What does it take..?

Question

i love music, and i want to write music, but don't know where to start. i already have names of the songs i want to write, but kinda stuck on how to write the actual songs. here's a few examples of some titles i've thought on...

* stop sign on the freeway

* who again?

* happiness on Misery Blvd.

* not goodbye (just be seeing you)

* still need your brain for later

* twisted blue rose

i'm into bands like the fray and goo goo dolls (indie) and would like to know what are the elements to writing these kinda songs. thank you to all who awnser :)

Answer 1

I do not write music, I write poetry. I think it must be the same, since all songs are poems set to music.

The subject of the poem comes to me first. Then I write the poem. The title comes from the poem as words and ideas morph and are edited before they are submitted for publication.

Write your song poems first. Let the melody flow within you. Then worry about the title.

Answer 2

The elements to writing songs are a central theme and a constant driving rhythm. When have you ever seen a stop sign on a freeway? You need to tell a story, and have it make sense.  Your verses need some regular meter as well as some variety. It's okay to repeat a refrain between, and have a different segueway into the song, something that sets up the story.

[I'm an old guy too.  I grew up in the back rooms of bars where my mom was singing. TD's a professional, and you can learn a lot from what he says. I've got over 50 years in choirs and ensembles of all sorts and have sung every part and all kinds of music.]

[Try singing, anything and everything you can.  You'll learn to develop meter, as well as the value of rhyme  (it helps you remember the words).  If your poems don't fit to a tune they're no good as songs.  What is interesting about the ideas you've chosen?  Is there something more you can tell people about them? Elaine is right, the poetry comes before the title.]

Answer 3

I took band for two years in Junior High School. I never figured out how to read music. I just did what the other trombones were doing. I sang in chorus and in the youth choir. I took one year of modern dance and I sang in the shower.

When I was 33 years old, I showed my poetry to a guitar player. He and I wrote a dozen songs together. Two of them were published. The last thing we did was write the titles.

Today, 18 years later, when I sing them with his band, they let me play percussion toys, but not the tambourine...or trombone.