The 5 Stages of Songwriting

In this video, I go over the 5 stages that I use for songwriting, covering what the stages are, and share 3 tips each on how to complete each stage effectively and efficiently!

Transcript:

hello everyone this is AJ with yoursong

plan.com today I'd like to go over

the what I think that are the five

stages of songwriting at least the five

stages that I go through, you may not go

through all five of these stages you may

go through them in different order, but these

are the five stages that I use every

time I write a song.

alright let's dive in. so the five stages

of a songwriting are the idea,

lyrics and melody, structure, arrangement,

and instrumentation. what we'll do is

briefly I'll go over what each of these

stages are, and then 3 tips on how to

complete each stage.

alright so the very

first stage of songwriting is the idea

and it's very hard to write songs

without an idea. the idea is the original

idea of a song might be a lyrical or

instrumental hook, something that acts as

a springboard for the rest of your song.

so here a few tips to get your idea. the

first one is to go somewhere inspiring

somewhere you know you'll be inspired

like if you like to go hiking or fishing

or swimming do that and get inspired. the

second tip is to write it down I know

this from personal experience I've lost

a lot of good ideas for songs by not

writing in the down when I thought of

them. the third tip is to use events from

your life so if you're going through a

particular event in your life probably a

lot of people are going through the

event or have been through that event

and they'll be able to relate to your

song that way.

all right the second stage

of songwriting is lyrics and melody and

that's the song lyrics and melody

that you're going to sing so the

first tip for that is to try different

combinations you don't need to settle on

the first original lyrics and melody

that you come up with you can try

different ways switch them around switch

the melody with the lyrics. the second

tip is to let it flow make sure

everything is flowing nicely and more

importantly communicates the vibe that

you want to communicate so if you need

to change the lyrics to something that

doesn't make grammatical sense then

that's okay if that communicates what

you want to communicate for your song

then that's great. let it flow. the third

tip is to let the lyrics serve the

melody so if there's a fight between the

lyrics and the melody if these lyrics

are not fitting with this melody change

the lyrics rather than change the melody

if your melody is good because your

melody is more important to

communicating what you want.

the third

stage of songwriting is structure and

every song needs to have a structure

this is the intro verse chorus second

verse chorus however your song is set up

however the pieces of your song are

pieced together and so the tips we have

for that are the first tip is to play

your song over and over until it fits

together and hopefully it

fit together if you keep playing it over

and over you'll know where the verse

needs to be where the chorus needs to be

what you need to do for the bridge, right?

the second tip is to try different

combinations don't settle in the first

structure that you have right away it

might not be the best if you keep trying

eventually you'll find the best

combination the third tip is to make

sure it serves the song so you may think

that your structure is generic or cliche

whatever if it's serving a song it's

doing the right thing. if you think your

structure as wacky it doesn't sound like

any other songs you know, none of the

songs have a bridge before the second

verse whatever - if that's what serves

your song if that's how your song goes,

then that's how it goes.

All right, so the fourth stage of songwriting

is the arrangement and the arrangement

is what instruments are playing where in

your song so the tips we have for the

arrangement are listen to similar songs

see what instruments they're using see

where the instruments are playing like

for example if you're doing a rock song

you know there's gonna be electric

guitar probably acoustic guitar drums

bass keyboard organ right certain genres

have certain instruments that they use

so listen to similar songs in your genre

or the type of song you're doing for

ideas of what instruments to use.

The second tip is to add interest through

changes so don't use the same

instruments all the way through don't

use the same instruments the same way

all the way through change you know have

the drums cut out have them come back in

have the bass cut out come back in to

change things up. and then the third tip

is to focus on drums and bass those are

gonna be the most important things on

communicating the vibe and the feel of

your song so make sure you have those

come in and come out in the right spots

and build and drop at the right spots.

the fifth and final stage I use in

songwriting is instrumentation so we

know what instruments are gonna be

playing and when they're gonna be

playing now we're going to any need to

know exactly what they'll be playing. so

the first tip is to be creative use

weird new things that people may have

not heard too often or even ever before

try to be as creative as you can with that

but again make sure that it fits and

serves the vibe of your song what

feeling you're looking for. second tip is

to use different textures so for example

if you already have a guitar part,

you don't want necessarily want to

use another guitar but maybe you can use

a piano part or a pad part or strings or

something unique maybe electric guitars

use different textures - so the more

different textures and complementary

textures you can use the more

interesting your song will be.

the third and final tip is to use

instrumental hooks, if you don't know an

instrumental hook is here's a great

example I mean exactly what that song is

it's fireflies right how do we know that

because of that instrumental hook is so

unique and iconic and we know exactly

what that song is that's one

instrumental hook is it's a unique

iconic bit of instrumentation that when

someone hears it then know exactly what

it is and live related to your song it's

a very good idea to use instrumental

hooks and instrumentation.

Alright thank you so much for watching I hope this

helped!

#songstructure #songwriting #stagesofsongwriting