Why You Should Write Your OWN Songs? 4 Great Reasons!

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write your own song

As guitar players, I believe most of us at some point would at least sniff around in the direction of writing our own songs, instead of just playing covers and other people’s music all the time. The venture would most likely end soon after it begun for most of us because we will not feel that we are successful, or run into huge “writer’s blocks” that will make us give up. Sounds familiar? Well, before we have a look at how to write your own songs, let’s see what can be the benefits of it.

Today I will be showing you a few benefits of writing your own music and will also give you a few key tools that had helped me a lot on my way to becoming the amateur-but-happy songwriter that I am today. I even now have a few songs that I am actually PROUD of up my sleeve! I am happy to play these songs for others, and some of them get great feedbacks from many people. If it sounds like something you might wanna do yourself, so you’re welcome to keep on reading. Here are a few good motivators for you to start this venture today:

If it sounds like something you might wanna do yourself, so you’re welcome to keep on reading. Here are a few good motivators for you to start this venture today:

1 – You Will Have The Ability To Turn YOUR Thoughts Into Actual Songs!

This is something that so many people can only fantasize about. Writing songs just sounds like a cool thing to do. Think about having actual songs written down and composed about feelings that YOU felt. Places that YOU visited. People that YOU know. Turning your thoughts into something tangible! As they say “A good writer can portray a beautiful story out of the most everyday experiences.”

Well, for us guitar players, with the guitar in our hands helping us through our way – this is easier to achieve and stay motivated than it is for anyone else who is not currently in the world of playing music.

2 – Writing Songs Develops Your Overall Comprehension Of Music To New Levels:

You can never know exactly what went through the heads of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Johnny Cash, Elton John and countless other greats as they were coming up with some of the best lyrics and compositions of the 20th century. They threw out words, melodies, and harmonies that inspired billions of human beings.

But sitting with yourself and trying to come up with your own words and music will slowly give you the ARTIST point of view on music. From this point of view, you will see a lot more, and I can definitely say that all of my enjoyment and appreciation of music has moved forward by leaps and bounds since I started writing songs myself.

best songwriting tools songwriter
Check out the 6 best songwriting tools in this post:
3 – Writing Music To Your Lyrics Dramatically Develops Your EAR And Your Grasp Of Music THEORY.

Suddenly you will start getting the feeling of how a transition from a V (the “fifth” chord of a certain key) chord to a I (1st – Root) Sounds like. You will start noticing the unique feeling of a VI chord and the sense of a IV chord that is building the tension before the V and so on. You will start literally hearing and seeing things that you have never heard or knew existed in ALL the music you will listen to, and it will al come back ten-fold in a very practical way.

4 – Songwriting Immensely Develops Your Creativity And Your Right Brain.
how to write your own song

This one is self-explanatory. I also believe that creativity is something that can be seen as a whole, and when you engage your right brain and work on it through songwriting, it takes all your ideas and thoughts in life to new heights. Not only in music, but in all other areas of life as well.

So Where Can I Start?

First of all, check out my article about the best tools for the beginner songwriter. There are a couple of books I highly recommend, that can point you in the right direction about how to write your own songs, make your way much easier, more focused and most importantly – more FUN.

THE BLUES! – The most accessible form of music for beginner songwriters that I had luck with is the blues. playin’ around with the basic I-IV-V structure can pull out huge buckets of creativity out of you! Try that for yourself as an exercise: Take a standard blues progression (For example E-A7-B7 or G-C7-D7), and start playing it over and over. Mix it up. Have fun with it. Change rhythms.

Now, make sure no one is near so you can feel totally free and confident, and start improvising words to this tune! Words about the day you just had. Words about a big dream you have. Words about your favorite vacation spot. Words that make sense. Words that make no sense! Anything!

You are now bound to see your inner songwriter coming out! If not, give it another try the next day and you will. The blues is such a fun form of music that invites your lyrical creativity very easily!  You can also take the chords of any song that you like and write new words to it, 34 chords songs that repeat themselves are the easier to work with.

Realize That This Is A Journey.

Just like you did not know how to play songs flawlessly on your guitar from the day you first picked it up, understand that songwriting is an art and a talent. Just like any other things worth getting to, it takes dedication and persistence if you want to get good at songwriting.

The beginning is the hardest part to keep on pushing through, because your songs are not going to come out of you easily, and none of them would end up as a Grammy nominee either. (Probably…) So persistence is the number one thing you will need here in order to start getting to songs that you are proud of and enjoy.

Believe me, if you love music, this is going to be worth it!

Peace and have fun! I hope you enjoyed reading.

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Alon Cooper

Alon Cooper

Hey! I'm Cooper, and I hope I can be a helpful friend on your musical journeys. I'm a music artist based in Austin & Amsterdam, playing venues with a band / solo, and trying to learn with the most inspiring musicians wherever I go. In the last 8 years I've lived in Australia, northern Europe, the US and more.

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The Guitar Campfire Songbook

I hope this list has given you some great ideas, and if you want to have another bunch of song ideas in a fancy PDF songbook form, then feel free to download the songbook in this link.

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