How to Finish Every Song You Start
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- Опубліковано 22 тра 2024
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In this video, I show you a song development method that will help you finish every song you start.
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So i had a problem with finishing songs. For a decade. In march i decided i will never again let 10 days pass without uploading a track. Aaaaand i never looked back. :) Also, nice video!
Uploading a song to where?
@@officialWWM my channel, and distrokid :) also, for every track i make an ai video. worked wonders!
What genre do you write in??
@@mainquest_official any, I'm a music producer, and I see a new genre just as a challenge, so I try making anything, sometimes it's good, sometimes it's shit. Gatusso vibes 🤣
@@nyrmanhonestly I reckon that’s how u get really good. a few years ago I changed my approach to just pumping out as many tracks as I could, and saw leaps and bounds in my progress cause I’ve gotten so familiar with my process, writers block is a long past problem, same for mixing, mastering, perfectionism is not a problem, I’ve racked up so much production XP at this point I have surpassed many of my artist mates who did not adopt a similar strategy. Not trying to sound like I’m top shit, I have lots and lots to learn, I’m not super successful or anything. But I definitely owe a lot of the boom in progress over this last few years to just making making making
Another good trick to use in conjunction with this method is to give different context to a phrase upon the second or third round. Choruses can just repeat for emphasis, but sometimes changing just a word or two can give a completely different message. For instance, the phrase "not enough" could indicate one doesn't have enough to keep going, but within another round could be used to say that the opposition is not enough to stop you.
Hey I rap… but your videos have helped my song writing greatly. Thank you
Thank you ! Great tips ! And good timing !
Absolutely fabulous. Thank you 🙏🏻
This was so helpful, thank you!!
Channel is great, thanks for the videos. Looking forward to watching regularly.
Your videos are soooooo helpful!!! Thank you!!!
Thank you so much for this, you're so articulate and I loved your song ideas and descriptions. I truly believe this will help!
Inspiring I’m right behind you on this
Thank you for the clear explanations and concrete examples. This was very helpful, as usual. Well done!
Thanks as always for the really helpful content.
What a wonderful channel, thank you so so much!
Thank you! This is great. I've never used song maps before and in the time you were explaining what they are and how they work a flood of ideas raced through my mind. The Problem, Escalation, and Change map seems like a great one to explore. Thanks for creating this video!
This channel is so great and helpful
this video made me smile so much. like this song map just unlocked a whole new WORLD of possibilities for me! thank you so much for doing what you do!!!!
Thank you! This is the kind of guidance I need that I could not find anywhere else.😊
thanks for sharing your experience and expertise - it's great to know that you are at the helm promoting this skill set. i am reminded of how much i love to write music but have neglected the act of composition for way too long. i really enjoyed this video
Thank you Keppie for all the input you are sending out to us. I love your positive energy that instantly sets me in the mood of writing. I rather finish any of your videos because I almost every time take a blank page and drop some lines and ideas for a new song. You and Ben have a gift and I am so thankful for both of you sharing your spirit and knowledge.
You are such a great mentor with song writing. Hawaa (thank you)!
I'm like quicksand and I can come up with hundreds of riffs on the spot, but this is a major problem of mine. I have finished many songs for multiple artists, myself, tv and more, but I still needed this video. You are great and I love your vids. Keep on crushing it and it's so nice to meet you. My channel is growing so fast and I have mad respect for your hard work here on YT. I totally get it. Rock on!
Thanks for these videos. I'd love to see you do some covering the same topics, but the music composition side.
Well done. This is very helpful to me. Thank you
Thank you for this video! I just started sharing videos on my UA-cam channel with the hopes of making music literacy accessible to all.
This makes me feel better to know this is a common thing. I CAN SEE THE FINISH LINE AHHHHHHHHH. We got this👊
awesome! I often approach these developments from the musical side, but can't agree more - a framework or "map" helps immensely to (consistently) see the process through...
All of these videos are simple, easy to follow, and packed with solid tips. Thanks for sharing!
i've never had a problem. don't you people have inspiration?
@@commentfreely5443 So link us to all these hit songs you've made. Can't wait......
I've been writing songs for decades but the past few years I have switched to writing comedy songs, like Flight of the Conchords or Weird Al. It was like learning to write songs all over again and I used a lot of what is talked about in this video to help me. Thanks for sharing all this great info!
Very informative tutorial!!!
I still can’t believe it. This became a song I couldn’t play or hear enough of after listening to it first time last sommer.
