How to write a good rock song - Part 1

"Let the jam get you to your song"

Writing a song happens per occasion or planed. However, there are three different ways to create a song. First, you jam a song. Second, write lyrics first, then compose a melody. The third option is what I call the wake up session.

Today I present you the strategy of jaming. This means simply just to jam the hell out of everything you've got. Sometimes your drummer has a heavy fast beat to which you're playing along with your guitar. Or the other way round, you play some nice riffs which lead you to the melody. The drummer then just needs to find the right beat. While jaming stuff happens and developes itself, even to a nice melody. Our song See the Rain came alive using this strategy.

The nice thing about jaming is that you can creat really fast a nice melody and a song picture. Let's take a deeper look on this song picture. Analyzing the jam and define what it means and what kind of song you want it to build up to should be the first thing to do after jaming. After that you may go further and start coloring the picture with choosing the structure and instrumental composition. Choosing the right instruments isn't easy. Sometimes you tend to play the song with a hard driven guitar, but in time you don't like it anymore so hard and try a smoother accoustic guitar. This is a process that developes over time.

Still, having done this step, the hardest part in this strategy is writing the lyrics. Like I've already described the post before, writing the lyrics to a jam is in my opinion really hard. Sometimes, I tried and tried to find the right words or the meaning of the lyrics but didn't get where I wanted it to be.

You might have been laughing about my description above about the picture of the song. But writing the lyrics is easier while immagining the song's picture. So the match between the mood of the song and the lyrics is essential and even more garanteed.

At the point where the lyrics are written and the melody stands, you need to make adjustments for the match of the song. After this step, it's a cakewalk to finish the song.

But the most important advice I may give to you about this strategy is that you should always take a step back if you don't succed for the next step and try differently.

To me, this strategy is the most difficult in writing a song, though it has its advantages.

In the next section, I will show you the strategy of having the lyrics first. Until then, take care and stay tuned.

Enjoy Seasplash!

Album Seasplash