The biggest question in my mind when learning any new subject, skill, or technique, is always how do I start, and then where do I go from there? So it seemed to me that the logical place to begin with song writing is to research techniques from the experts. How do I write a song lyrically, how do I compose the music, and how to I stay on track and keep the creativity going, not hitting a wall? Or, if I do hit a wall, how do I overcome it?

Concurrently, I am an avid collector of busyness. I tend to bite off more than I can chew in life, but also feel most at home in the chaos. Not only am I enrolled in six courses for my teacher education, I am juggling youth leading and swim instructing part time. I also make time for exercise, family/my partner, and mental health. Some say I’m insane doing all that (and well, I probably am a little bit, but aren’t we all?), but all of those pieces are necessary right now in their own ways. It does however also mean that I frequently find myself scrambling to stick to a schedule and get it all done.

All that to say, I knew I needed to do some research, but I could not spend hours searching for the “perfect” source, or person to interview. I needed some simple, reliable tips to get me off the ground and stay rolling at a consistent pace.

I landed on a website called Master Class, which is a website that hosts online classes, seminars, workshops, and blog posts from various experts in a variety of fields. Among the myriad of content, I found an article walking through ten tips to write songs. These items were easy to grasp, and laid out a skeleton framework from which I could begin my writing process. Many of the items seemed to link up well together though, and I condensed the ten items into eight distinct ones.

From this consolidation of knowledge came a helpful checklist/infographic that I constructed (see below!). Next, I plan to tackle lyric creation, and then move onto melody. The reason for this move is that I am very comfortable with writing melodies and music, and the author suggests to begin song writing where you feel least comfortable. They did not elaborate in the article too much, but suggest it helps vary the creative process. I think that it also challenges you to step into discomfort, and own it. You can also see the thing you enjoy most as a reward for finishing the tricky part, which is a tried and true method for motivating me, at least.

I hope that you are enjoying this journey into music with me, and perhaps if you are starting your own songwriting journey with me, you will find some use from my checklist infographic! Feel free to download it and use it for personal use.