Many guitarists become extremely accomplished when it comes to playing their instrument, but far fewer compose their own songs.
There’s many reasons - lack of confidence, knowledge, inspiration or maybe even just the drive to do it.
But songwriting is just like any other aspect of guitar: easy to learn, impossible to truly master. There’s no reason why you can’t write a great song NOW, no matter your current skill level on the instrument.
I’m going to take you through a few ways to:
Come up with song ideas and inspiration
Arrange and prepare all of the parts required
Choose which notes, scales and chords to use
Step 1: Working out what sort of guitar song to write
Starting with a blank page and no direction is a quick way to end up floundering and wasting your time.
Set yourself some restraints or goals, however, and you’ll quickly find your creative spark will ignite.
Write a song for a particular purpose
Got an upcoming birthday to celebrate? Maybe you’ve got a camping trip or you’ve just had a special event happen that you want to write about?
Having a particular purpose in mind for a song makes it heaps easier to make decisions in the songwriting process.
For example, if you know your audience is going to be young kids, you’re probably not going to be doing a really slow, dark tune that goes for 15 minutes. You’re probably going to want it to be fun, energetic and lively.
Similarly, if you’re writing a song to perform at an event on your own, you probably don’t want to compose your own Bohemian Rhapsody because you’re not really going to be able to translate that level of complexity with just one live guitar.
Don’t have a purpose? Make one up. Seriously, I can’t stress enough how powerful this trick is for guiding your songwriting process.
Maybe you want to write a really challenging song to play. Maybe you want to write a song that uses a new scale you learnt. Any purpose is good so long as it makes sense to you.
Write a song in the style of another artist or genre
Emulation is much easier than complete originality - especially if you want your end song to be accessible to other people and not be too ‘out there’.
In the earlier years of Hybrid Nightmares, our bass player Jon would always write songs which he would call “Emperor” or “Behemoth” because they were supposed to sound like those bands. They were where he was drawing his inspiration to actually write the songs.
This can be handy for a number of reasons. By analysing a particular artist, you can quickly and easily decide:
The tuning you’ll play in
The keys to use
Which shapes, scales, chords and riffs to use
The tempo
Lyrical content
Instrumentation
Guitar tones
Song length
Song structure
Mood, dynamics and articulation
There’s probably even more I’ve not even considered.
Now, if you’re worried that you’ll end up with copies of existing songs, I wouldn’t stress too much - almost every song Jon brought to the band sounded nothing like the original band to us, which is fine. The inspiration is just that: inspiration.
You can change things as you go, and even if you don’t, you’ll invariably put your own spin on the song because YOU are the one writing it, not the original composer (who probably did the same thing with THEIR influences).
If you don’t have a particular artist in mind, go with a song, or a whole genre if you’d prefer.
Step 2: Prepare your songwriting tools
Once you know what you’re going to write, there are a few practical things to prepare:
Scales (to give you the notes to use in the song)
Chords (to use for the rhythm section)
Rhythms (strumming patterns, grooves etc)
Lyrics (if you have vocals)
Guitar tones
Instruments (remember that these can be virtual instruments like a drum machine plugin)
This ‘toolbox’ is going to give you all of the elements you need to write the song.
In general, you’ll be guided by the genre and the key that you pick. For a starting point, check out this guide to writing chord songs for guitar.
Don’t go too crazy in the preparation phase here. It’s often better to have fewer tools in your toolbox so you’re not having to choose from too many things.
You can always add more things in if the song needs something extra later down the track.
Step 3: Start pumping out song ideas
There are 3 main ways to get started with song ideas for guitarists:
Start with a riff (think Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple)
Start with a chord progression (think Yesterday by the Beatles)
Start with lyrics (think Fast Car by Tracy Chapman)
By the way, I have no idea if those artists truly started writing those parts first or not, but I’m using them as examples of different focuses for a song.
Riffs are easy to start with - just pick a scale and start noodling. Don’t go overboard with complexity though, as simple repetitive riffs can always be expanded upon later, but it’s a lot harder to simplify a complex riff.
Chord progressions can be stolen from other songs (it’s fine, all musicians do it, copyright law allows it and it’s basically unavoidable) or you can just start putting chords together until you get a group of 3 or 4 you like.
Lyrics can be sung or they could just be lines of poetry to get you started. Again, don’t go overboard - start with one or two lines, not an entire verse.
Now, here’s the big trick for song ideas: do a lot of small ideas, regularly, and record them.
I can’t stress the last part enough. You will need a big bank of lots of ideas tucked away to be expanded upon, repurposed or just thought about to get the most out of the initial ideas.
How you record these ideas is up to you, but I find for me the best way is grabbing my phone and recording a voice memo of me playing the idea. If you struggle to playback your ideas on sound alone, you could tab them out or use some other form of handwritten notation that makes sense to you. Trial and error will be your friend here.
There are countless times I’ve had a main riff sitting around which I love, but never had the write sort of application for it. Then, one day, you need a bridge or a chorus and it just fits perfectly.
Got an idea you’re not sure about? Who cares, record it anyway! No one is going to force you to release it, but it may come in handy later on.
Got an idea you absolutely love and want to just focus on that? Go for it, but don’t be surprised if you spend an entire day working on one idea only to listen back the next day and wonder ‘what was I thinking?’
It’s all part of the process!
Step 4: Start arranging the ideas into an actual song
If you’ve already got a clear genre or style in mind, the structure and arrangement may come easy.
For example, as one of our shred-lord students put it today when explaining the structure of a typical Dragonforce song (I’m paraphrasing), it goes:
Intro (for ages)
Verse
Chorus
Verse
Chorus
Bridge
Solo
Solo
Solo
Chorus
Outro
So, start chucking ideas into these roles and see if it works.
From there, you can start arranging multiple instruments, harmonies, variations on your initial ideas and really adding all those extra elements that occur to you as you go.
The song will probably never be ‘finished’ - even songs that get released are rarely considered complete by their composers. The trick is to get it to the point where it sounds good and then step away.
If you get too obsessive about each element, you may over-produce it and end up with a song that has lost it’s initial spark.
Variations on this process
Songwriting is a very personal process, so if you feel like doing any of the above in a different order, definitely give it a try.
I’d also encourage you to try other people’s approaches too. Think of it like a challenge for yourself: “Can I write a song the same way John Lennon did?” The answer may be “No.” Or, you may find a few little tricks that work for you so your own process is improved.
Just remember that songwriting is a skill like any other, and the best way to get better at songwriting is to write songs.
It’s simple and easy if you let it be simple and easy - all it takes is that initial push from within and a little self-confidence.