write a great song

I figured out why I never get anywhere with my songs. I’m trying to write complicated and clever lyrics. I’ve written Panic At The Disco type songs that are full of metaphors, and took a lot of thinking. I need to just write off the top of my head, and then I’ll finally finish some. I wish I could just be satisfied with simple catchy lyrics, but I end up thinking about it too much. Maybe I should start with a line, and use the rhyme that comes to my mind first instead of going through the alphabet and seeing what the most interesting rhyme would be. That’s right, I actually do that. As a fan of The White Stripes I should know there’s beauty in simplicity.

or i would invent the time machine, travel back in the history and make all the great songs myself. so i could be the god of music.

I’ve written lots of songs and never really been satisfied. i just got a good home recording set-up and i find protools recording software to really suit a certain style of songwriting which i usually practice these days. I’m about half-way through writing this tune called “immigrant”, i think it will be the best one i have ever written but i will be surprised if it is great. i am still learning though and as long as i’m doing that and improving and widening my understanding of the code of music i think i should eventually reach a goal such as writing a great song.

I think everyone works differently with songwriting so it’s difficult to give advice to each other on the subject unless you’re some kind of expert. I’m just going to say what i do and the way i approach it and hope that other people do the same and we can learn from each other.

for me, aiming to write like thom yorke or johnny greenwood or aiming to write a yesterday, everybreath you take or purple rain is useless. I just write my own song as good as I want it to be. I still think about what other people will think of my song and will they enjoy it etc. but its still my song in my style and i think aiming to be like someone else is essentially unproductive because it is impossible. You can not be someone else, you can be similar but never the real deal so just be what you are and maximise that potential, if executed correctly it will undoubtedly be great because everyone is great, it’s just expressing it musically that is the difficult part.

that’s just how i work, i know other people will do it differently. Noel Gallagher said that the best songwriter is the one with the biggest record collection (that’s not a direct quote but you get the idea), he has written many great songs and he clearly takes strong influence and aims to write certain styles of songs. But taking influence and trying to copy are different things i suppose.

I’m losing myself here but i guess my point is that one of the key elements of a great song is making sure it’s never been done before. I don’t mean that a great song should have a completely new, different sound; it could be very similar to other songs with only small difference but it should still be written from a genuine original feeling.

Ye i definitely lost myself there but i hope something in all that will be helpful

I have a bunch of songs which I started writing. I have so many ideas and titles buzzing around in my brain I can never decide which song to work on!

notin to do im in your shoe

I’ve written 2 songs already, and I think they’re ok, but everytime I try to add onto my songs that have about 5 lines to them, I think of a line, but I’m not satisfied with it, so I don’t write it..I really think too much when I’m trying to write songs.

If I could only write lyrics as passionate as Thom Yorke, and if I could only play guitar as beautifully as Jonny Greenwood, I think I would be able to accomplish this goal. Everything I write, though, is thrown away because nothing sounds as emotional as I want it to.
“But I can’t help the feeling, I could blow through the ceiling, if I just turn and run…”

I was inspired this weekend. I am not gonna tell you how. But I will tell you that I have some rough ideas. And when I say rough I mean rough. It has been a very long time since I have written anything. I let my creative side go for too long. But it is dying to come out and play.

Still working on my “Yesterday”, “Every Breath You Take”, or “Purple Rain”. If I could write a song with as much impact as one of these, I’d could move on and do something else.