If you like the chords-first songwriting method, you’ll want to read “Writing a Song From a Chord Progression.” It deals with the common chords-first problem of how to write a great melody straight from the chords. It’s part of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 10-eBook Bundle.
Songwriters tend to work within specific genres, even though most songs can be reworked to exist in practically any genre you can name. As an example, Paul Simon wrote “The Sound of Silence” as a kind of folk tune, which was then tweaked to sound more like a pop tune.
And because it’s such a great song, it has been presented as a country-bluegrass tune, and even as a metal song by the American band Disturbed.
Great songs have the ability to be dressed in different clothes through performance and production, and they’ll still work. Even so, most songs are written with a particular performance category in mind, and in your own songwriting you are probably hearing a finished version of your song in your mind as you write it, and that version is likely in the genre you call your own.
Though that may be true, there is something to be said for deliberately writing a song that strays outside the boundaries of your normal genre. So even though you may be getting a name for writing pop songs, you might consider writing something country, or perhaps folk or even metal.
And why would you do that? The main reason is the possibilities diversifying your writing style gives you for building a larger fan base. You may already have a solid fan base in a particular genre, but think of what would happen if you stepped outside that genre and began to pull in listeners who might not normally encounter your music.
Writing outside your normal genre will mean familiarizing yourself with songs, as well as singers and bands who work in those other genres. And by succeeding in getting them to perform a song you’ve written, you’re able to pull their fan base into your own existing one.
So spend some time in your daily listening by focusing on a genre you don’t normally work in, and familiarize yourself with the sounds, chord choices, tempos and instrumentation. It’ll practically always work in your favour.
Written by Gary Ewer. Follow Gary on Twitter.
If you’re trying to improve your songwriting skills, you need basic grounding in the fundamentals. That’s what you get with “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle.” Right now, get a copy of “Use Your Words! Developing a Lyrics-First Songwriting Process” FREE when you get the Bundle.
Great advice! I totally agree that diversifying the music genres you listen to not only gives you an appreciation for other styles of music, but it also equips you with a wider range of tools from which you can “borrow” to use in your own songwriting. This is why I love early 70s progressive rock music, because you can hear those bands borrowing elements from rock, folk, classical, jazz, and even avante garde and atonal music to come up with their own unique sound.