Most people think that you need to be born with tons of talent to learn how to write your own songs, but that’s a total myth!

Songwriting is a skill that can be LEARNED – just like any other musical skill (with the exception, perhaps, of perfect pitch, and even that can be learned).

A couple of things to do right away are:

Learn as much as you can about your main composition instrument.

If you intend to compose your songs with a guitar, learn to play it well. Knowing how to use your instrument will greatly increase your ability to express yourself.

It’s not really vital that you learn to play super-technically, but at least it covers enough ground that you can draw on your musical vocabulary to “say” what’s on your mind. This includes learning as many chords as you can, improving your listening skills, working on your sense of time and rhythm, and some scales to help you improvise. It’s good to become familiar with many different styles of music, even if you only plan to write in one particular style. It’s crazy how much an unexpected chord you learned by playing along with jazz tunes, for example, can add to one of your compositions.

It definitely won’t kill you to sit down with some music theory and chord books, but the best thing to do is just copy and play the songs of your favorite artist. That way you’re learning while having fun and it doesn’t seem like a big chore or “practice”.

Similarly, if you want to write your own songs using the piano, you need to get a bit handy on the piano or you’ll be stuck with only a few ways to express your musical thoughts. Learning at least the basics of SOME kind of chord-based instrument (piano, guitar, banjo, mandolin, ukulele, etc.) is really important because you won’t be able to hear the harmonies if you’re just working with melody or bass. . Why is that important? Because when you choose the perfect chords for your song, the music itself WILL INSPIRE you. Trust me, great music feeds on itself and you need to see the “big picture” so to speak to get the most out of your songwriting efforts.

Study your favorite composers

Like I said before, you can learn a lot just by emulating your favorite singers and songwriters.

Learn to play their songs and analyze the content. What do they do with their voices when they sing? What are they doing on their instruments?

Study these nuances and apply them to your songs. It’s okay to copy them. I think it was Louis Armstrong, one of the greatest musicians of all time, who said that there is no such thing as copying, but borrowing. Or it could have been BB King. It doesn’t matter, even if all you wanted to do was sound exactly like your favorite music artist, you would never fully achieve it because it’s YOU and the better you are at music, the more your personality will come through. like it or not!

Eventually, your songwriting will evolve beyond imitation and become your own sound and instead of directly copying it, you’ll seek out snippets from various musicians to incorporate into your style in a unique way that is yours and yours alone.

Get a little help from technology

Technology and the Internet make it easy to quickly access a top-notch education in almost any subject, including songwriting. A good songwriting course or some well-designed software can teach you a lot of what you need to know about writing your own music without ever leaving your home.

Some things to look for in songwriting software include:

• Teaches to sing in harmony.
• It has a recording function (SUPER important!)
• Teaches the basics of reading music and key signatures (fundamental music theory)

You see, being a songwriter means you have to have a good musicianship, and your songwriting software should teach you at least the basics of musical language PLUS any specific songwriting techniques. The best analogy I can think of is basketball. Michael Jordan was an incredibly talented basketball player, but even before his basketball skills, he was an incredible athlete. In fact, he probably knows that he played very good baseball and golf. He had a solid foundation, which is what music theory gives a musician.

Keep practicing and staying passionate, and eventually your emotions and personality will start to come through in your compositions in a way that makes other people actually FEEL something. That’s all it is!