learning the signals of songwriting

Anyone remembers his or her first attempts at writing a song? I think if you have written songs for some time now, like myself [25yrs+], you probably take songwriting for granted.

You learn to recognize the signals of a new song as they start to flow in. You might be driving along the road and somebody says something, and for whatever reason, those words stand out to you and you recognize it as a song title or maybe an opening lyric to a verse. You are then off and running with your new tune, waiting to be written.

What about the people who want to write their own songs and have no idea where to start. Has no experience at it, and finds the challenge of writing words or music a daunting task and quickly frustrating.

I want to go back to the basics of song writing and tell of my own experiences with this subject. What helped shaped my drive, and excitement for this form of art.

My first attempt at lyric writing was copying out the words to a song a liked when I was a young teenager. Joan Jett and the blackheatrts "I love Rock n Roll".

I was amazed at the writing content of this song. Didn't make a lot of sense to me at time. But it fascinated me all the same. I think more for its simplistic writing style in the chorus.
E.g. "I love rock and roll, put another dime in the Jukebox baby" Joan Jett.

The next thing that grabbed my attention musically was Princes "When doves cry". That was the first time I would play a song on high rotation and I mean very high rotation. I don't remember the amount of times I actually played that song per day, [that's now coming up 30 years ago.] but it was a lot. I did the same thing for his song "kiss" and most of his music.

I believe to this day that those moments as a young kid with no musical influences [be it instrumental or lyric writing] from any of my family members, apart from, how to press the play button on the stereo, and my mum learning to play the organ when I had been learning guitar for about 12 months. Have guided and prepared me for the requirements necessary to start and complete a song.

As a whole, a radio friendly song for example, is a complex combination of notes and rhythms and beats all going off together at once, to create feelings and emotions that you can remember years down the track.

But if you break those songs down into their simplest forms E.g. [music notes, vocals, rhythm guitar or piano chords, drum beats] you learn how one part interacts with another. I still don't understand how a song you can listen to 100 times before, and then it makes you cry the next time you hear it. Weird, but that's the power music has.

What's this blog all about?Hopefully, helping new songwriters with "how to start a song"

I hope anyone who reads this blog can put forward their beginnings, when they started out in the songwriting world that might be of benefit to the newbie songwriter.

We all started there ourselves and we should never take for granted the skills required and had to learn over the years to complete our works of art. All those songs written, whether it was "Prince", "David Bowie," or the local muso playing gigs 4/5 nights a week. Those songs will always be a treasure to each person, in their own personal and respective lives.

Hope to hear your beginnings.

readyforjammin.com  [beginners guitar lessons]