Dida The Techical Producer explains How to Write a Good Song

Music, they say, is the only universal language, and songs are its words and alphabets. We’ve been writing songs since our ancestors first learned to speak and tap rhythmically on blocks of wood. Singing comes naturally to us as barking to a dog or meowing to a cat.

Sound Engineer, Dida K. Maluleke

Writing a good song, however, isn’t easy. You have to create lyrics, melodies, and harmonies. But with the right training and enough practice, anyone can be a songwriter. Try taking this college-grade course on writing songs with great lyrics, melody and form to get started.

1. Listen to Good Songs

I’m going to lay it straight: if your iTunes playlist is filled with Justin Bieber and Katy Perry (no offense to their fans), you’re going to have a hard time writing good songs. To write great music, you must listen to great music.

2. Learn a Musical Instrument

To write lyrics, you need a pen and a paper. To write songs, you need a musical instrument.

The piano or electric keyboard and the guitar are two instruments favored by songwriters. They’re relatively easy to pick-up and can accommodate a wide range of styles and genres. The electric keyboard is better than its acoustic counterpart as it can create drum loops and complex harmonies from a single instrument.

4. Analyze Great Songs

When you become a student of songwriting, you’ll realize just how similar most songs are. Certain patterns, themes, motifs and chord structures are repeated across artists and genres. As a songwriter, analyzing songs should become a habit, a reaction as natural as pulling your finger away from a hot stove.

5. Writing Lyrics

For many people, writing lyrics is the easiest part of songwriting. For others, it is the hardest. Whichever side of the divide you may fall on, you can benefit from these lyric-writing tip:

• Notice how Adele stretches the ‘ee’ part in ‘deep’ when singing “Rolling in the Deep”. That’s because words ending in vowels can be stretched while singing. Keep this in mind while writing your lyrics.
• Borrow motifs and themes commonly used in your genre, but don’t over-rely on them. To write truly great songs, you must break the mold and go beyond what’s comfortable