A Step-by-Step Guide for Songwriters

Writing songs in my opinion is the single most fulfilling thing you can do for yourself. To this day, it’s still the reason why I get out of bed every morning. No matter what’s going on in my life, I still get the same rush of excitement when I’m working on new music.

I’m assuming that by reading this, you feel similar to what I’m talking about but maybe you’re new to songwriting and are having some trouble getting started.

Let me start by saying that writing songs is a process with a lot of moving parts working together. Though there are plenty of articles out there sharing a number of examples of how to tackle writing a new song, a lot of them share a bunch of steps to follow focusing on all of the song’s different elements at once. While I do think it’s great to have different options and perspectives to chose from, I also feel like this can be incredibly overwhelming to handle if you’re starting out.

In today’s article, I want to focus on one specific song element and offer some practical ways to help you get started with your own writing.

With that in mind, I thought we would get started with one of my favorite elements in a song: Melody.

Step 1 – Choose your Instrument

This might seem like a no brainer but as somebody who’s been playing guitar for 22 years, I know I can very easily forget that inspiration also lives outside of the instrument I spend so much time with and associate with writing. Yes, I do write a lot of melodies on guitar and it’s one of my favorite things to do but due to pattern recognition and the nature of the instrument’s design, I can very easily fall into a creative rut unless I go learn a new scale or play with an alternate tuning which is cool too! I highly recommend doing both of those things if you’re a guitarist who’s hit a creative wall.

An alternative approach would be to try writing a melody on an instrument that you’re NOT proficient in.

Huh?

Hear me out.
Let’s say for example, that you’re incredibly proficient on a specific instrument (let’s go with guitar again) and you just bought a bass guitar which you’re not so proficient in. Sure, you can play “guitar bass” and meticulously pick every note as you normally would but maybe your plucking technique isn’t able to match what you’d normally play on guitar.

This is a great opportunity to allow the limitations of your technical ability on the bass to challenge you to come up with new ways to write music.

In other words, you can use your lack of proficiency on an unfamiliar instrument (in this case, a bass) as a creative boundary of sorts for you to write a short, simple melody. Maybe your hand can only reach two notes at a time. Perfect! The exercise then is to come up with a two note melody that sounds good to you. Ask yourself. “How can I make these two notes sound not boring?”

Sometimes two notes is all you need to make an impact.

Hey, it worked for John Deacon on “Under Pressure” from Queen. 🤷‍♂️. Just saying.

My point with all this is that there is a freedom found in limitations. If you allow yourself to let go of expectations and with a little bit of patience, curiosity and some conscious steps to take, you’ll be surprised at what comes out.

Here are some additional steps you can take to get the creative gears running. To kick things up a notch, I’m going to follow along and do these exercises right along with you.

Step 2 – Decide on a Specific Mood

Making this simple decision can help dictate not only what chords and scales you will use, but also how fast or slow your melody is going to be. There are always exceptions (and always should be!) but generally speaking, it makes more sense that a happy song has a faster tempo compared to a sad or romantic ballad. 

Here are some suggestions off the top of my head of some different moods to draw inspiration from.

• Happy, Sad, Funky, Quirky, Angry, Romantic, Pensive, Confident

As an exercise, let’s choose a mood that we want to draw inspiration from to help write our melody. If something else that differs from this list comes to mind, go for it! All we want to be doing right now is making choices. I’m going to decide on a more sad, somber mood.

Step 3 – Choose a Key Signature and Scale

Deciding on what key feels and sounds best to you right at the beginning is a great way to kickstart the creative process because with every key comes a specific set of rules.

Though it might seem a bit rigid to be thinking about rules so early in the process it’s actually really beneficial to have a structure of sorts as it helps mitigate option paralysis. As long as we keep things loose, we’ll be fine.

Here’s what I mean by rules and structure.

All major keys have seven notes along with seven corresponding chords right?

