How To Write A Song 2025 – 7 Easy Steps
Whether you’re looking to get started on a new song, or you’ve never written one before, the following guide will teach you how to write a song in 7 simple steps. Let’s get into it!
Contents
1. Create A Title For Your Song
This title doesn’t necessarily need to be final. You can always change it later.
But the title is very useful during the songwriting process because it tells you what the song is going to be about.
If you start without a topic focus, it’s like handing a painter a blank canvas and telling them to “paint anything!” They’re going to have to think about it. But if you ask them to paint the scenery in front of them, they can get right to work.
Songwriting is the same way. Limitations can help you work more efficiently.
Another important detail you will want to remember for later – your title is usually your hook. For example, did you know that Rihanna repeats the word “Umbrella” 15 times in her song, “Umbrella?”
It’s true, and a lot of top 40 songs follow this formula. They want their song to be remembered, and they know repetition works!
2. Brainstorm Lyric Ideas
At this point, you don’t need to have all the answers. It’s not a free for all, since you already have your title and focus for the song, but whatever comes to mind in terms of ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and especially personal experiences connected to your topic should all be jotted down.
You can also use our song idea generator if you struggle to think of any.
Avoid censoring yourself. The thing artists do too often is put their experiences through a filter, making judgments about what they can and cannot say. This is not good for the songwriting process, and it can put a ceiling on how good your song turns out.
The good news? What you write down now doesn’t even need to look like lyrics yet. You can always find your rhymes and rhythmic flow later. So, write freely.
The key is to get everything out of your head and onto paper. What do you know about this subject? What do you believe about it? What have you experienced?
3. Organize Your Song Lyrics
Now that you have everything down on paper, you’re ready to organize your lyrics in a meaningful way. But this doesn’t mean your song needs to read like an ordered list.
Notice how a lot of songs move from general in the first verse to more specific in the second and third verses? Or how the second verse builds on the story from the first verse, and the third verse comes with a twist, punchline, or cliffhanger?
This is called song structure.
Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” is the perfect example. The first and second verse sees the narrator enjoying time with his “brown eyed girl,” but in the third verse, we find him reflecting on the experience years later. And the chorus ties everything together.
Understand that your lyrics don’t need to be on a timeline or in any logical order, though. You can find plenty of songs that don’t follow a straight line.
Take soulDecision’s “Faded” as an example. The lyric, “Couldn’t we do what we did last night again” comes before the lyric, “Thinking about making my move tonight.” Funny – aren’t those out of order?!
Well, we can make up our own mind what the lyrics mean. And that’s honestly the best thing about songwriting. You can leave your songs open to interpretation. Your audience can attach their own meanings to your music.
And some of the greatest songs of all time, like Led Zeppelin’s legendary “Stairway to Heaven,” are open to listener interpretation.
4. Edit Your Song Writing
The secret to great songwriting is editing. And yet this is often left completely out of the equation!
There are many songwriters, even skilled ones, when asked to edit, give you a blank stare and say, “Editing? What do you mean? The lyrics are already written.”
That’s often the difference between an amateur and a pro. A pro can edit!
Here are some questions you can ask to help you write better songs:
- If your song is based on personal experience or real events, how could you dramatize them to make them even more exciting?
- How could you replace “boring” or “uninteresting” words with more powerful ones (e.g., “fight” can turn into “battle” or “war,” “annoying” becomes “unbearable,” “important” becomes “critical,” etc.)?
- What could you do to make the song more emotionally relatable (sometimes general works better than specific)?
5. Come Up With A Melody For Your Song
At this point, you may already have an idea for your song’s melody. But if not, you can start whistling or humming your ideas.
It’s okay if it’s not perfect. That’s not the point. The point is to experiment to get a sense of what you like.
Oftentimes, the lyrics beg for certain melodies. They make you want to sing in a certain way. So, say your lyrics out loud and see what comes out.
6. Find Your Rhythm
As with adding a melody to your song, it’s possible you’ve already found a rhythm that works, or at least have some ideas how it should go.
Again, the lyrics tend to lead the way. They will tell you what kind of rhythm might work.
That said, don’t be afraid to experiment. Sometimes weird and unusual ideas can work, and you don’t want to write them off before you’ve tried them.
7. Record Your Song
Since you’ve probably been working by yourself up to this point, recording yourself accomplishes a couple of things:
First, it gives you a chance to hear the song. It’s one thing to perform it. Quite another to be a listener of it. Once you’ve listened to it, you might come up with changes you want to make.
Second, it prepares you for the next stage of working together with others to make your song a reality. If you know a guitarist, piano player, or producer, you could ask to work with them. If you have a teacher, you could work on the song with them.
If there’s no one you can work with, there are still tools like Hookpad that make it easy for you to sketch out common chord progressions. Where there’s a will, there’s a way!
But your next step will probably be to share you song with others, maybe even release it long-term, so recording your ideas and finding a collaborator is an important next step!
How To Write A Song, Final Thoughts
So that’s how to write a song. Want to do more and put your song out there? While it’s beyond the scope of this guide, you could:
- Upload your music to Spotify and other digital streaming or download platforms.
- Use an app to get Spotify stats, see what’s working, and make future songs to give people what they want based on your findings.
- Rinse and repeat.
As you can see, there’s so much you can do with your songs after you write them. Let us know what you do with your song in the comments.
Hey Shaun I’m Leon and I’m 10 i want to make a love song for this girl I like and I’m just not creative I need help thanks.
Hi Leon. A good idea is to listen to other love songs out there and learn their lyrics. You’ll start to see how they’re put together, and it’ll help you discover what’s possible. The more you do this, the more creativity you’ll start to get.