The term I like to use to distinguish between a lyric that's a narrative and one that isn't is "portrait." The core difference is, a narrative reveals through change, and a portrait reveals through exploration/description. "I don't care/I love it" is a really good portrait. "Happy" is another portrait. "It's My Party" might be my favorite portrait. "anyone know where my johnny has gone/Judy left the same time/why was he holding her hand/when he's supposed to be mine/It's my party and I'll cry if I want to/you would cry too if it happened to you." that's a really amazing lyric, and it "portrays" betrayal and deep pain, but doesn't contain a change/narrative arc.
I think most pop music is portraiture, and most folk/country is narrative, as stated in the video.
I've really loved these recent videos!
Interesting
This is an interesting distinction, I haven't thought about songs in those terms. What would you say "The Mercy Seat" by Nick Cave is? To me it appears to have elements of both of the categories you propose, perhaps falling a bit more neatly into the Narrative group.
@@Oleg_K. the trick is, look at what's being revealed. If the revelation is being revealed THROUGH change, you have a narrative arc. For instance, in the film Inside Out, Joy decides at the climax to look deeper into the memory balls. Her assumptions that happy memories(yellow) must be protected are based on her preconceptions about happiness. When she turns the time of the memory back, she learns a sad memory led to the happy memory. Once she realizes this, the ball turns to a multi-color ball made of yellow and blue. Happy and sad. Through this change in Joy's awareness, growth, and reflection, it's REVEALED that mature emotions aren't simple/one dimensional, and to suppress sadness is unhealthy and damaging to the growth of your psyche.
So it is through the change that the thing being illustrated is revealed.
A portrait may have narrative elemtns, ie, events that take place through time, or perhaps even things or characters that change, but ultimately, if what's being revealed is a portrait, then nothing is being revealed through change.
If you have film about a homeless man rummaging through garbage, sleeping on a bench, asking for change, then you end it, it's a portrait. Through all these different explorations, homelessness is being "portrayed." What's being revealed is a portrait of homelessness, and that will make you feel a certain way.
Same scenario now. a homeless person begs for change, sleeps in a park, rummages through the trash, then finds a bag of money in the trash. Now it's on its way to being a narrative. I mean it could still go on to be a portrait depending on how it's executed but hopefully you know what I mean.
@@YourFavouriteColor I absolutely see what you mean and it's wonderfully put. I'd really love to hear more. Do you have any songwriting related concepts like that one?
@@Oleg_K. Like the runners of this channel, I have a master's in composition and I coach/teach songwriting so if you're interested, feel free to get in touch!
I've just spend all of my day playing around with 5 chord progression you've shared through "5 Out-of-the-Ordinary Chord Progressions" and we are definitely on the same vibe. It's a very complimentary for me to be on the same vibe with Berkeley College professor. =)
Glad I found you. What a great resource. As you were describing context (type 2), I wondered if a bridge could carry that part with V2 further supporting the situation. Or would the bridge serve to support one of the other sections. I hope this makes sense because a lot of lightbulbs went off while learning about all this. Thank you for such valuable instruction. Subscribed!
Thanks a bunch!
Ummmm, you're amazing. thank you 🙏
Ooh. Your idea for a song about sadness - I like that. Rolling Stones’ Miss You is like that.
Thanks for sharing.
Wow this is very helpful.👍
Thanks!❤
Great advice, thank you. What about those of us who tend to write the music first, then work to add lyrics?
Great information
You dont have enough subs. You guys should be WAY more popular than you are. Hands down some of the MOST practical songwriting information i have EVER seen on youtube!!!!
The kind of mentors i wish i had growing up with music. Thank you for everything your doing. Fucking great job.
Very interesting thanks
I felt my heart twinge in a fireball of hope, that I’m bot the only one obsessed with this song: Devils and dust. I sang it with guitar the whole sommer. Even on the ferry in Croatia, that I take to the island every other day. The turists liked it.
Biggest issue for me is that the only lyrics that actually work are ones that just fall out of my mouth. If I actually try to sit down and “write” the rest of the song, it always feels contrived.
The songs I finish are ones where every piece of it emerged naturally from improvisation. Sometimes, it takes years for that last verse or bridge to surface.
Record your improvisation and write down the lyrics afterwards:)
Agree. Most times lyrics arrive whilst working in the garden, driving the car, fixing breakfast or cuddling a beer...
