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Why and How to Write Songs on Guitar – Complete Guide!

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Why would you want to write a song?

Songwriting is both an art and a craft where you can express your musical creativity, your heart and soul into the ultimate form of a song.

It’s a great learning process for guitar players and all musicians. You’ll discover music on so many new levels and learn to think differently on how to approach your instrument. When you write your own songs you will also learn to transcribe songs faster, and understand and play music in a more proficient way.

I’ve got a lot of guitar students who started writing their own songs and many of them were surprised with how much they enjoyed it and found they could actually write a song. Try it and you might find yourself on a new path you never expected. There is only something to win here.

How to write a song

There are many ways to approach songwriting. You can write a personal story and sing about the struggles and challenges you go through in life. The side effect is highly therapeutic. Many artists do this.

You can also write in a narrative style and bring your own concepts and characters to life through your lyrics. Think about the message you want to get across.

To learn a certain style of songwriting study the professionals. Listen and read the lyrics of your favorite artists, learn how they approach their song writing and convey their stories. Watch interviews on Youtube on their songwriting process. The same goes for the use of chords, chord progressions, melody, rhythm playing, and other musical arrangements. Study, analyze, hear and feel them.

Song Structure

For writing a song you can use different components like an intro, verse, chorus, bridge, instrumental solo and outro. These components or sections are then repeated in some way. The most common forms are:

ABAB : Verse – Chorus – Verse – Chorus
AABA: Verse – Verse – Chorus – Verse
ABABCB: Verse – Chorus – Verse – Chorus – Bridge – Chorus

Around these sections you can create an intro, a guitar solo or an outro.

Tip: Listen to your favorite song writers and figure out what song structure they use and which ones you prefer.

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How to Memorize Music and Lyrics Forever and Ever

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Memorizing song lyrics hasn’t always been my strongest asset.

Learning chords, chord progressions, scales and guitar solos were always the easy part.

I’d go through them once or twice and they were stored in my brain for ages. But those nasty lyrics didn’t seem to get further than my short term memory.

I ultimately tackled this problem by using a learning technique called spaced repetition.

Spaced repetition works with graduated time intervals. It makes use of the spacing effect where you learn something several times spaced over a long time span.

Instead of cramming (hastily and intense studying at the latest possible moment) which is great for storing huge amounts of information for a short period of time, spaced repetition will pass the information from the short term memory onto the long term memory and make it last indefinitely.

Source
This technique was first discovered by Hermann Ebbinghaus, a german psychologist who experimented with the study of memory and did some extraordinary findings. He contributed to science with brilliant insights on the forgetting curve, the learning curve and the spacing effect.

Application
While you can apply the spaced repetition technique to any kind of (musical) information, we’ll take “memorizing lyrics” as an example.Continue Reading

How to Play Guitar and Sing at The Same Time

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Once you know how to play some chords and strum a few songs, the next step is to sing along with the rhythm you are playing.

It’s a great feeling being able to play and sing at the same time.

Developing this skill will open up a whole new world for you. You can entertain friends and family or learn to perform and play for an audience.

For me it’s also a feeling of freedom. Whenever I feel like it, I pick up my guitar and start playing and singing my favorite songs. It makes me feel good instantly.

Learning to play and sing at the same time is tough in the beginning, but if you follow the tips below and practice regularly you will get the hang of it.

Work hard, have fun and reap the benefits!

1 – Start off easy
First things first. Pick a song you like and something that is easy to play. A familiar song with easy chords and an easy strumming pattern.

2 – Listen first
Before you start trying to play and sing simultaneously you first need to listen to the song quite a few times. Listen to the song on your iPod, iPad or whatever device you prefer, until you know the song inside out. Listen to the melody, listen to the lyrics, listen to the guitar and listen to the beat of the song. Try to count the beats. You can do this by listening to the kick (bass drum) and snare of the drummer.Continue Reading

12 Keys How to Write Better Songs

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photo by pedrosimoes7
writing-by-pedrosimoes7-1Song writing is an evolving process. I learned that with every song I write there is improvement.

It is just a matter of writing and playing, writing and playing and so on. You learn while you practice doing what you love most.

Like everything else in life it is all about enjoying the path you walk on and not so about arriving at a certain destination.

The destination must not be your main goal. Don’t focus on success, focus on a beautiful song.

The success you achieve or the happiness you experience from arriving at your destination isn’t lasting, the path is. So make sure you have fun and create a passion for writing while doing it.

It is important to live life, listen and read a lot. Be aware of what you experience and take notice of the things around you. Figure out what is still lacking in your writing and where you can improve.

There is always room for improvement and that is the beauty of it. Then again don’t aim for perfection, but aim for completion. Better an imperfect song finished that a perfect song unfinished.

If you are already familiar with the basics of how to write a song then here are 12 keys to improve your skills to write better songs: Continue Reading