Songwriting Techniques - Part 2

In this part of the article series, I have added to the list of songwriting ideas for each concept. Before we get to discussing these ideas, I want to mention that these concepts are best Before getting to that I want to point out most of these ideas are best used when first beginning to write a new composition. In other words, these concepts (as well as most of the ideas listed in Songwriting techniques -Part 1) are usually best suited when beginning the songwriting process of a new song. Likewise, they can be used effectively to compose transitional sections in a song.

Beginning with Melody first.

After you have written a melody, begin to write the chords around it. It may help you to compose the chords for this melody if you record the melody first, listen back to the melody while writing the chords. Ok, after you have your new chord progression written, record it. Listen back the recording of the chord progression only (without the melody). Using the chord progression you wrote for your original melody, use your guitar to improvise/compose another new melody for these chords. Compose several different melodies. Sometimes the original melody may not be used in the song because one or more of these new melodies may be better than the original. It is always good to have options to choose from.

If, after composing several melodies, your original melody is still your favorite, don't think you wasted your time by writing new melodies that are not as good. Many times you can still use at least one of these other melodies with the first melody. For example, your favorite melody may be used for the vocal melody, but you might want to use another melody as a counter melody played on another instrument under the primary vocal melody, or you can use the second melody as another vocal melody sung by a backup singer(s).

Yet another option is to use the original melody as the first half of a much longer melody and then use one of the other melodies as the second half of this new long melody. In this case, the second melody serves as an extension of the first to form a new long melody. Although this can be a very useful technique yielding more original results, it rarely works out perfectly the first time you try combining two melodies together to form one. You will probably need to make at least some minor adjustments (alterations) to one, or both, melodies to get them to connect in a cohesive way.

A variation on the last idea is to use two different melodies in the same section of the song in an AB form, ABA form, ABBA form, ABAB form or some other variation. It is important to understand the difference between this idea of separate formal sections and the last concept of making a single long melody. The long melody idea has a simple formal structure of "A" (it just happens to be long), vs. "AB". In both cases you are using both melodies one after the other, but in the long "A" idea (from the