Songwriting process: My two main methods for writing a song

Hey everyone! So today, I’m going to share with you all how I write music. 

Let’s get into it.

Write the melody first

My habit that I’ve gotten into lately in the songwriting process is to write the melody first. 

And there’s a reason for that. 

Actually there are quite a lot of professional songwriters and songwriting textbooks that focus first on writing the melody or the hook first before they go out and write the rest of the song. 

And actually many hit songwriters highly recommend writing the hook first before writing anything else and there is a reason for it. 

For one, when you are writing a melody or better yet when you are singing a melody with no other musical context other than just the melody and silence, you can actually hear different harmonies and dissonance in your head if you were to hear the melody just by itself than with chords played with a guitar. 

Also, when you first sing a melody and you are not confined to the 4/4 rhythm that most music falls into, you will find that your melodies will be highly rhythmically diverse. 

Try this for your songwriting journeys. 

Try and write a few songs with the melody starting first, and then try and write a song with the chords first. 

You will find that if you start with the chords, then your melodies will have very similar rhythms to one another. 

However, if you were to start with the melody first, then you will find that you are singing very different rhythms back to back to back. 

So yeah, write the melody first. 

Starting with the chords

However, writing a melody first doesn’t provide structure. 

And actually if you have a melody that is too different, then the song will not sound hooky. 

So there needs to be a sort of structure behind the song before you go into the other parts of the song. 

So sometimes, even today, I will start with the chords of the song. 

It provides a base to start my song off of. 

I will have a way to harmonize clearly and to create strong melodies this way. 

I have written hooks first, but the thing is that with writing the hooks first, you will find that you’re writing strong hook after another and you will have too many options. 

Yes people in music there’s such a thing. 

So narrowing down your chords or even a key in which you want to start in can give you a good base to start your song off of. 

Broadcast

I sure hope that I have been an inspiration and a hope to you all. Please remember to pray, read your bible, go to church, and love God above all else. Like, comment, share, subscribe, and I will see you all next time.

If you want to go to heaven, then believe in Jesus and you will go to heaven. (John 3:16)

Thank you all for listening in on this blog post. 

German Gonzalez, signing out!