Thursday, June 25, 2009

How to Know If Your Song Idea is Worth Writing

There are thousands of people who write merely for the enjoyment of writing songs. But for those who have chosen to try and make a living doing it, the more tips they can pick up the more successful they will become. I was talking to another songwriter in Nashville one day and he said some things to me that made a lot of sense. He had been doing it a lot longer than I had so I thought I'd better listen to him. He told me to keep in mind that to those of us who want to be professional songwriters, songwriting is a business and in business time is money. So when considering ideas to work on, ask yourself these questions to help you decide if the idea is worth working on. If it is not worth working on, you are wasting time, thus you are wasting money.

When I get an inspiration, an idea for a new song, I first 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. I mentally think about the characters in the story, what they would be doing, what would happen in the story and what the resolution would be.

If there is a story to go with the idea, I then ask myself if there is enough of an audience for this song when it is completed. Some songs, even if they are well written, have only a small audience they would appeal to, so a 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. The best rule for 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 question you should ask your self is "can I write out the story so it makes sense." You'll need to write a summary of your story idea that you can later turn into song lyrics.

Once your summary is done, ask yourself what kind of hooks would work well with your song. A hook is anything that sticks in the listener's mind after hearing the song. That's why they call them hooks. Hooks can be the title, the chorus, a certain lyric, an instrumental, even a sound the engineer adds in the final mix. Keep in mind what the central idea of your song is and create hooks around this thought.

Next, it's time to begin turning your summary into lyrics. This is where you need to think about song structure. If you need help with song structure I'll have an article soon on it or you can just Google it and find one of the many great resources on the Internet. By song structure I mean arranging your song in verses, choruses etc.

When your lyrics are done, ask yourself if they will move the listener emotionally in one way or another. Writing lyrics that move the listener is sometimes the most difficult thing for a songwriter to do. Ask people you trust to read your lyrics and see how the react to them. If they don't get it, it might be time for a re-write.

Joe Russ is a musician, songwriter and Internet Marketer. He provides free informational articles and websites on songwriting, playing guitar, bass and piano, music theory and Nashville Music Careers. Read his articles on Writing Songs Nashville Style and learn to write songs the way the pros do it.

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