I believe writing songs is a challenge to just about every artist. There are many ways to come up with a complete song. It helps to know all the technicalities and conventions and so much theory you could hardly learn it all in a lifetime. But at the same time, there are no right or wrong answers, which almost makes everything more difficult. The whole thing could be a single note. The words could be deep and philosophical, or light and poetic, or not be about anything at all – they can even be all of those things at once. If you are writing music, you don’t even have to have words to say it’s complete (and if it does not have words, I think it’s technically called a “piece” not a “song” but again, technicalities.) There are so many decisions to make and you cannot check with anyone else along the way if you are making the right decisions. It’s all up to you. And whether or not you’ve made the right decision is completely subjective.
Thoughts on Writing Songs in General
To narrow things down a bit, I usually think of songs as being chord progressions, played in some kind of rhythm with a melody that goes along with it. For a lot of musicians (myself included) we often kind of come up with the rhythm without really thinking about the fact that we are doing it. We either try to find chords that sound interesting together and then write the melody and lyrics, or we have a melody in mind and we try to fit chords to it.
I am not telling you this is a good or a bad way to write songs, it’s just how it’s normally done when I see it done. In fact, there is a reason I called this article “thoughts on writing guitar solos.” They are simply my thoughts. I do not feel qualified to write a guide on how to write hit songs, because I have never written a hit song, or even made an official recording of one of my songs. But I do write songs for my live performances and I post a lot of them on my music vlog. Here is the most recent example:
You can check out my other stuff on my YouTube Channel.
About Guitar Solos
Guitar solos (or any kind of solo) are a beast all their own. Because after you have finished the chords and the melody, you now have to basically write a melody again. You can use the same melody you’ve been using for the words or you can make something different. You can use the same chords you’ve been using in the verse or the refrain, or if you have a bridge you can play it over the bridge. You can also write a whole new set of chords that only play during the guitar solo.
Despite all of these possibilities, I usually find that writing guitar solos is easier than writing the song’s melody or even coming up with chords. For me, I feel like the main melody of the song (the one that is normally sung) has to come straight from my brain. I have to be able to hear it in my head before I start making it come together. I may use an instrument like a guitar or a piano to help me pick out certain notes from the chord, but generally I don’t know which notes are in the melody I write at first. It just have to sit and listen to the chords until melodic phrases pop into my head as already-constructed phrases rather than individual notes. I imagine some people can think of which notes in the scale they want to put together and connect them into a melody that the can sing or hear in their head, but I cannot do that. I am not good enough at knowing intervals.
However, when writing on a guitar, it is very different. I know which notes I can try because I know what the scale looks like. I know what the scale as a whole sounds like, but often as I pick available notes from the scale, I do not really know how they will sound. While this may be a more time consuming process, it does not take the same skill needed to sing specific notes in a scale. It is very much trial and error. While I know the individual notes that I can play, I often look for melodic phrases on the guitar as well, much like I do when writing the main melody. However, I do not have to know how the phrase will sound. I can just try it and see if it works.
Challenges in Writing Solos
Of course writing guitar solos comes with its own set of challenges. Like I said, it is very much trial and error and can take a long time over a large number of practice sessions. Sometimes I want there to be a solo in a song, but I cannot come up with anything I like. Or sometimes I wanna put in a lick that is too difficult for me to actually play. And I think one of the most common problems is that I want to put in so many complex phrases whether I can play them or not. Sometimes, in guitar solos, less is more. Once you find a good note, it is sometimes better just to hold it. Let it ring out. It may be an important detail in capturing the overall feel. Some phrases really stand out without having lots of notes or being difficult to play. It takes some wisdom and self control to be able to admit that maybe I don’t always have to do something really fancy.
Conclusion
Again, these are not meant to be instructions, they are just my thoughts. I hope to keep improving in my performing and songwriting, and I am grateful to any readers who join along the way. I plan to keep posting more of the lessons I learn and more of my thoughts as I go, so if you find any of this interesting or helpful, stay tuned by following my social media and staying up to date with my blog. Thanks for reading!
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