How I Begin Writing a New Song

How I Begin Writing a New Song

A blank page is intimidating. You are staring at a void of nothingness, with the intention of turning it into art. How is music born? With the paradox of choice, with the ability to write anything in the whole world, how do you narrow it down? What is the thought process that goes into the choices that make up a song?

Today on The Composer Challenge, we’re going to talk about the seven elements I think about when I’m starting a new piece. Everyone’s process is different, and even within my own process, I find myself deviating from this a lot of the time. But it is a starting point to help me get off the ground and provide structure when I need it. So let’s get into it.

The Main Idea

Before I write a single note, I ask myself, what am I trying to say? The purpose of my music is not to sound pretty; it’s to provoke thought, inspire action, bring out human emotion. The journey I’m about to take my listener on needs to have direction and every note needs to serve purpose. Without this vision, the music is unfocused, and that’ll be picked up by my audience. The first thing I need to do is find out what’s driving the piece.

Finding a main idea can be easy, if I feel passionate about things happening in the real world. Politics, human rights, nature, or specific situations with friends, family or strangers can all provide topics to write about.

Sometimes though, deciding on a main idea is not so effortless. It’d be nice if fresh ideas popped up in our brains out of no where, all by themselves, ready to be used. I actually used to think this is how musical geniuses wrote. But that’s not the case!

New Ideas are a result of making connections.

When I recognize correlations in the most unlikely of places, that’s when great ideas begin to form. It can feel silly to connect dots between things that seem utterly unrelated; I sometimes laugh at myself—or even worse, other people laugh at me. But we have to get over the judgement to let our creativity flourish.

The important thing to remember is that you need to communicate these connections; other people won’t plainly see what you see. Convince them why they should care. Show them how it relates to them. If they’re going to take action, what would would they do? At the end of the day, I want to make sure that whatever I write exists for something more than passive listening.

The Basics

After I know what I’m writing about, then I can define the elements that will support what I’m trying to say. There are endless factors to consider here, but today I want to talk about the major four: key, time signature, tempo, and instrumentation.

Key

The human experience is full of different emotions. Emotions are complex. It’s well-known that major keys feel happy and minor keys feel sad, but it goes way deeper than that.

Each tonal center serves a different purpose, and evokes a different mood. There’s a ton of research out there — this table here is based off of the German theorist Johann Mattheson back in 1713 — click here to read more about key properties.

There is also data out there about the musical modes, or going keyless. Whatever direction you decide is best for your piece, make sure you’re choosing the right key.

Time Signature

Timing is important. When we learn about time signatures, we learn that it’s just all math. Here’s how you count the music; It’s fractions, formulas, simple addition and division. But could it perhaps go deeper than that? Could it maybe be more than just practical for a composer?

How you group your beats, or where you choose to put the stress, matters how it will be received. Will your audience be able to settle into the time comfortably, tap their foot, predict the changes? Or will they be left uneasy, constantly being shifted by unsymmetrical beats? These factors can make a big difference in the way a piece is perceived, so it’s important to consider from the get-go.

Tempo

Establishing a tempo is a bit more straight-forward than a key signature. We can all relate to fast and slow and how it effects our emotions. Be cognizant of the tempo of a person’s heartbeat and decide if you want to raise that or lower it to express the energy of your song.

Instrumentation

If you’re writing for a set instrumentation that has been pre-decided, you can skip this part. But if this is something you need to consider as part of your project, let me be clear when I say: this part is hard. I took a class on this and still struggle with it sometimes. Choosing the right instruments to get your message across can be tricky. Basically, each instrument has unique colors, textures, and characteristics. Find the one that would best express what you want to say. It’s kind of like choosing an actor for a movie; many could do the job, and do it well. But you want to find the one that fits the bill the best.

The First Motif

With the basics chosen and the main idea driving my piece, it’s time to dive into the juicy part: the actual music. This is the hardest part for me to talk about because quite honestly, I don’t know how to explain where these ideas come from. Sometimes I’ll consider the importance of intervals, energy, and intention, or if the line should ascend or descend. It can also be useful to think about scale degrees and where “home” feels like, to take advantage of the tension and release aspect. But other than that, I don’t think too hard about this; I sit with the details I’ve gathered so far, sometimes I’ll journal some more of my feelings, but then the musical material just shows up. Once I have the first measure or two, things start flowing from there. Then we can get into the next foundational element: the harmony.

The Supporting Harmony

Obviously, the harmony is very dependent on the melody. But I’d argue that it’s more important than the melody when it comes to getting the main idea across; the underlying colors and emotions that a harmony can bring out are far more powerful than a single melodic line. Choosing the harmony gets deeper into music theory that we don’t have time for today, but basically, here are some things to consider.

• Does the melody end conclusive or open-ended, and how much do I want to emphasize that with the harmony?
• Is the melody something I want to stick out, or do I want to make it more cohesive by blending it into the harmony?
• Consider color notes, extended chords, and borrowed chords to sound fresh and interesting to the listener, if it fits the mood you want.

If I get stuck with the harmony, I will either refer to the good ol’ circle of fifths, or this handy chord web I found awhile back on the internet. It looks a little complicated at first, but basically you can try out different harmonies that will effectively lead you back home, and they all sound good. No more three-chord hits from me!

So there you have it, this is my process for starting a new piece. I’m curious, how do YOU start a new piece? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.