5 Ways To Get Inspired To Write Songs

Have fun, get creative, write some genius

15/11/2020

So you want to write a song but you have no ideas… or inspiration. What then? Give up? No way! Here are five ways that I’ve found useful for coming up with new song ideas and to get me in the mood to write. I hope you enjoy and you find these steps helpful.

Nicola xx

5 Steps To Get Inspired To Write A Song

1. Write a little bit every day

Even if you have NO ideas, just write something, whether it be a line of lyrics, or a little bit of melody. You dont have to come up with a whole song every time. The idea here is to get your brain used to thinking about songs, how they’re structured, lyric ideas and basically developing new songwriting habits.

Its like your brain focuses on things that YOU focus on. So if you want a new type of car, your brain will start seeing that car on the road more frequently. Same thing goes for songwriting if you focus on it.

2. Keep a notebook or audiobook of your ideas

The biggest inspiration killer is staring at a blank page and having no idea what to write. I NEVER EVER start like this for my music or my art. I keep a huge list of lyric ideas on Evernote on my computer (the best to do list software ever) and I keep notepads where I’ve scribbled ideas down when I’m at the piano. I also keep a HUGE library of song snippets on my phone that I’ve literally sung into Voice Memos.

I’ll often go through them and delete any crap ideas and keep the good ones so when I’m writing a song, Im never starting from scratch, I am starting with an idea.

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3. Write on a different instrument

You don’t always have to write on the same instrument in the same way every time. I’ve written some great songs just on my computer using my DAW. I also come up with heaps of ideas in the shower because Im relaxed and my mind wanders and so I take my phone into the shower so I can record the GENIUS when it pops up.

4. Start with a groove

I find it personally, so much easier to write when I already have a groove. So that’s a beat with a simple repetitve chord progression or maybe two to four chords max. I’ll often create this on my computer; I literally dump anything in sometimes and wack in a pre-made beat I’ve not used before (cause I’m not that good with Ableton yet… I’m working on that) and then dump in some chords and BOOM! I have a groove.

I’ll also get groove ideas from movies or TV. So if I’m watching The Vampire Diaries (don’t judge) and some dirty sax, bluesy New Orleansy sounding song comes on… I whip out my phone, stick it next ot my laptop and record the groove and I’ll use it as an inspiration piece for later.

5. Give yourself a challenge like a time parameter – ie 30 mins to write a song

This really works. I’ve done another video where three of us each wrote a song in 30 mins and you can hear the results which you can watch here.

A challenge forces you to come up with something… anything, even if its not that good. But its a great practice to get your brain producing ideas for the next song… which might be a lot better.

So there are my five ways to get inspired to write songs, even if you have no ideas. I hope you enjoyed this post. Please let me know if it helped you in the comments below, or if you have a strategy you use to get some inspiration flowing.

Have an amazing week and see you again soon.

Nicola xx