Writing, Recording, Mixing, and Mastering a Song from Scratch

Writing a great song can be fun. You might think you can easily write a great song and make a million topping the billboard charts, but you’d be wrong. It takes a lot of effort, trial and error, and time and money to make a great song.

Looking for Creative Inspiration

Creative inspiration can be found anywhere. Live your life, center your energy, and think about the most powerful things you can imagine. Creative energy for a song can come from the lyrics, or the instrumental track. If you are feeling lyrically inspired write down some awesome stuff. If you are feeling musically inspired, write a catchy hook or verse melody.

Let the creative juices flow and get in touch with cool new stuff either lyrically, rhythmically, melodically or with chord changes or a few bars of a loop.

Take notes of your first initial creative inspiration with a rough draft which will be modified later as the creative song writing process further refines your ideas.

Begin Defining the Basic Song Structure, Speed, and Chord Patterns

Define the basic structure of the song. Will there be a verse, chorus, verse, bridge, then a chorus, or similar song structure? Intro? Outro? any special parts you can think of? What is the tempo? Key? Any chords that ring true with your verse or chorus?

Start writing your song by either writing the hook or the verse. This may change later, but write a few bars of one chorus or verse, and play around with the chords that you like. Is the tempo too fast or can the chords be held out longer in some places or delayed or muted in some sections to add feeling and drama?

Evaluate what is working and what’s not

Re-evaluate your song, which parts would work best as a memorable hook to repeat, which parts need to be further elaborated on in a second verse. Tell your story, and try to write a really memorable hook or an emotional verse or lyrical line to make into the chorus. Further explore variations of the chorus or melody you have written. What parts are sounding good, and what parts are a little rough.

Creating the Hook or Chorus

Create the best version you can of the hook or chorus. Will there be an introduction or instrumental section in the beginning? Try out some introductions or starting right off.

Create the Verses

What parts of your lyrics are working best to tell the story of the song. Use the verse to explain where your going and where the chorus came from. Think about harmony melody and rhythmically different verse. It cant be some of the same thing, but a different part that changes is up somehow from the chorus. Thinking about adding or removing instrumental elements from the song structure.

Lyrically you can’t be too consistent. You need to mix it up. If you rhyme every line perfectly in time, it will sound like a nursery rhyme. If you just ramble with no rhythm or meter, you can’t expect people to be blown away. What are the best chords or melody idea to use in the verse. Make at least 2 verses. an extra verse or bridge part is great too. Don’t judge your ideas too soon, but make sure you use the ones that stand out, and don’t worry about ideas that might work better for another song.

Decide the final Structure for the song

Practice and further refine the song from start to finish with whatever intro, chorus, verses, bridge or special sections and outro you think sound good together. There is still time to change sections, or re-write sections that could be better.

Record a First Draft of your song.

Its a great idea to record a rough version of your song so you don’t forget it. You can use a cellphone, computer, almost anything. It’s not important to be perfect, just get something to capture the idea of your song.

Practice and Further Refine your Song

It’s not a bad idea to keep axing ideas and rewriting parts. The best songs are revised many times, so don’t think the first thing you come up with is your best idea. Great songwriting takes work, and awesome stuff seldom just falls from the sky. Practice makes perfect, and every day you get better at doing what you do.