Open Your Ears.

Sometimes, you can create a song by listening. Make it a conscious effort when you're around others, to truly listen to what they say. The more diverse the people that you associate with are, the more interesting your songs can be. Write down some of the phrases people around you use. Even people you don't know can provide excellent sources of inspiration, for songwriting greatness!

Sometimes, I like to sit down in a crowded place, and just listen to the people around. Being by yourself, isn't always a bad thing! If you're with friends, pay special attention to the funny one. There's always a funny friend in every group. If you're the funny person, find what situations trigger you to laugh, and write a song about it!

Another example of listening, if you're haveing a really hard time, is to take your inspiration from other songs. Don't steal a song straight out, but just get a feel, or a mood from whatever you may be listening to. To add a twist to this, I like to sometimes go on youtube, and find not so popular, but talented people, and listen to their music. There are millions of these random folk musicians out there on the internet, just dying to be discovered. Take a listen, and find your own melody, write based on the mood you feel from the song. Just because your song is inspired by an artist, doesn't mean it'll sound anything like that artist.

Good examples of songs inspired by other artists would include: "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana. Kurt Cobain himself said that all music is pretty much the same thing played in many different ways. This particular song was inspired by Blue Oyster Cult's "Godzilla"

"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." By the Beatles. Not just the song, but the whole C.D. was inspired by the harmonies, and brilliance of the Beach Boys "Pet Sounds" The originality that the Beatle's added however, was the fact that they pretended to be a whole nother band. This is one of the rare cases where the inspiration for something pales in comparison to the legacy that the artist who was inspired created.

Jack White!

Bring a Notebook.

If there ever was a cure for not being inspired, it's to bring a notebook (and a pen) anywhere you go. It not only helps with songwriting, but you'll find many other uses for this as well. I remember as a youngin', hearing on the radio, that Marilyn Manson had this notebook of phrases and one liners that he carried with him everywhere.

It's a form of writing from the lyrics out. With this method however, you're only taking pieces of lyrics to form music with, as opposed to sitting down, and writing full blown verses. Once you choose a phrase from your notebook, that you think is song worthy, SCREAM IT! Make it your battle cry. If it's not good enough to scream, it's not good enough to be part of your song!

If you can scream it, you can dream it. Once you have a phrase, written down and all, you should be able to visualize singing it towards a crowd, and hopefully the crowd will sing it back! Even if it's a crowd of three or four family, and friends. I can't stress enough the importance of visualization, but I have a whole nother article about that.

This method goes along real well with recording yourself, see my article titled "bring a recorder" for more info. The cool thing about having a written log, of phrases and such, is that it's open to interpretation. If you recorded yourself singing the phrases, (and I encourage you to) It's still a mighty fine idea to have a written log, because you may interpret the phrase differently the next day after you wrote it. For instance, maybe you wrote something out of anger one day, and wanted to sound really angry singing, so you recorded it. The next day, you're in a completely different mood, and you notice how awesome this phrase sounds in a melencholy, or sad tone of voice. You can then add both interpretations to your song, or scrap the first idea all together. The possibilities are endless!

John Lennon!

Diversify Your Influences

Alot of musicians I know, tend to write songs based on the music they grew up with. So if you're a rock musician, you're most likely a rock fan, Country musician, Country fan, and so forth. There are few exceptions to this rule, but If you want to be great, (and I mean great!) you have to diversify.

I remember as a young lad, talking about different kinds of music with my friends and such, and mostly being into classic rock, untill one day I went through one of my friends C.D. collections. Now, my C.D.s tended to be all rock. I don't think I strayed to far from Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin. But my friend Ben on the other hand, had the most diverse C.D. collection I had ever seen! It was a bit of a shock at first, and my first instinct (much as it'd probably be anyone's instinct) was to make fun of the poor guy! I mean really, what metal fan in his right mind would own, let alone listen to any of the b.s. put out by Nsync, or The Backstreet Boys?! These C.D.s were right next to Bob Marley, and Rod Stewart, along with Slayer and Cold Play. It was just odd. Ben was quite eccentric, as was I, so needless to say, I did not make fun of him, but in fact, at that moment, gained a new musical perspective. Especially when he told me that his favorite guitar player was Stevie Ray Vaghn. How unusual!

I can only hope that this article has the same affect on you as Ben's musical taste did on me. I remember reading in Guitar World not to much longer after this experience, that Kirk Hammet of Metallica was listening to alot of Ice Cube, and rap music in general during the making of one of their C.D.s. I can't exactly remember which one, but it doesn't really matter. It's the principal of the thing! Listen to what you want, and I guarantee, you'll get more respect in your music, than he who is narrow minded.

John Denver!

Visualize Your Inspiration

Inspiration can come from anywhere! For me right now, it's my friends on facebook urging me on, but as far as songwriting goes, to write a good song, it's a good idea to begin with the end in mind. If you were a carpenter, you wouldn't begin building a house without blueprints, or at least some kind of floor plans, would you? Think of your song as a house. All the elements of harmony, melody, verses, chorus, etc. are all bricks, or whatever material you want to build your house out of. That's the great thing about songs, is their diversity. Just like houses, there's so many different kinds, and you're audience is going to evaluate your song on so many levels. Just like if you were to marvel at a house, you could say that one is sturdy, but isn't so good for looks, or some houses are gorgeous, but probably won't last too long.

Visualize what aspects you wan't people to look at in your song once it's finally finished. Do you want people to say "That song is very catchy, but has very little lyrical content."? That's kinda what I think when I hear "I kissed a girl" by Katy Perry. Her Hook, and melody are excellent, way above average. However, just like most songs by Lady Gaga, or Pink, and alot of other pop artists, the lyrical content, and meaning, just isn't there. That's why, metaphorically speaking, they're the houses that are great to look at, but only last like maybe a few years, due to poor all around structure, or possibly built on a bad foundation. Not that it's a bad thing. I like to look at pretty "houses" just as much as everyone else, but sadly, most just don't last. That's why modern pop artists have to continually work hard at what they do, and make more songs, 'cause if their song goes out of style, they're done forever.

Some songs however are the exact opposite. Take Bob Dylan's music for example. His lyrics, and song structures are some of the greatest ever written, but let's be honest, his songs aren't the catchiest. Fellow musicians like myself are big fans of Bob Dylan, because it's just mind blowing that anyone can write such well crafted songs, lyrically, and structure wise, he changed the rules of songwriting. Not something that you can say about alot of musicians except maybe The Beatles. However, he wasn't the best singer in the world, which kind of made alot of his melodys sub par. It's not the melodys that make Bob Dylan so great, it's his lyrical content, and structure, that'll make his songs last forever. If his songs were houses, they wouldn't be so pretty to look at, but they would be pretty darn nice to live in. Definitely built on a good foundation.

There are so many aspects of an individual song, that I could go on forever, but it's good to know that when you write, you should know, not only what message you want to convey, but how you want to send it out into the world. Whether you want your song to last for years, and be valued by your audience, or just be really catchy, and be a fun tune for people to sing for a few years. There's nothing wrong with either style.

Also, be sure to know the audience you're writing for. You don't want to write a children's song about satan. Children tend to not like that sort of thing. Visualize who it's going to be for, before you write, that way you won't mix up your lyrical content with your musical style, and completely alienate your audience. Although, I guess you could, but you simply wouldn't have alot of fans. See you next post!!!

Maynard James Keenan! (The guy from Tool)