@@fynn7972 Oh I do. I've got a whole voice memo system going on 🤘
Gold.
what counts as finished?
production tweaking can be a killer of calling something finished
Hello Keppie, first of all, thank you for this amazing video. I've recently developed an interest in writing songs and am so glad I found your channel. It helps me getting this new hobby started in a productive and meaningful way so that hopefully, it can become something sustainable and not just my next months hyperfocus. I wanted to ask you if you have any recommendations for books (or other forms of media) that a non-native English speaker could read to improve their vocabulary and generell "artistic" expression. Thank you so much ❤
Hey Alex - I would start by recommending the free eBook I've published! You can find it here: howtowritesongs.org/writing-lyrics/ My other favourite resources are here: howtowritesongs.org/2022/04/03/the-best-songwriting-books-websites-and-resources/
Unless I missed something this is about finishing lyrics. My problem is not lyrics but the music side of things. I have hundreds of songs I've started but can't finish. I've read books, watched countless hours of videos on songwriting and they have helped, but when it comes to the musical side of things not so much. I have learned a lot from your videos btw. I think this all stems from the habit I fell into 10 years ago when I first started to write music, of coming up with a nice musical bit, and then moving on to write another musical bit without making it a priority to finish any of the bits that I had written. Thus the hundreds of unfinished songs, that I refer to as musical doodles. I believe I developed the bad, and it seems to me, unbreakable habit of not finishing songs. With that being said, how can I break this bad habit!
I think I saw a video that might help with you issue, just give me some time to look in my history
Ok, I don't remember if it's from one video or multiple but I'm going to leave a link to a playlist
ua-cam.com/play/PLaitaNxyd8SGbB7CjP-rMFwB7iKYmQx_a.html&si=J42_sGv-ne74KXw0
Look in into a playlist called Cadences by David Conservatoire.
I think by watching the videos, especially the one about interrupted and perfect cadences, it could lead you to the next step of what you are looking for.
@@danielasanchez4674 Thank you so much Daniel.
the things that held me back from finishing when i first started were >> not being able to be in the same moment on subsequent days ; not understanding theory enough to make something more than a loop. solving the first is weird caz the only real solution i found is to really try to complete everything core WHEN I am feeling the emotions that drove the song in the first place. So, making sure I don't waste time trancing out, or hyper-focussing on details that take forever. Generally, i think of it as, if I can't finish whilst feeling the emotion I make sure to at least get the structure & skeleton so at a later date all I need to do is the mundane work. solving the second problem was just a matter of education.
Love this video!!! Thank you, let me ask you, have you done a video on developing a phrase, some times i come up with a short verse or chorus as im praising God and I struggle with how to turn it in to a song.
I began writing a song this spring and I’m about to drive myself crazy fretting (no pun intended) over the melody. I wanted a standard verse chorus pattern but it’s not how the verses worked out. Think “Heads Carolina, Tails California “. Each of my verses have a slightly different chord progression and very different melody. The melodies suit the lyrics and all the choruses sound like each other but I worry the song will lack continuity. It’s basically instrumental intro, 1/2verse-intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo bridge chorus outro. I would love to hear your thoughts and advice about this dilemma. Thanks!! I’m beginning to feel like Jack Nicholson at his typewriter in the Shining…
This is very interesting
Song Map #1: Problem-Escalation-Change
Song Map #2: Situation-Context-Consequence
Song Map #3: Feeling-Obstacle
@@nicholaspennmusicwhy not finish the song and ditch it altogether instead afterwards?
Thank the Lord. I hope this works. Thank you so much.
Well I have a completely different problem. I play a lot of guitar and I usually do not like learning songs, so I am in constant search of something that is different to some extent or at least what sounds interesting to me. Where our bass player goes "first establish the general structure and then build flavours", I start with the flavours (because I stumble on them with time) and then try to make a structure around those flavours (I think Sting and Dominic have this same problem/approach) aaaand after all this is in place the song usually moves something that I can associate with a feeling of some sort.
I fail to finish a lot of songs that I start, simply because I realise I'm trying too hard and the song is ultimately boring... uninspiring. I recently had one that was exactly that, I'd recorded a whole backing track for it, then the next day I saw that video of Rick Astley killing Glastonbury with his cover of the Smiths' 'There is a Light That Never Goes Out' and within a day I wrote a completely fresh new song that has since become a live killer with my band thanks to just having that shot of inspiration from watching the video. There's nothing wrong with not finishing a song if you're not that inspired.
I'm on the map it stays on my desktop.
Thanks.
Just designed the act narrative.
It is easier, I'm a bit bipolar and ended up with "too many songs."
Lets have an "Arrangement Map" soon!
Thanks
You are always great👏👏. Have you ever listened any bollywood song of Arijit Singh? Can you deconstruct any song to understand the process.
I gotta a bunch of finished songs. I need to make a sale.
