance, you may listen to the lyrics of a controversial song and think about how you can rewrite it to create a different spin, or you could take a song outside your genre and rewrite it to match the wordplay, tempo, and style of the one you’re targeting.

Be disciplined

Sometimes boosting your creativity might just be about developing a mindset that is disciplined enough to write all the time. It’s a widely accepted belief that you get better at writing when you keep writing, so making a commitment to yourself to write, even for a short period every day, could make it easier for songwriting ideas to jump out when you need them.

Try these tips and, who knows, you could soon realize you’re able to have a steady stream of songwriting ideas to suit your production workflow. They may even help you to become a better songwriter and expand your belief that you have what it takes to be successful.

Mylène Besançon is the Co-founder of innovative music production and publishing solution, Tunedly. We help you to unravel your creative genius; the way you make music will never be the same. For more information, you can visit tunedly.com/contact.