Hello Sidekicks, let's explore the ways you might go about writing as a non-instrumentalist. I had absolutely zero knowledge of playing an instrument when I first began writing. This can seem a little daunting and unconventional at first but this is absolutely achievable to learn to write songs this way. What I have learned about writing songs started off as trial and error. I would learn melody by singing along to my favourite songs. I would recognise rhyming patterns in each lyrical phrase. I was no expert, my teacher was the music.
I would often think about how do I even write a song. In the beginning, there are lots of grey areas to navigate but particularly learning to marry up lyrics with melody. I was extremely grateful for Youtube during my early years of writing, providing me with thousands of backing tracks to practice these essential skills. My inability to play an instrument did not hinder the pure joy writing gave me and over time I started to notice the improvement. Here's some of the processes I have found to be essential to the songwriting process.
1) Dry lyric writing
By dry lyrics, I am referring to the lyrics without any accompaniment or backing track. Think of this as writing poetry. The benefit of focusing on lyrics is to explore the uses of vocabulary and storytelling.
Vocabulary
I love exploring language—the wider your vocabulary the greater the options for your lyrics. Language can be obtained everywhere, in dictionaries, newspaper articles, and films. Try making a list of interesting words, these will become your seeds of ideas.
As a rule of thumb, if I am selecting more unusual words for my songs, I will always look up the definition. I consider, does this word make sense in the context of my story or is this just a cool word? I then ask myself, will the listener understand what I am trying to say?
Not all language you use has to make sense, you can create songs to be abstract and that's ok too. Though, it is important to think about your creative intention.
Storytelling
Storytelling is one of my favourite parts of songwriting. This allows you to shape a narrative. You control the setting, emotional undercurrent, and main theme. I find the most important element of successful storytelling is having a timeline of events. For instance, you don't want to repeat the event in verse 2 the same way in verse 2. Think of each verse as a chapter. When you read a book, you don't want to reach the end without the character having learned something or changed in some way.
Take Billie Eilish's song The 30th for example. Here are verses 1 and 2.
[Verse 1]
Sometimes, you look the same
Just like you did before the accident
When you're starin' into space
It's hard to believe you don't remember it
Woke up in the ambulance
You pieced it all together on the drive
[Verse 2]
Thought it was unusually early traffic
Usually, I don't panic
I just wanted to be on time
When I saw the ambulances on the shoulder
I didn't even think of pullin' over
I pieced it all together late that night
Notice how verse 1 is set after the event, a reflective moment of 'the accident.' Verse 2 adds the detail, the context of what the characters in verse 1 have been through such as 'when I saw the ambulances on the shoulder, I didn't even think of pullin' over.' I like how verse 1 is presented as a kind of internal monologue and how the events unfold throughout the song and not in chronological order.
The order of events is certainly something to consider for your own writing as well as the narrators perspective. These elements help to keep the verses moving along.
2) Writing to backing tracks
Writing to backing tracks is a great way to begin writing songs. This is the method I used before starting to learn basic guitar and keyboard skills. You can use any backing track to aid your writing process, this could be sourced from Youtube for example. Please note, if you do not own the backing track or its license, then you can not use this in any way, other than to practice writing. That being said, there is so much that can be learned from practising top-line writing. This style works mainly in lyrics and melody. Let's focus on how to approach melody writing, for now, I'll be revisiting the specifics on lyric writing some other time.
Get Practicing - Why not try these techniques
Try singing different melodies over the same section of the piece. Consider the rhythm, using long and short note variations. Think about the pitch, verses tend to have a lower range than the chorus to give greater impact. However, why not try the opposite, test how a higher range might sound in the verse and lower the melody in the chorus? Although this might seem unconventional, especially if aspiring to write popular music (pop/mainstream), I would encourage any writer to throw out the rule book and explore where your melodies can take you. This should help you on your way to finding an authentic voice.
3) Collaborating with instrumentalists & other songwriters
Finding collaborators is a great way to endorse yourself in the world of songwriting. If you are a new writer, learning from others can be a useful tool to identify the different roles a songwriter can play.
Working with other writers is an exciting process with creative ideas bouncing back and forth. In contrast to working alone, you now have someone else's ideas and ego to consider. We all have an ego as a writer, even if we may not think so. Collaboration works best when the people in the room feel comfortable enough to share any idea in its unedited form. Surround yourself with people that will throw out your ideas as quickly as they will celebrate your great ones. Be sure to be this person too.
No one can be good at everything, for example, if you consider yourself a great storyteller but struggle at writing killer hooks, try and find someone who can fill in the gaps. Working with your best mates will always be fun, but make sure to find someone who compliments your professional attributes as well as your personal ones. Working with people who are often very different from me produces better outcomes than those who have similar roles.
I hope that this has assured you that anyone can give songwriting a go and not to fear what you may not know. Rather embrace your creative instinct, trust your intuition to be the guiding light and seek collaborators that can help grow your confidence in the process.
Katie
Comments