John Mayer is my biggest biggest biggest inspiration so as soon as I heard you got some tips from him I’m in haha 😂😂
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
Starts With A female singing Virgil Caine
Is My Name But Now I Realise The Song
Could Be His Letter That The Singer Sings
About😮😮😮
I think a proper chord progression is far more important than lyrics. To finish a song: You have to come up with a verse chord progression and a chorus chord progression at least. Then you sing gibberish over those chords so you get a melody and syllable count on top of those chord progressions. Then at the end you write lyrics that fit on top of all that. If you concentrate only on lyrics, you will capture the attention of tone deaf people only. Both have to be strong. If you write lyrics first, you will have a far harder time come up with music that supports those lyrics nicely.
I don't know why "Living in the sunlight, loving in the moonlight" came to my mind while watching 😂 Would it fit in a conflict scenario?
How do I apply this to music production without lyrics?
Is that a studio projects mic??
You worked with John Mayer?! I really liked Burning Room by him n others. My favorite line in that song is "this love that we've been working on" which implies that life isnt always easy and doesn't always have a straight answer, how about that?!
This is about writing lyrics more than writing music
I recently realized I don’t finish songs because as long as they are “unfinished” I have an excuse to not let people hear them.
Let me get this straight... You're writing lyrics and words along with the music? I usually have a cool musical idea that may or may not be inspired by a line or a theme. But I usually never write the lyrics along to the song. However, when I find a good vocal melody in the early stages of writing the song, it does tend to go much easier.
I mean, I'm doing shoegazey alternative rock, but maybe I should focus on the vocals (at least the vocal melody if not the lyrics too), and maybe I'll find easier and better ways to finish the music too.
Is that good idea? I think it is.
My problem is, if I've got a really good riff or chord sequence/melody part (say, a verse-like thing), I'll play it over and over, and it'll sound great looping back into itself. (I've had many such fragments laying around for years.) Meanwhile, I'll have a _second_ song fragment which _also_ sounds great looping back into *_itself._* So I then decide to play the second one directly after the first one, to see if they'll work well together, in a potential song. Well, (and here's the problem) I'll start playing the first one, and, while I'm immersed in its feeling and its melody and its chords, it becomes impossible for me - in that moment - *_to remember how the second fragment goes!_* It's like, the current thing being played casts such a spell on me, I can't imagine it going anywhere except looping back into itself, since that's the only way I've ever heard it. How can I ever join these fragments together (and build a song) if I'm never able to remember the next one while the current one is playing?
Record last 10 sec and then the first 10sec on second part playing right after with your phone recorder
Build around the fragment and make the fragment the centerpiece of your song?
Have they written any hit songs? I’d like to check it out
Do you ever offer personal coaching sessions via zoom to get songs finished?
Hi there. If you are still searching for a coach/mentor, I will gladly get in touch with you to see how I can assist you.
You should add a few acoustic panels to your room to remove some of the flutter echo, its distracting from the message of the video.
Can you point me in the right direction to write song number 1 please!
Perfume: sensing someone who is no longer there - this is NOT about “sense perception”, it is about ABSENCE, longing.
Some songs left unfinished can be the creative jumping off point for dozens of new songs. John Lennon had this ability.
Do u or have you written Rnb music
I don't even know what a finished song is. Is a finished song a chord chart with lyrics, or is a finished song a recording on a phone or is a finished song a fully arranged, mixed and mastered track?
My problem is I always start with the music. In frustration I sometimes exclaim, I need a Bernie Taupin! Oddly, I’m a fairly good writer, outside of song writing. It’s the pairing of words and music part that I struggle with. 🤷
Iam a good writer, in a great way, but in music iam novice.
Is it necessary to have music knowledge..
I find learning music quite complex. And time consuming.
@@aryanchaudhary4400 If you are talking about music theory, I’d say no, it’s not necessary. But it can certainly help. Understanding keys, relative keys, triads, 7th chords, borrowed chords, and common progressions can be extremely helpful, but I don’t think one needs to become a theory expert to write good songs.
❤
I'm on my 31th song and that's the second song I can't finish for some reason, the chorus is ok the first verse is ok, I'm already 8 lines on second verse, maybe i need more 8 lines but I keep asking myself if I should go to the next one. But also i tell myself : " you finished 29 songs, why can't you make just 8 or 10 lines and finish this one?" . Should we force ourselves to finish every song?
Basically it's "storytelling". So there's about 1 million of books and videos about that.
What about instrumental songs?
