Create A Beat.

In all my time as someone who writes about songwriting, I've skipped over one of the essential elements of great songwriting. The Beat! Usually, if you're in a band, the drummer, or percussionist starts out, and the guitar or bass follows suit.

I've started to notice, in my own songs, that I use the same rhythm for pretty much all of them. So, the last song that I wrote, I decided to break out of the pattern, and the song that I ended up writing was really good. I really surprised myself with that one. Sometimes, since I don't have a drummer, I'll sit back with my keyboard, and play the crappy pre-programed beats that are installed, and come up with a pretty cool guitar part to go with it. Then maybe I'll come up with a lyric or two to match the guitar part.

Sometimes, you can keep the beat flowing, and do like a riff and response kind of song. There are quite a few songs I hear on the radio that you can just tell are written this way. If you're working with other musicians, you can collaborate so that a whole song is written in response to what another person plays. Check out "Voodoo" By Godsmack, for a perfect example of this. Now that's what I call team work!

Some songs, are pretty much all drums, and chanting goes along very well if you happen to have a natural rhythm. Basically the whole genre of Rap is based on beats, and rhythm. Lyrical emphasis usually helps songs in this genre gain popularity, but for the most part, it's the beat. Beat, and lyrical genious. Most Rap artists don't play instruments, they have more of a poetic talent, and a natural sense of how to create a beat.

Hank Williams III