Songwriting Process: A Personal Look at How Songs Come About

Songwriting is quite entertaining, because the possibilities are certainly unlimited. As I start a piece, I take a direction, but I am never sure where I will end up. Ideas float gently and easily through the mind and soul. Some of these ideas make it into a piece, while others are filed away in the cabinets of our mind for disposal or later use. I cannot tap into any one source for ideas; it is better to just let ideas come to you.

For example, I am working on a big band arrangement of a classic American tune, Solid Rock. I hate big bang arrangements, because of the complexity and unrelenting layers of instruments. I simply plugged in the melody to several instruments, panned them around, and did the same for the bass. I quickly worked up an honestly random percussion beat, which worked well enough for my purposes. The target is sixty measures, but the tune is only seventeen measures. Tapping my pen rapidly, I flipped through my sheet of scales and stumbled upon a very curious scale. The Hungarian Gypsy scale, or Hungarian Minor, was one of the quirkiest and amusing scales I've heard. So I wrote everything out for the key, and the result? A typical melody pounded about by a big band, until out of the mist comes a Hungarian Gypsy saxophone solo! I believe this really spiced up the piece, along with extending it and adding structure.

As I look at the work of others, I can definately tell it's their piece. There is a hint of the songwriter in every song, just because of their specific ideas or process. One person in particular uses a large, considerable amount of synthesizing, with a large amount of running melodies (constant up-and-down runs of eighth notes). Sometimes one has to step back and look at his or her own piece without bias. This will prove a great help in the long run, as without some change in perspective, it is difficult to critique and improve a piece. Borrow ideas and quirks from other pieces of music. Look at the chord progressions and rhythym. All these factors will improve the songwriting process, and mature tunes into fully matured masterpieces.

Some songs come out by strumming chords and scratching lyrics on hotel pads, others come from meticulous calculation. Whatever the method or process, it is quite entertaining. A word of advice: don't try to write a certain perfect song, just go with the flow of the pen!