Sometimes instrumental songs tell a story too… with a narrative arc of dynamics where you (the writer) could explore the feelings behind a situation. The actual story could give you a map (of sorts) of what to try in the next section…
does anybody have tips on how to make shorter songs? because i always end up with 6 minutes worth of lyrics and i have so much difficulty with cutting them down T.T
I have the opposite problem so maybe you can try my method. Have you tried starting with the music and song structure first?
@@r0bophonic i tried it once or twice i think but then i always had a lot of trouble to stay in the structures i set and if i did do that i struggled with the lyrics T.T i will try it again tho, since that was some years ago and i think i should have improved in a few areas since then, so it'll be a fun challange to tackle ! :D
not enough traction for me to buy into fellow ametuer/intermediate bedroom artists.
It all sounds wonderful but can you pls put me out of suspense n let us know what big hits you have written. I feel I should know but for some unknown reason I don’t. Thanks. Keep up the great work! 👏👏
I asked my 3rd grade math teacher which mathematical theorems were named after her and she said “None! I’ve devoted my life to teaching”. I’m still looking for an accomplished mathematician to teach me long division.
@@r0bophonic Ha ha I hear you bro! 🤗🤗🤗
@@peterkinsman929 Thank you for receiving my little joke in the spirit it was intended. We’re all on this journey together friend! 🤗
The Minor Attracted Persons Method
What if like many, many songwriters in history who don’t start with a title and concept, but with the music, and then building a melody over it? There are a LOT of artists that write like this.
I cannot write a lyric without a melody and rarely write melodies first. So how would this technique help anyone that uses this method?
Honestly I couldn’t care less about what the song is CALLED, because I don’t know until I write actual lyrics for it and those might be tweaked or thrown out and replaced later. Doesn’t matter what it’s called because many people change and/or rename their songs, I’d even say what a song is called is one of the least important aspects.
That doesn’t mean those lyric or title ideas don’t pop into the head. Devils and Dust is a perfect example. I bet it popped into his head randomly one day and he thought ‘hmm, good title maybe’ and built a lyric around it, then paired it with the music (idk how Springsteen writes songs).
So everybody follows these tips and we end up with entropy.
So songs are really just a tradition of oral storytelling?
Pro tip:
Not every song you start write deserves to be finished.
This sounds more like how to finish writing lyrics, not so much the actual instrumental part…that’s the hard part
This still feels too cerebral to me, too much thinking. How do you approach getting in the original feeling that sparked the idea?
Serious question have you ever wrote a hit
What is that mic?
I just don't get the Springsteen lyrics ,it makes no sense to me.I understand what you are saying but i don't see it in those lyrics.I think I could ask 50 people to tell me what they understand about this song and they would all tell me something different , and most of them would say they don't know.but maybe this is the key ,Its not what you are saying, its how you say it that gets the brass ring. ( so take a normal story and turn it inside out)
This is really hard to look at.
Love your vids, but it’s very strange to me that this “songwriting” vid is only about writing lyrics, which is only a part of what a song is. Without the musical foundation for words to live on, it’s a poem, not a song.
Laymen, not musicians, often believe songwriting is purely lyric writing, oblivious to the music, the melodies, harmonies, chord structures, tones and instrumentation, themes and movements, dynamics, time and tempo. That’s what makes songs magical to many listeners; often they don’t even understand what’s happening when they are moved by lyrics. They see the puppet (the lyrics) as the entity, forgetting that there is an invisible puppeteer (the music itself) using tools and techniques to perform, who has built a set, a stage. This video says, “to become a puppeteer all you have to do is follow these instructions on how to build a puppet.”
Another analogy: Words are cherries on the cake, the melodies that deliver the words are the frosting. The chord structures, harmonies, tones, and dynamics are the cake. Time, rhythm, and tempo are the platter on which the whole delicacy is served. All of this together is the song, and all of these elements encompass songwriting. Sometimes songs come to the artist with the cherry in mind, but often the frosting, or the cake, is the impetus to begin a song’s creation. This video oddly seems to ignore all of that.
This vid should have been called “how to finish the lyrics to a song when you get stumped.” That’s what this is about.
i know right ! luv the cake analogy btw ... I've got a couple tracks I give to people who come to the studio. these have been sung over, made lyrics over oh so many times. Some kind of karaoke phenomena. so yeah, the only real important part is the music. to be more explicit > the drums/beat + melody/harmony + progression/structure/arrangement < those ingredients make what infinite words will go on top of. piece of cake right
"Finishing a song" is not important. Completing an entirely good song is the challenge. The tune is paramount. Lyrics must be good, but they are secondary.