23 Inspiring Songwriting Tips That Surprisingly Work

These songwriting tips will help you get a better understanding of how others work their way to the perfect song! If you get stuck and don’t know how to come up with great songwriting skills this post is for you!

23 Inspiring Songwriting Tips That Surprisingly Work

When it comes to writing songs it’s important to know what you’re doing and what you’re not doing right. Let’s go ahead and look into some helpful songwriting tips that will help and boost your desire to become a great musician!

Always remember, there’s no rule when it comes to writing a new song. You should be inspired to create a unique song but these tips will guide you along the way.

#1 Just Do it! Start Writing a song!

By now you should know that started is often the hardest part of your songwriting process.

You should be able to develop your song’s main melody or your songs central chorus in the first steps.

It’s considered by some to be the best place to begin writing your next track!

If you get your hook or key chord progression, you can build the rest of your song around it.

But if you find yourself struggling to find the perfect melody straight away, this method isn’t for everyone so don’t be worried.

If you don’t feel comfortable to start with your song’s main riff or hook it’s okay because it isn’t ideal for every songwriter.

You can go ahead by starting with a great intro which will be at the beginning of your track, which will lead you naturally into the rest of the song.

while others will get the lyrics down first, and then worry about the tune afterwards.

 #2 Have an inspiring Workspace

Your workspace is very important when it comes to inspiration so you should let your workspace or even your home studio work for you. 

Things like having an organized, efficient set-up always ensure you spend less time prepping for a session and more time actually writing music.

You never know when inspiration may strike so it’s also essential to being ready to go and get the best out of your inspirational moments for a great song!

#3 Pay attention to the Lyrics

This couldn’t be missing in this songwriting tips list! Since today’s post is about songwriting tips paying attention to lyrics is essential.

Unless you’re producing instrumental music, the lyrics are one of the most important parts of your song.

I know and I feel you that the lyric writing can often be the most frustrating and difficult aspect of the songwriting process, especially for a beginner songwriter lacks in experience.

It’s always good to have a clear idea of what your song will be about so a good way to go about it is to

• start writing down exactly what you want to get across in your lyrics
• then play about with the rhythm,
• continue by structuring your words to fit them around your melody.

A solid lyrical hook for your chorus is particularly important, while the verses and bridge can be built around your central theme.

#4 Did You just got inspired? Just Start writing!

If you come up with a great melody, there’s nothing worse as a songwriter than coming up with an amazing melody or riff, only to completely forget what is was an hour later.

Forgetting your ideas can be really frustrating, so it’s important to make a note of your idea while it’s fresh in your mind, even if it’s just recorded quickly on your phone or scribbled on a scrap of paper.

You’ll be glad later when you return to continue working on the song because you can remember the actual song.

#5 Use your experience

You can come up with a great song from personal experience from your everyday life!

Did you know some of history’s greatest songs are about personal experiences, with artists drawing on real-life events and traumas to spark their creativity?

No matter the good and bad experiences you’ve been through, you can use your life experiences to great effect.

When you put those feelings into a song you will find out that you can be proud of the end results.

#6 Collaborate with others works great!

This often happens to everyone so collaborating with other musicians can offer a great way to break new ground and get a fresh perspective on your track. Show them what you’ve got so far if you’re suffering from writer’s block.

discuss with other new ideas and sharing each others opinion can help you get inspired.

Getting an outside perspective on your track from a fellow musician can help to bring the best out of your music.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the term, two is better than one so don’t do it alone, get a fellow songwriter and share ideas! An excellent add in this songwriting tips list!

#7 Don’t over complicate things!

Keeping your track as simple as possible at first is an excellent way to accelerate the songwriting process and work out the structure of your song.

Once you have the basis of the song in its simplest form, you can go about adding drums, strings, brass or any other additional elements afterwards.

Since things are just at the beginning don’t make things harder for yourself by overcomplicating your track, take it a step at a time.

#8 Time for a break!

You should take a 15-minute break away from your instrument or lyrics in order to help you get the creativity flowing and stop your mind from becoming too clouded.

That can be the cause of a lack of inspiration at times.

It doesn’t matter how long it takes to write a song, the final product is all that’s important, so take your breaks for more inspiration and productivity!

#9 Write Often!

One of the most important thing you can do as a songwriter is to do it as often as possible. That’s the only way to improve at anything, dedicate yourself to it, ideally making it a habitual practice.

Preparing for something is a great way to try to set some time aside each day, or at least several times a week, to work on music.

If your time is limited don’t go for the entire piece, try taking it step by step in a half-hour chunk of free time then stitch each piece of your song together over time.

#9 Think less do more

Don’t judge your song too much else you will stay on a song like forever!

