Songwriting Exercises
Songwriting Exercises
Just like any other skill, it is important to keep honing your craft. If you want to become a better guitar player, for example, you can practice scales, chords, intervals, etc. But how does that work with the skill of songwriting?
Since there are no rules set in stone when it comes to songwriting, it can be difficult to find an exercise that suits you. Therefore I’ve compiled a handful of songwriting exercises in this article that all focus on different aspects of the songwriting process. Consider these exercises to be a buffet you can choose from.
Each exercise is specified to a different aspect of songwriting. Some are focused on the lyrical side of songwriting, while others are focussed on the musical side. So pick the ones that suit you best, and leave the ones that are not so much for you.
And once you’ve completed an exercise, or if you get stuck on an exercise, I recommend you combine one exercise with another. Fun and unexpected ideas that you otherwise would probably never have come up with will pop up once you try this.
Exercise 1: Set a time limit and finish a song in this time
When we start writing a song, it can sometimes become such a big project, that you’re overwhelmed with all of your own ideas, and the song is just never getting finished. There is a psychological hack to this problem, and that is to set a time limit.
How long should the time limit be?
Some people swear by 10 minutes, others take 30 minutes or an hour, or even other people will call it a full 8-hour workday to finish one song. It doesn’t matter that much what the time limit is. The trick is to set a timer and finish something within that time and really stick to your time limit.
Pressure builds diamonds
The reason why we want to set a timer is because of the pressure that it gives you. Every moment of your songwriting time is valuable to you now and you cannot afford to waste any of it. There is also no time to doubt or think negatively about your own creation. It’s just “Go! Go! Go! No time to waste!”
done is better than perfect
The timed challenge also eliminates overthinking, thoughts of self-criticism, and limiting beliefs. The most difficult thing to overcome as a creative is to overcome self-criticism. Allow yourself through this exercise to be an amateur, that doesn’t have to do it all perfectly.
Accept imperfection
You can perfect your work at another time. Just finish this version of the song now. Let this saying be your mantra.
Exercise 2: External free-writing
Grab a piece of paper and choose a location or an object and write it in capital letters on the top of the paper. Set a timer for ten minutes, and just start writing about anything. Just follow your train of thought about anything that comes to mind when thinking about your location or object.
Use your senses
We can all hear, see, smell, taste, and touch. Lyrics get better if they tickle the senses, so it’s a good exercise to practice describing something from a sensory perspective. The most obvious sense is “to see”, but also try to use lesser common senses like taste or smell. They can be very powerful in lyrics.
Be specific
Don’t just write down “the blue floor”. What kind of material is the floor made of? Is it carpet? Does it look, feel, or smell clean? Of course, you’re not going to taste a carpet, but you get what I mean. The more specific you get, the clearer the picture gets in the listener’s mind of what the lyric is about.
External lyrics
All of this descriptive free-writing can become part of the external parts of your lyric. It builds the world the lyric is part of and it makes it real in your mind. The listener can hear, taste, touch, smell, and see all of these descriptions in his or her mind.
But this lyric would not be in balance if it’s not mixed with internal lyrics as well.
Exercise 3: Internal free-writing
Once again, set yourself a timer for 10 minutes and pick a place or an object. This time, you only write down thoughts and feelings that you associate with the place or object.
You can, for example, write: “the place reminded me of my home town, where I had a very happy childhood. I miss all of the friends I used to have back then. I wonder who they are now and if they are still alive. I should probably try to come in contact with them again.”
Thoughts and feelings
The difference between thoughts and feelings is that thoughts are more about using your “mind”, and feelings are more about using your “heart”. For example, you might be writing about your favourite chair: “I think this chair was owned by my great grandfather before I was born”. Another thing you could write: “although I’ve never met him, I still feel a great connection to him through now sitting in his chair every day.”
The first sentence was a thought, and the second was more about feeling. You can do both of these very easily by starting a sentence with “I think […]” or “I feel […]”. If you’re having trouble with finding internal things to write, check out exercise 5.
Exercise 4: Start with the title
The best lyrical songs often have a very clear core of an idea embedded in them, and every tiny aspect of the entire song serves this single idea. Sometimes the lyric-writing process goes in the other direction: we come up with some ideas and try to make a cohesive idea out of them in the end. But what if we started with the end (the title) in mind?
Elevator pitch
What if you had to sell your song in just one or two sentences? If you can answer this question for yourself, you are one step closer to finding your title. Your title is essentially a conclusive statement of your idea. Everything else (the rest of the song) precedes that statement and builds up to it.
“wants” v.s. “needs”
What does the character or narrative of the lyric “want” and what are their “needs”. The best characters in stories (and also in lyrics) are deeply flawed. When a “want” and the “need” of a character are not in sync with each other, they create an interesting inner conflict, which is great for writing a lyric.
For example: let’s say you’re writing from the perspective of a character that is in love with somebody, but this other person is toxic and not good for the protagonist. The “want” is that the character wants to be in a relationship with this person, but the “need” of this person is to step away from the toxic person and move on. This conflict is a great way to determine what the title of the song may be about.
write the chorus
Once you have your title, be sure to put the title in the most powerful place of the song: the chorus. Within the chorus, the most powerful positions to put your title are at the beginning and at the end of your chorus. Also, it works great to repeat your title a couple of times within the chors.
If the title sounds great in your chorus, then you’ve found your perfect title, and you can build a song around it. If not, then you have to test a couple of other titles first before you can write the rest of the song.
Exercise 5: Be quiet until an idea comes
“eliminate all forms of distraction”
Sometimes the hardest thing to do is just to sit still in a room and do nothing. Still, this is one of the greatest exercises to kickstart your creativity, and not just for songwriting. You could call this exercise meditation, praying, reflecting, or whatever.
It doesn’t really matter because it all comes down to the same thing: eliminate all forms of distraction so your whole being can focus on this moment where you are forced to move inward and check-in with yourself about what’s happening inside of you.
Just close your eyes and be quiet. You’ll find that certain thoughts or feelings might pop up for just a second. That’s the moment when you can write that thought down, or it could even just be a keyword.
Then you can repeat the process. While doing this over and over again, you keep building up a picture on the paper and in your mind. Sometimes, art is nothing more than just paying attention to the ordinary.
Exercise 6: Start with a melody
Have you ever started writing a song by creating a melody? Most musicians don’t, since it is easier to come up with a melody when there is already some sort of chord chart that you can sing on top of. Let’s change this process around and see if we can come up with a melody from the start.
If you can’t remember your own melody, it’s probably not very good…
Think of children's songs: they are often very easy to remember and very simply written. Now take this approach to write something completely new. Let’s see if you can whistle or hum a melody without touching an instrument.
Can you then create an interesting melody without forgetting it while you’re creating it? By doing this exercise, you’re naturally creating more catchy melodies, because
When we write melodies on an instrument, or when we sing on top of chords we are in some ways limiting ourselves. For example: when we write a melody on a piano, we are being led by our hands and by the patterns that we are accustomed to when playing our instrument.
We are being limited for there is always a “barrier” between the writer’s brain and the physical instrument. Only highly skilled jazz players almost have no barrier between their mind and their instrument.
And of course, chord progressions are essentially completely fine to compose melodies on top of, but they are also dictating where our melodies are leading to.
If you’re interested in writing melodies, be sure to check out this article I wrote on how to write a better melody.
Final thoughts:
There are no rules with songwriting. There are only tools, tips, and tricks. Of course, there are a lot more exercises out there, but for now, I think these 6 are the most effective (at least for me).
Be sure to try to combine them with each other. And you could make changes to them if you would like to of course.
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