Thread: How do you start off a song?

the best advice i can give to you is to base your songs on experiences you have personally gone through.
They will be more relatable, and what has more meaning than issues that every person has to overcome each and every day?
Learn how to use metaphors correctly, and expand your vocabulary as much as possible...
and remember, LINES DO NOT HAVE TO RHYME!
there are such things called "soft rhymes" as well.
just make sure your melody has rhythm, and you'll be absolutely fine.
Recommend a site for songwriting beginners: Songwriting courses for beginner-welcome to easy songwriting!, and there're some videos about songwriting courses.

at first when i play wit my friends, we usually like to make the "bare bones" of the song, usually like a riff and we work are way around it. it always works for us

Well now I don't really have a lot of experience but I write songs for fun so when I do, it sometimes depends on the music, you know if I am playing with my guitar random stuff and smth sounds good...then I think of something I wanna say like stuff that you personally have noticed or experienced or seen in a movie, that would work too. Also if it helps you you can create a little story in your song for example the classic one a love story or death story or anything else . You can also write with a political style if you have a strong political view or you are good at this stuff and they interest you. Social matters are also good topics for a song. I guess you will have to find your own style, you have to see what you want to write about so that you can pass emotions, if you throw mainstream words in a song that means nothing it will be boring and certainly not satisfying or anyhow good. I personally sometimes sing random stuff without any music just when I am in my room studying or just hangin out and sometimes I just sing melodies which can be used in songs and sometimes some good lyrics come to me so I write them down. I think that the key is generally to rely on your emotions.

P.S If anything comes to you at any time even if it is in your sleep you should write it down somewhere immediately so that you won't forget it.

That all

For me it depends on the purpose of the song. I almost always start with the music. If it's for a movie, I watch what I am scoring for about a million times and get the feel. If it's to sell something, I use the product name or catch phrase to get the meter and also the feel. If it's for a specific set of lyrics, I haven't written them, so I mumble away trying to set them. Usually however, I just sit with the guitar or jam away on the piano and see what comes up (sounds like throwing up...I hope not).

Haha thanks you guys! This topic really helped with my questions about writing a song as well.

I think it works differently for alot of people. I usually start with the beat. Then develop the hook then write the verses. I usually write about real life events that has either happen to me or something that I witnessed

This varies from time to time.

Sometimes I'll start out with a melody or beat in my head and sometimes the lyrics will come to me first. Sometimes I'll hear them semi-simultaneously (I hear the pattern but not the exact words or vice versa). Much inspiration for me comes from other music and sometimes it just comes from a thought, experience or idea. I think Bruce Lee said it best when he said to be like water, without form.

I don't have a set structure it just depends on how the music comes to me.

Firstly, it's mood) Then music...the main theme of the future song. It goes right from emotions and usually it's improvisation. Then I try to image these emotions in image and then words to express it... Something like that=)

Thing to remember, when you decide to write something, is: - what is it? What kind of music. The idea that one can just sit down and , yknow... play what you feel or whatever nonsense, is direly insulting to real musicians.
You have to enter the field somewhere. Blues, country, jazz- all have conventions, and are based on the work of thousands of people over decades. There is no real musical category called pop music, and words like folk are nebulous in the extreme, as are the artificially-created genres like alternate, grunge, techno, etc. etc. These are styles, or at best, sub-genres of one of the main music categories.
Since Jimi and rock music appeared, exactly one new category has appeared - electronica, and it's a weak one, more referring to the instrumentation rather than the actual musical content.
Pick a basic category and write there for a while. Just try and write a simple three-chord country song and see how easy it is. Chasing current pop trends will always lead you back there anyway.

I think the most important thing is to have the lyrics and the music agree. You can start with a musical concept and add words after you get the melody worked out, or you can start with a poem and rework it to fit a song. I myself start with the melody, but it's really personal preference. Music is arrived at in many ways.