Are you a songwriter trying to write your next hit song, but ran out of ideas? You know how to write a song, but just feel hopelessly stuck right now? Here are 5 songwriting tips that will KICKSTART your creativity in no time!
1. Listen to Music from Genres You Usually Don't Listen To 🎵🎶
We all love to listen to our favorite songs on repeat, but let's be real - after all this time, we know those jams in and out. While they may still make our hearts beat faster every time, it's not like they give us sudden songwriting inspiration after the 100th listen. What you really need is some new stimulus for your creative muscle:
Listen to music you've never listened to before. If heavy metal is your safe space, go find some jazz tunes! If you're into hip hop music, jam some blazing rock songs. Put that Spotify Folk Playlist on shuffle you would never usually click on. Fire up that 1950s hit compilation on YouTube. Trust me, you will be rewarded with incredibly creative ideas for your own genre.
2. Visit Inspiring Places and Engage in Exciting Activity 🌴☀️
Sitting at your same old desk day in day out can really feel draining. Staying in your room every day kills your creativity quicker than you might expect. In the end, you don't want to write songs about your home decoration, right?
To write exciting songs that people will jam out to, you need to do exciting things and meet exciting people. Visit places that surround you with a vibe that makes you feel good.
Take your notebook or tablet and go to your nearby city park. Visit the amusement park with your best friends. Attend that tap dance festival next weekend. Go skinny dipping with your significant other... or just go get some ice cream during your next break. Inspiration lies everywhere - except for your comfort zone.
3. Watch Other Bands Live in Concert 🎤🌠
Ultimately, we make music because we love how it makes us feel. What better way to celebrate this love than to share the joy with others who feel the same? Go to a concert in your area and enjoy some good, old live music. Make the most out of the experience by actively watching and listening to the band.
See how the crowd goes crazy when a certain song kicks in. Watch what parts make the whole audience dance and sing along. Feel the adrenaline in your body. Make mental notes of all your impressions and translate them to your next song.
Seriously, watch this live performance by Paramore at Reading + Leeds festival and tell me how it's not high-energetic and infectious as hell:
Visualize how you're going to play your songs to a crowd like this someday. Tap the rhythms you need to make them dance and bounce like this. Hum the singalongs that they're going to sing back to you. This will kickstart your creativity in no time!
4. Watch Some New Movies and TV Series 📺🔥
After a day full of hard work, we can't be bothered to go anywhere else anymore, but that doesn't mean there's no way of filling up your creative juices in the evening. Let me tell you a 'secret' where many lyric writers get their initial ideas from:
Scroll through Netflix and find yourself some flick that looks interesting and fits your mood. No matter if drama, comedy, horror or science fiction - immerse your mind into another world for a few hours and you'll come back with a ton of ideas for your next hit song. Even if it's just some lyrics inspired by a one-liner from a 90s teen movie.
5. Write With Other Songwriters 👨🎤👩🎤
No matter what you do, you can only get so far in life on your own. This can't be any more true for songwriting. Even if the most creative writer you know will get stuck sometime. This is why major labels organize songwriting camps with sometimes more than four writers to craft the next billboard hit songs. "California Gurls" by Katy Perry has even been written by a total of six composers! (source)
While such experience may sound exciting, you don't need to go looking for songwriters that will cost you your soul and your firstborn. Call one or two of your musician friends who have the same mentality as you do, get some cool drinks and start working on the songs that will change your life one day.
As you can see, there are plenty of things you can do right now to get the spark for your next potential hit song. Now you just need to go out there and do it. Happy writing!
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