Remember that tune that came to you when you were falling asleep and the next morning you couldn’t remember a single note of it? it was probably the #1 that could have given you an early retirement, but sadly, it slipped for ever not to come back again. It is a shame that thousands of the best songs that could have come to life just disappeared for not having a piece of paper or a tape recording at hand. Continuing our series on How to Write a Song, we will talk about the basic songwriter’s kit.
Not every songwriter follows the same process to create a great composition, but ideas tend to come in the same way and definitively, when they are not expected. If you want to become a songwriter, the first thing you need is discipline: you have to force yourself to write down every single idea that comes to your mind. Maybe later you will decide that it is not good enough or maybe it will become that catchy chorus of a million copies sold song. The objective here is to create as much as raw material as you can. That is why you need a basic kit of tools to make sure that you will never lose an idea again. In my experience, I have found the following to be the most useful tools:
- A tape recorder: Easy to use, very handy. You can whistle your tunes and record them, play the guitar, play a rhythm with your hands, sing some catchy lyrics. The possibilities are endless.
- A Laptop: There are plenty of commercial software products that you can use to write music notation and then play it back using different instruments. This is one of the most useful methods for you can add instantly a bass, percussion and arrangements to your recently created masterpiece.
- Paper and pen: Not much to say about this. You can write down those wisdom pearls that will give you the topic of the lyrics for your song.
- A musical instrument: A guitar or piano are perfect to figure out the underlying chords of a tune. You can play them while singing or whistling your tune.
- A chord book: It will be useful if you want to change the basic chords of your song to create more interest or try different approaches t0 the melody.
- A metronome: many times I’ve had to find out the tempo of a song before writing it on the laptop and this is where a metronome comes handy. Other use would be to simulate the rhythm while you play the chords or sing the melody.
You can add other useful thing to the list according to your own preferences. This is just a guideline that has worked to me. Remember that the best thing to do is to keep the discipline and write down any idea that comes to you before it is too late. In the next articles we will go deeper into more technical stuff on how to write a song.