Without getting too technical (I might confuse myself) I can tell you our minds filter all the stimulation we absorb through our five senses, and if you’re a songwriter, with proper training and knowledge, you can subconsciously harness all that power running through your mind’s filter and eventually allow song ideas to spring into your head! 

“How do I do that?” you ask.   The answer is less complicated than you probably think.  This is what you have to do, step-by-step:

1.  Learn all the songwriting basics necessary to write songs.  Check out this free beginner songwriting guide, this free step-by-step songwriting guide, or consider a more complete but lengthier songwriting guide such as Six Steps to Songwriting Success, Revised Edition (Due out 10-02-2008): The Comprehensive Guide to Writing and Marketing Hit Songswritten by Jason Blume.

The point here is to learn all the necessary songwriting basics so you have strong knowledge of all the sections used in songwriting. These include; intro, verse, prechorus, chorus, bridge, instrumental, raps, and spoken word parts. You need to train yourself to automatically recognize the different sections that make up songs and how they are used. This takes studying songs and actually writing your own songs (although it’s helpful, you don’t even have to know how to play an instrument to learn songwriting basics).

2. Listen to your favorite songs and pick out the most interesting parts such as the song hook, parts of a verse, a certain rap line, etc.  Now, what you’re looking for is a short catchy line that stands out as being the most memorable part of the song.  As mentioned in Part 1, these are also song areas for you to study and analyze: 

1. a great original song title
2. a catchy melody (usually a short musical phrase)
3. an interesting lyric
4. an infectious rhythm
5. a pleasing harmony
6. any other song component

For example, in Leona Lewis’ smash hit single “Bleeding Love” the part that stands out most to me is, “I keep bleeding I keep, keep bleeding love.”  This is a very short phrase that keeps repeating as the song’s hook.  It contains interesting lyrics and a catchy melody, the most common example as it relates to this exercise.  A great original song title is also there to boot!  This short phrase could have definitely been an idea that just popped into a songwriter’s head!  This sort of thing happens all the time to hit songwriters and you can do it, too. 

3.  Once you know all the songwriting basics and you’re able to recognize different parts of songs, the next step is to really dive deep into writing your own original songs.  You may have already started to compose your tunes by now anyway, but I’m talking about continually and consistently trying to write songs.  You will eventually reach that “zone” where song ideas spring out like water from a faucet!  Many pro songwriters swear they become so consumed by songwriting in phases (usually a few weeks) several times a year because the ideas just don’t stop!    

The trick is to know all the songwriting basics, to know what to look for in songs, and to become really active in your songwriting by continually trying to compose songs. 

The more songs you write, the more experience and knowledge you gain, and before you know it, you will reach that “effortless zone” those pro songwriters seem to reach all the time.  For some songwriters, reaching “songwriting mode,” a condition created by yourself whereby you effortlessly come up with great song ideas, can take a few weeks to several months to a few years.  It depends on how hard you really want to work at your songwriting craft.     

 Be patient-with experience and practice, there’s no doubt you will eventually get to a point where great song ideas stream into your head.  Just don’t try to force the ideas into your head-this will create too much stress, and you’ll actually regress instead of progress.  I know-’cause I’ve been there!

This is how it’s always been.  But why????  No, I don’t believe it’s because we all enjoy each other’s misery even though we’re not too far off when we make this assumption.  It’s probably because we as human beings find conflict much more interesting than sappy love stories.  Maybe there are genetic factors involved regarding our species.  I don’t know one person who can tell me they didn’t try to get closer to get a good view of two boys beating each other’s brains out in a high school hallway instead of leaving the area to go get help.  We all have that primal instinct that conditions our brains to zero in intently and curiously tune in when trouble is brewing!   

Songwriters can take advantage of this concept by writing and having at least a handful of “conflict” songs when they’re pitching material or picking out songs for their next release.

For you staff writers in the Major Leagues of songwriting where you’re continuously competing for song pitches to different artists, you know how challenging and difficult it can be to actually place a song with the artist of your choice.  Your chances go up dramatically when you’re able to show a great, troubled song, because aside from songs like this being extremely marketable, the majority of singers can relate to these songs out of personal experience. 

Performing artists want their listeners to feel their music.  And in this world where there are much too many lonely, hurt people even when they’re in a relationship, it’s easy to see why a song with conflict has a distinct advantage!

Experienced songwriters usually come up with attention-grabbing opening lines out of instinct, but even their well runs dry every now and then when they’re looking for an opening line to give their listeners that  ”wow” factor.

There are a few ways or methods to create great opening lines and one of the best and the first one we’ll explore is to simply take your song’s title or theme, come up with words (verbs, nouns, adverbs, etc.) related to the theme, and construct phrases that relate to the song title or theme.  To learn how to come up with a word list or refresh your memory, visit:  SongwriterAdvisor.com

Let’s take a look at some powerful opening lines in some recently-charted songs as an example:

Bleeding Love, sung by Leona Lewis

Closed off from love I didn’t need the pain

Notice how the first words “closed off from love” relate to the title “Bleeding Love.” This is a common technique used by focused songwriters where they use wordplay to either directly or indirectly (subliminally) associate words and phrases with the song title and/or theme.  In this case the words ”closed off ” indirectly relate to the song title because the singer essentially states she intentionally closed her emotional wounds and put those feelings behind her so she could continue living. 

The following country song by Brad Paisley, “I’m Still A Guy” gives a great example of an opening line directly relating to the song title or theme, but it takes him just a little more than one line to accomplish this:

I’m Still A Guy, co-written and sung by Brad Paisley

When you see a deer you see Bambi
And I see antlers up on the wall

The opening lines here directly relate to the song title as Paisley drives the point quickly across that he sees the world differently than a female—she sees a cute animal as opposed to how he sees a prize associated with hunting a sought-after animal.

The next time you hear your favorite music try to listen for the first line of the song and see if it relates directly or indirectly to the song title or theme:  You’ll be surprised–although this is an often-overlooked songwriting principle, you’ll find that the majority of successful songs do follow it!  There are many songs out there with weak, forgettable opening lines.  Why not make your songs that much stronger by developing memorable ones? 

Using this technique gives you a far better chance that the listener will remember the first line and it’ll add more memorability to your song. Just as important, record industry people expect opening lines to be captivating, and when they are not, you’ve got to have something else special going on for the song such as a killer beat, or they’ll merely skip to the next song.