Being creative doesn’t come overnight, but listen to more songs and keep trying new lyrics out. Even if they don’t sound good at first (Any you try and write), you’ll find as the weeks and months go on you’ll become better. It may sound like a long process, but you’re young, and in a year or two with enough practice you’ll be a really creative lyric writer. 🙂
Good luck with your song, I hope it goes well.
P.S. Check out some of the above comments I left for more song writing tips.
Someone give me a line or an idea to start with please 🙂
Okay, what do you like or hate? Have you ever felt alone? Even though I am just beginning i feel that some of my best starts are about my feelings. Hope that helps! :3
I think you should do what you feel in your heart and follow what your heart thinks and mind lol
Hi Shaun, incredibly helpful tips above thank you! I’m planning to jump into College in a few months to become a music producer & with my passion for music I want to be as successful as I can, and obviously the job will not only require a knowledge of songwriting but I’d love to know personally as well just to help my own music.
I’m really just starting to take a step in songwriting but I’ve often realized that my work looks clumpy and a bit simplistic and childish. It’s not that I’m worried it wont change but I would like to know what kind of tips you might have as far as critiquing your work and helping it come along more smoothly. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you.
One of the most important tips I can give you is this: Not every line in your songs has to rhyme with the next, as long as your lyrics ‘flow’.
One of the biggest reasons for lyrics sounding childish and basic is because people try and find matching / rhyming words too much. This isn’t necessary to write a good song, if fact sometimes it’s best to have the lyrics make sense and have real meaning instead.
As long as the lyrics don’t sound awkward on the ear when put to a beat, just say what you feel. You’ll find this gives you less ‘young’ sounding lyrics, and will open you up to writing a whole new style of song. Give it a try. 🙂
Hey guys I’m Lil brother… and I have some suggestions for you… to make a song
First Off Big Props To our guy Shaun Letang for taking the time to discuss this topic….
Thank You Shaun!!!
Some words of wisdom…
Just let go and let flow.
Record or write it all down just keep flowing.
Then go back and tweak you r work…. and above all else… let no shatter your dreams….. just do it and do it right the first time and and enjoy the ride.
Thanks for the props Lil Brother, and thanks for the additional advice. I’m sure some of the readers will find it useful. 🙂
Hey 🙂 Recently, I have got really interested in writing songs (otherwise, Im a dancer), but I cant think of a theme or topic. I keep geting confused that whether i should write it on myself, or my parents or my friends…and also Im jst 13! So please can you help me out? Thanks 🙂
Hi Khushi. Read the above comments as in a few I give advice on picking a song subject to write about. Good luck. 🙂
I am a guitar player, in the process of learning bass, and I wanted to write a few songs to play. I have found this very helpful, thanks!
Anyways.. I have a couple songs written already, but I am not sure how they would sound in front of a person, plus I am way to scared to perform in front of anybody. My point is.. I need some help with stage fright. I can’t even play in front of myself, I might sound like a total wuss, but do you have any tips? Just curious?
Hi Gabriel. You may want to check this guide on dealing with gig nerves. Good luck. 🙂
I need help beginning a song. Any ideas???
Hi Sarah. I’ve given some ideas already in the above comments, so check them out. 🙂
Hey my name is glenn and I’m 13 I have always been wantin to write a song bout how much I love this girl. She has helped me through a lot so I thought I should give somethin back. I don’t know how to start. If there’s anyway people can help plz let me know and I don’t know wat I should put in my lyrics. I need bad help. Oh and I’m hopin I can make it sound country
Hi Glenn, that’s really sweet. Your best bet would be to write down how you feel about her, and turn that into song. So mention how she helps you, how she makes you feel, and how you’d help her out. From there match it to a country instrumental, and make it flow with the track. If it’s your first time writing a song, maybe use the same melody as another song. Good luck. 🙂
Every Glenn I know is so sweet! You remind me of my brother (whose name is Glenn). When your singing it hold out the second vowel sound and it will sound more country. If you hold out the first it will seem more classical.
wow, this is seriously helpful, but do you have any ideas for how to keep the chorus to fit the verses? Sometimes i find it hard to keep a consistent “theme” and the chous won’t always fit in with the verses, as a result! (as I play with a guitar, the strumming patterns can end up being disrupted, too)
Hi Mike. One idea is to write the chorus first. Have this include your main point, then elaborate on the point in the verse. That should work.
Hey! I’m going to make a song for a talent show, and I want to sing a fast love song, but I don’t have a beat. Is it boring without a beat? I can’t play any instruments, so this is going to be difficult.
Hi Cassidy. Going acapella (Without a beat) can be good if you’ve got a good voice. That said, getting a beat isn’t a bad idea either. You may even want to start out by doing the first verse acapella then the rest with a beat.
With regards to getting a backing track, have a look on https://soundcloud.com/ and search for the kind of beat you want. Get in contact with the producer, tell them you’d like to use their beat for a talent show, and see what they say. Furthermore, some producers put their beats up for anyone to download, so if you can find one of those, use that. That’s the quickest way to do things.
Good luck at your talent show, let us know how you do. 🙂
Hi im a beginner in songwriting i have some titles but cant think of anything… some of them are Im dieing, tears, read my mind. Here is a little bit that i have come up with -your on my mind your in my thoughts your in my prayers. Hope you can help.
Hi Steph. Your best bet is just to think of a subject close to you, that you have a lot of opinions on. Then record yourself for five minutes talking about this subject. All different areas of it. Or if it’s something you think about a lot but don’t know everything, also ask question in there then try and give your view whether right or wrong.
Once you’ve done that, listen back to it and make a song out of some of the things you’re saying. All the content will be there, you’ll now just have to structure it so it sounds good together. Good luck. 🙂