Learning to write songs

1965; Besides wanting to compete with my friend Lance in writing songs, I also had another reason. I had gotten a six string guitar for my 10th birthday and was taking lessons at the local music store, Macon Music in downtown Decatur, Illinois.
I found it frustrating however - taking lessons that is. The teacher, a nice enough fellow, wanted me to learn notes and how to read music, imagine that! I just wanted to play like Paul McCartney - another left handed guitar player and a BEATLE!
It would be years however before I learned that first, you need to learn the rules and then you learn how you can break them.
Breaking the rules is important in songwriting because in order to have that song stand out among the rest, it must have something that catches the listener's ear - causes them to say "Hey, I like that" - or"I need to hear that again!"
So at age 10 what did I do?
I quit the guitar - for almost 2 years!

I kept "making up" songs for the next two years but it really wasn't until I picked the guitar back up that I really started to get serious about songwriting

For me back then, if I learned a new chord, I'd write a song around using it! I learned all the basic chords, A, D, C, E but life changed when I discovered ......Bminor!! You will hear that throughout my songs even to this day. Bminor serves as a perfect transition chord when you have written the verse in a Major key and are looking for the chorus or the bridge to set apart from the rest of the song.
F#m works well too and combine it with Bm - watch out! :>)

I'll get more into song structure later but it was in learning to play the guitar, then chords on the piano, where I learned to experiment with songwriting.

If you are just learning an instrument, you should get a song book of your favorite artist, complete with tablature (chord) diagrams and that also helps learn new chords to lay inside your tunes. My early songbooks consisted of Simon & