Writing songs is a fun and effective way for musicians to grow and express their artistry. But songwriting can feel overwhelming—especially for those who are just getting started. I have found it helpful to break the songwriting process up into three distinct stages: the idea stage, the development stage, and the refinement stage. Simplifying it in this way can reduce the barrier to entry and makes it clear what objectives need to be prioritized at each point when writing a song.
The Idea Stage
As the name suggests, this is where we come up with our initial idea for a song. You can start with a melody or a chord progression, a beat or a loop made in your DAW, or a theme, title, or lyric. Even having a general sense of what you’d like to accomplish with a song—writing in a specific key or meter, or borrowing from a specific musical or artistic style—can be enough to get you started.
You may find it helpful to have idea generating sessions where you come up with as many potential song-starters as you can. This will give you a healthy well to draw from when you’re ready to flesh out a full song.
It’s important not to be overly critical at this stage because you won’t truly know if an idea will work until you try to develop it. As long as what you’ve come up with sparks a desire in you to see where it leads, that’s a good enough reason to consider it worthy. As you write more songs, your instinct for recognizing the potential in an idea will become more refined.
The Development Stage
This is the lengthiest—and in my opinion, most fun—stage of the songwriting process. The objective here is to take your idea and begin building it out into a song. This means establishing the structure, writing melodies, chords, and lyrics, and fleshing out the arrangement, instrumentation, and production.
You can develop a song with just your voice and a guitar or piano, a DAW, or with notation software—depending on your preferences and the style you write in. You will likely end the development stage with a demo of your song.
It can be helpful at this stage to focus on getting the “big wins” before diving into the more granular elements of the song. Having the main chords, structure, and lyrics done early, for example, can provide momentum that will help you through the rest of development.
The Refinement Stage
Refinement is all about editing and polishing your track so it sounds as good as possible. This can include any rewriting, final recording, additional production elements, mixing, and mastering. Depending on where you are in your musical journey, you may be doing all of this on your own in your home, or in a professional studio with a producer and engineers.
This part of the process may require significant time and financial resources, but is worth the investment so your song can be elevated to its full potential.
Simplifying the songwriting process in this way can make it easier for you to take a song from beginning to end. Giving yourself permission to start by generating many small ideas will reduce the pressure of starting from nothing. Knowing where to focus as you’re developing your idea can help you make progress quickly. And understanding what your song needs in order to sound its best can empower you to take those final steps so you can have a song you’re proud of.
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