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With summer officially here, it’s easy to get distracted from your craft. Why stay indoors to write a new song when you could be soaking up the sun? Turns out there are a ton of great reasons to keep that pen to the paper, and here are eight of them, directly from our Sonicbids experts. If you have a special trick that keeps you motivated to keep writing that next masterpiece, be sure to share it in the comments!
1. "To avoid writing something that sounds overly complicated, focus on one cool thing at a time. If that goes well and the piece calls for more, make alterations." – Mahea Lee, pianist and composer
From: 4 Tips to Help You Start Writing Songs in Irregular Time Signatures
2. "The simplest songwriting game is to start with a word or phrase and write a song that incorporates it – the word or phrase doesn’t have to be the title or even a central element; it just needs to appear somewhere in the lyrics.... Everyone in the group takes a turn giving the prompt – which might be as simple as brown or as odd as the nonsense word gumanema." – Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, songwriter and author
From: The Best Songwriting Games For Quick, Creative Inspiration
3. "Read something new. If you enjoy fiction, pick up a biography. If you have a subscription to the New York Times, try reading some Pitchfork articles instead. Go for something you wouldn’t normally try, but have at least a mild interest in. That way, you won’t immediately put it down, but you’ll still get some refreshing new material, exposing you to different writers and styles." – Erin Brick, musician
From: 10 Things You Can Do for 10 Minutes a Day to Improve Your Songwriting
4. "Letting go of your past work and steering clear of any assumptions about your art is a bold move, but once you’ve undergone enough introspection to wholeheartedly understand where you stand artistically, experimenting with difference genres could turn out to be the best choice you’ve ever made." – Eric Bernsen, marketing professional and hip-hop journalist
From: 4 Signs You're Totally Ready to Experiment with Other Genres
5. "Use proper nouns.... It's lyrically stronger to sing about 'the tall cactus in Tucson' than just 'the desert.' Specificity is more evocative." – Jesse Sterling Harrison, recording artist and author
From: 5 Lessons From Unconventional Song Topics That Will Make You A More Creative Songwriter
6. "Use unique instrumentation, but make sure it doesn’t fight against the ad’s dialogue. Avoid brass solos or jarring electronic elements that live in the upper/middle frequencies where the human voice resides. Write to back the voiceover unless the whole spot is without voiceover. When there are no spoken lines to compete with, enrich your music to drive the whole message." – Tanvi Patel, CEO of Crucial Custom
From: Here's Exactly What a CEO of a Music House Looks for When Licensing Songs
7. "I tend to look at success in songwriting as the process of reaching a critical mass or tipping point where good things start to happen. It often takes years and hundreds of songs before your first cut or song placement." – Cliff Goldmacher, professional songwriter and producer
From: 4 Reasons You're Not Getting Your Songs Cut
8. "Changing listening environments is another way to trick yourself into approaching the song with fresh ears. Whether you’re playing the song live or listening to a recording you’re working on, getting outside of your normal songwriting or producing environment will help you get out of critical thinking mode and approach the song as an ordinary listener." – Casey van Wensem, freelance composer and writer
From: How Do You Know When It's Time to Ditch a Song?
