BRAINSTORMING

After several decades writing songs, I have my own system I try to follow when I sit down to write a new song. I have finally learned, after thousands of times when a song never got finished, to follow this system or I know I’ll be wasting my time.

know one of the first things I’m going to have to do is start brainstorming for a good song title. You have to get started with a good title, because if you don't have a good title you don't have a song. You need to find a memorable song title, whether it is a rock song title, a country song title or whatever style song you want to write. Song titles can make the writing of the song so much easier. How do you decide on a title for your song? Let’s think about it.

When I get an inspiration, an idea for a new song, there are several questions I ask myself. First, I ask myself if there is enough of a story in the idea to make a complete song, or is it just an idea that should be part of another song. If the answer to the first question is yes, I then ask myself if there is enough of an audience for this song when it is completed. Knowing your audience will help you decide on a title for your song. How to write a song title, that’s the question at hand.

Some songs, even if they are well written, have only a small audience they would appeal to, so a music publisher would not be interested in signing it. There wouldn’t be enough people who would want to buy the CD and after all, to music business professionals, money is the bottom line and the main motivator. It doesn’t matter how good of a songwriter and lyricist you are, some things are out of your control. However, some of these “small audience” songs might end up as an “album cut”, meaning a song that is on the CD but isn’t marketed a as a hit song, but the best rule for writing a new song, is to always swing for the fence, try to make all your songs hit material.

Let’s assume your idea is a good one and there is a huge potential audience for it. The next step is to write a summery of your story. From this summary you are going to write the lyrics and the eventually the melody and music for your new song. Let’s use that great universal subject for our song, love. Our song idea will be I’m going to marry you. Obviously, this idea would appeal to millions of people since most people, if they are single, do they want to get married. Our summary would tell a story that has to do with getting married. This story is probably about a man, maybe a woman, who has chosen who they want to marry. The intended may or may not know about his/her desire. That’s where your creativity comes in. Write your summary of the story that you will then turn into song lyrics.