4 Tips On How To Get Better At Songwriting

For those of us who love songwriting, we find it frustrating. 

Sometimes it’s just the worst (like the above GIF).

But the only thing that helps us get better at songwriting is practice. The more you do it, the more flow you get when spitting rhymes and stringing together melodies.

Professional lyricists and songwriters didn’t start at the top. They, like a lot of us, started as amateurs.

So with that in mind, here are four tips on how to become a pro at writing song lyrics.

Updated February 8, 2020

Study The Pros

The greats learned from the greats, and so should you. Study the best of the best, print off their lyrics, break down their phrasing, rhyming, imagery, and storytelling. Use their techniques.

Some pros you could start studying are Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and John Lennon — these guys knew how to put words together in a beautiful way.

It’s time to become a student again and stay one until you’re done writing songs (which should be never).

Copy The Pros

Austin Kleon is an artist and author who wrote a book called Steal Like An Artist. The whole idea of the book is to take ideas from others (i.e. the pros), add your own spice, and create something of your own.

For example, if you, just for fun, rewrite “Like A Rolling Stone” by Dylan, you’ll get a better feel for how he structures his words, how he describes things, and his storytelling process.

Then jot down what you’ve learned and try using the same methods on your own song.

Be Consistent Like The Pros

Malcolm Gladwell, a best-selling, deep-thinking author who does meticulous journalistic research, writes in his book Outliers  that “ten thousand hours [of practice] is the magic number of greatness.”

He cites Bill Gates, who started coding as a teenager, and The Beatles, who played an extremely high number of gigs before becoming stars in the States.

The point is, practice songwriting like heck. The more you do it, the better you’ll get. You’re not born amazing, you have to earn it.

RELATED: How To Write A Song In 5 Simple Steps

Re-write

Ernest Hemingway writes in his book A Moveable Feast, “The only kind of writing is rewriting.” And, boy, that’s true.

The first thing you put down on paper is not always the best. The first draft is almost never the last. Rewriting your lyrics is part of the songwriting process.

---

Get unstuck

Grab the FREE PDF download 78 Songwriting Prompts To Get You Unstuck

Email Address Get the FREE booklet

I first wrote a version of this article for iSing Magazine