How To Write Songs On Guitar And Improve Your Songwriting
Want to write songs on guitar?
This songwriting article will show you how.
Let’s begin with:
The #1 reason most guitarists have a hard time writing music and writing songs.
That reason is:
Most guitarists use only one approach to write songs on guitar.
For most people, that approach involves going to their guitar and fishing for ideas until you stumble upon something that you think sounds good.
“What’s the problem with this method”, you ask?
The problem isn’t with the ‘method’, per se. It’s more that every way of writing music has its own limitations. And if you only use one way of writing music, you’ll keep running into all the songwriting limitations your favorite method has.
For example, the limitations of only using your guitar for songwriting include:
- Being restricted by the guitar’s limitations of tone, playability, pitch range, the number of pitches that can be played simultaneously, dynamic range, articulation, etc.
- Repeating similar ideas that you have used before in other songwriting sessions.
- Thinking like a guitar player only, versus a songwriting musician.
- Having your hands do most of the creating, not your creative mind.
As your range of possible songwriting results becomes limited, you may find yourself struggling with songwriting writer’s block.
The solution?
Use multiple songwriting techniques for writing music.
To do this, think about the 7 elements of music: melody, harmony (chords), rhythm, dynamics, timbre, texture and form.
You can craft an approach to writing music based on each of the 7 elements.
For example:
Write Songs On Guitar By Beginning With Melody First
- Consider the melodic contour (shape and direction) of your melodies.
- Is there a clear climax (high point)? Where should it be in the melody?
Decide on the other elements after you work out the melody during your songwriting process.
See an example of this approach to writing music in this video:
Write Songs On Guitar By Beginning With Harmony (Chords) First
- Choose a tonal center (key) to begin with. You don't have to stay in that key for the entire song, but choose a key to start with.
- Think about the progression of chords (how chords change). Where are the moments of tension and resolution? Are these moments placed in the best order?
See this video for an example of how to use chords to build and resolve tension when writing music:
Write Songs On Guitar By Beginning With Rhythm First
- Experiment with variations on your favorite rhythmic patterns.
- Take a common rhythm pattern and play it backwards.
- Create something totally new. Force yourself to disallow any of your favorite rhythmic patterns to creep into your new song idea.
Write Songs On Guitar By Beginning Dynamics First
- If you are thinking about dynamics ‘at all’ during your songwriting, your songwriting skills are already far ahead of most people.
- Plan out what the dynamic range of each section of your new song will be. Which parts will be louder and which will be softer? How can you create smooth transitions between them? Do you want "smooth" transitions or harsh/more abrasive transitions as you are writing music and writing songs?
Write Songs On Guitar By Beginning Timbre First
- Plan out the variety of instruments you use, and the sounds you plan to use on those instruments as you are writing songs.
- Decide which instrument will play the melody and which one will play the harmony.
- Even if you are only writing a song for a solo instrument, how can you "color" the sound with that instrument? For example, on a guitar, playing down by the bridge produces a totally different sound quality than picking over the center of the string (12th fret).
Write Songs On Guitar By Beginning With Texture First
- Consider how the density of texture may change from section to section as you are writing music. What type of musical effect will result?
Write Songs On Guitar By Beginning With Form First
Consider the arrangement of the parts of the song early on in the writing process. Without this, it’s easy to paint yourself into a corner (where the parts you’ve written don't seem to connect together in a cohesive way).
Bottom line: the more approaches you have for writing music, the easier it becomes to write songs on guitar and the more fun songwriting becomes.
And now that you know how to become a better songwriter, the next step is to transform all areas of your guitar playing and musical skills with a guitar lesson strategy customized for you. This gives you everything you need to finally learn to play guitar the way you’ve always wanted.
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