How to write a great song
I was looking for a topic to blog on ; so I went to my trusty friend Facebook to solicit ideas. Someone said," write a blog on how to write a great song". I found the question very stimulating, as well as exhausting. How do you write a great song? This is not a rhetorical question, I'm asking you, how do you write a great song. I'm not sure if I even know what a great song is. I do know what an awful song is; I think?
I can tell you how to write a song, I teach that everyday. I have worked with new songwriters that have gone on to write a number of hits. I bet you none of them could tell you how to write a great song. However, I do think great songs come out of passion and experience, and when you express your ideas clearly great things can, and do come out of it.
Don't strive to write a great song. Strive to write an honest song, and great things can happen. If your striving to write hits, your striving for the wrong thing. If your striving to touch hearts, your heading in the right direction for great things to occur.
So my advice is; be honest, not contrived, learn your craft, and write , write write. My name is Grady and I approve this message.
1 comment:
Hi Grady,
Good and interesting post, am a musician for all of my life, indeed, am a prolific songwriter.
I agree with certain aspects of your post, don't try to create a song, let it come to you, feeling the emotion from within, and expressing those emotions through your music.
Has anyone considered that a song is a story told to music, the best songs are those that are taken out of lifes experiance.
Other ways to compose and create, is to look around and see what is going on during your normal course of life, the sights and sounds of a busy city, people going about their daily business, a sound, a word, in fact, practically anything can trigger the creative mind into action, thereby penning lyrics.
I was asked how it is that i can create lyrics and music out of seemingly thin air, well , let me start by stating that am no magician, it does happen, but i think you have to be attuned to whats going on around you in order to create, Hence, a musical phrase i did create many years since.
Music of the mind you see, conceptual ability, i can hear the music, i see it everywhere.
Extracted from A musical work "Fantasia"
Regards,
Venuss Sharman
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