This is how to go about it:

• keep an open mind
• take your time and carefully consider each facet of a new song
• stop worrying and just get on with it.

Overthinking can be your worst enemy and no one wants enemies. Flow by getting the basis of your song down, and you can always go back and change things afterwards.

#10 Get Feedback from others

It’s easy to lose sight of how good or bad your song is after you’ve spent hours and hours working, changing and creating it by yourself.

Finding someone you trust, value their opinion and ask them to give honest advice and critique your song.

By this way, you could improve your song in ways you wouldn’t have thought of.

The key point here is you want honest opinions so show it to people that are ready to give them to you!

#11 Failure is not bad (sometimes!)

If you’re failing and struggling to write the song but you know is in you just keep going.

In order to write a successful song know that there’s no secret formula, it all takes the combination of

• hard work
• positivity
• talent.

If you fail, rise up and keep trying!

#12 Radio anyone?

You can turn a couple of radios on and then listens for the interesting overlaps.

You’ll find interesting progressions and melodies. So turn on all those radios, roll the dice and listen for the interesting overlaps.

#13 Change Your view.. Have a window?

Sometimes when being in a small room while writing a song the view can be quite limited so look out to get the view of a cloud, bird or airplane.

This will help clear your mind and you will get more ideas flowing into your mind. Dont have a window? You could just be silent or just even stair at a nice piece of art to change view!

#14 Cut on the talking!

Take a temporary oath of silence. Your songwriting will thank you. But it’s known that silence is good for you.

Even an hour of silence is more than enough time to reset your brain.

Talking is a heavy and complex task for your brain to carry out. Putting it aside for a little while will put you in the right place to write.

So take a break from talking too much and try silence for awhile. Let your brain do the talking and find all the inspiration you need.

#15 Limit the time to work for you!

Time is a hard scale to balance because too much time is available and you end up second guessing everything.

But again you can also end up doing nothing so set a time limit. Even better, set a time limit that’s way shorter than what you normally write in.

Setting short time boundaries will help you in these areas

• focus on what matters
• write more songs
• streamline your entire process.

#16 Piano roll anyone?

If you get stuck building a beat, you can open your piano roll, load up an instrument, grab the pen tool and just start scribbling down notes.

When you’re done go ahead and play it back and listen!

#17 Fewer lyrics along the way

You don’t need to wring a complicated song, go to the point my friend!

When it comes to songwriting simple is always effective. But it’s hard to pull off. You have to be ruthless with your approach.

It takes practice, simple is a skill that every songwriter should master.

Why? It keeps your songs relatable, engaging and catchy.

#18 Put limits

Start with a strict list of what you’re gonna use. Limit your ideas to your gear list. Ideas will take shape much faster than having to constantly decide between a million options.

It might sound weird but limitations can actually make you more creative. Because you have to work with what you’ve got and bend it to your sound.

Plus keeping yourself limited will give you a deeper understanding of the tools you work with because you’ll have to push them all to the limit.

#19 Cut your song into million pieces!

Just write out a bunch of words that are on your mind, cut them out and rearrange them into ideas.

It doesn’t even have to be words either. It can be chords, notes, melodies, pictures or anything else you feel will work for you. Here is the cut up technique:

#20 Reward yourself!

Reward yourself when you’re finished with your song is a great way to motivate you to keep going.

If there’s a piece of gear that you’re eyeing, like a new studio item you want, you can start by telling yourself that you have to write 5 songs before you can buy it!

This will give you something to work towards beyond the satisfaction of being finished with a song!

#21 The Mozart effect

Did you know that listening to Mozart has been studied and proven to have a positive effect on your focus?

It affects your ‘spatial-temporal reasoning.’ Which is basically a fancy word for concentration. Starting your session with a bit of Mozart will put your brain into high-gear (me running to listen to some Mozart song now lol).

Perfect for pumping out some quality songs.

#22 Copy a song entirely from memory

What would it sound like if you tried to re-record Bohemian Rhapsody right now without listening to it to refresh your memory?

Probably nothing like the original! That’s why making an imperfect copy can be such a great creative strategy.

#23 Use extended techniques

Extended techniques are all about playing your instrument the “wrong” way.

The concept was developed in the 20th century to help composers push the boundaries of what was possible with traditional instrumentation.

Get it into your songwriting with extended techniques.

Lastly, remember that… Getting stuck happens!

Songs don’t always flow and sometimes you have to take drastic measures to make them work.

Try to think outside the box and get in touch with your best possible resource for writing songs!

There you have it, 23 Inspiring Songwriting Tips That Surprisingly Work

Has any of these songwriting tips helped you? Let me know in the comment section!

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See ya, Cosby!