Getting started with songwriting

One of the most difficult parts of learning songwriting is knowing where to start, if you’ve never done this before.

So, I’ve compiled a list of your first five steps to take, in order, if you’re interested in getting started with songwriting.

Step 1: Get good at playing instruments

The first two steps are to get good at playing instruments and writing songs. These are two different (but related) skills.

Many songwriters start learning music on guitar or piano, as those instruments can play both melodies and chords, and you can learn the basics of playing them quickly.

The fastest way to get good at instruments is to take one-on-one, in-person music lessons weekly with a high quality, experienced music instructor. And, to practice your instrument regularly.

You don’t need to spend hours of time on this: 15-45 minutes of practice a day, done consistently several times a week, is just fine to start out. Shorter, consistent amounts of practice time will lead to faster improvement than longer practice sessions done infrequently.

Step 2: Start writing songs

Once you're good enough at an instrument to play about 3-5 chords with confidence, you’re ready to start writing your first songs. You don't need to be a symphony-level instrumentalist to write music: just the basics of playing your instrument is fine, and you'll get better at instrumental performance as you go.

For learning songwriting, I'd start out by using cheap or free software on your computer to practice making demos at home. Demos are very rough versions of your original songs that are used to help you learn to write music. Apple’s GarageBand is a great, easy tool to start out with musical demoing.

Demos don't need to sound like a professional quality music production. Demos are writing tools used to help get your individual songwriting process working for you, and sounding rough and unfinished is OK. You're not aiming for top-level production quality with demos, you're just using the demoing process to help develop your compositional skills, and get better at writing music.

Completing your first demos can take quite some time, especially at the beginning: it might take a year, or two, or three for you to take some initial instrument lessons, learn the basics of playing, and get your first several demo songs written.

My Home Recording Basics series goes over how to record your own music at home, when you’re ready to start out with musical demoing.

Step 3: Practice performing in front of an audience

Once you've developed some solid instrumental skills and have written a few songs, I'd try going to some open mics around town to practice performing music in front of other people. This can take time to get comfortable with, but gets much easier the more you do it. At many open mics, you can play your own original tunes, or cover songs, or both.

Step 4: Learn how the studio recording process works/record your first release

You’ve learned an instrument at a basic level, you’ve written a few demo songs to get started, and you’re getting more comfortable performing in front of other people.

Once you've got a set of 5-15 demo songs written that each feel like finished creative statements, you might be ready to play some of them out at shows as part of a set, or you might record your first single, EP, or album for public release.

You'll want to be familiar with some of the basics of how the professional studio recording process works, when it comes time to record your first work for release.

Reference my article on the Music Production Workflow for a top-level overview of the musical creation process.

Step 5: Release your music professionally

Releasing your work professionally is another skill set to learn about, but there's not much point in getting distracted by any that stuff before your songs are written, you're comfortable with performing music out in public, and you've got some professional-quality recordings completely finished and ready to be released.

When you’re ready to learn more about releasing music, my series called Release Time! goes over the basics of that process.