Perfect! We’ve got a set of “rules” we can choose to either follow or break depending on what our instincts tell us but the fact that the rules are there provide a sense of stability to allow you to explore with confidence.

Here are some suggestions for specific keys to try out that fit with the following mood examples. Consider these just guidelines. For the purposes of this article, I’ll be using “C” as the root note for each scale/mode but please explore until you find a key where these scales sound best to you.

Mood: Happy

Scales to use: 

Ionian (Natural Major Scale) C – D – E – F – G – A – B

Mixolydian – C – D – E – F – G – A – Bb

Mood: Sad

Scales to use: 

Aeolian (Natural Minor Scale) C – D – Eb – F – G – Ab – Bb

Dorian – C – D – Eb – F – G – Ab – Bb

Mood: Quirky

Scale to use: 

Lydian C – D – E – F# – G – A – B

Mood: Confident/Swagger

Scale to use: 

Pentatonic Minor: C – Eb – F – G – Bb

Because the mood I chose is more somber, I’m going to go with the Dorian scale. 

Get the idea? 

Step 4 – Choose a Meter

What are melodies made out of anyway?

Ever asked yourself that? If you stop to think about it, the obvious first answer is notes right? In my experience when working with students however, the second half of the equation rhythm is almost never considered! (I was in this camp too so don’t feel bad.)

It’s pretty cool though when you stop to think about it. Each note in a melody has a certain lifespan of sorts. A duration. It could be held out for a long time or cut short with a sharp attack. Knowing this, there’s an entire world to explore within.

Instead of deliberately trying to determine how long or short our notes are going to be, let’s set the table with deciding on a specific meter to base our melody off of. We want to find something that we can easily write our melody to so the less time taken to decide, the better. Trust your instincts on this and go for whatever feels the best to you.

Though 4/4 time is the most natural feeling for the majority of us, if you’re a prog rock nerd like me and feel like your heart beats in 5/8, do that!

Once you find something that you’re comfortable with, write it down.

I’m actually gonna go with 5/8 here because why not? Worked for Radiohead!

Step 5 – Choose a Tempo

At this point, refreshing your memory on what mood you’ve loosely chosen will help dictate the rhythmic feel as well as speed of your melody.

Let’s choose a consistent tempo that we can write our melody to. Once you find something that you’re able to play along to without feeling too rushed (or feeling like it’s dragging too slowly for that matter) write it down.

I’m going to go with 74 bpm (beats per minute) as the somber mood I’m going for lends itself to a slower tempo generally speaking.

Step 6 – Write a bass line

We’re going to keep it super simple here. To give our melody a sense of direction, we’re going to choose up to four notes out of our scale to string together a bass line.

Because I’m using the Dorian mode, here are the four notes I’m using

Eb, C, Bb and G.

Here’s what it sounds like with my wacky time signature:

Step 7 – Decorate your Bass Line with Your Melody

Same rules apply here as they do with step six. Use up to four notes to get started but once you feel the gears turning, let go of the reins and see where your instincts carry you.

Here’s a rough idea I came up with for the melody while doing this

In Closing

That’s all I’ve got for you today! Hopefully this article gives you the feeling like you now have a solid framework to help get you started making some new music from scratch or even to help you crawl out of a creative rut. Obviously knowing your key signatures, modes and additional scales will be vital in navigating some of this terrain but if you could use some coaching in that regard, drop me a line here at PIVODIO™.

Thanks for reading!

Aaron

About PIVODIO™ Coach Aaron Cloutier

Aaron Cloutier is a songwriter, producer, and music educator with over 15 years of experience in the music industry. As a graduate of the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences, Aaron has incorporated his education in audio engineering into his songwriting and production experience, allowing him to work with artists ranging from Ill Nino to the late Sir Christopher Lee. Aaron’s ability to write, record, and produce has also allowed the opportunity to compose music for audio-based companies ranging from Korora Audio, Redwirez, and Ugritone. He lives for the creative process and is eager to share his experience with a new crop of musicians.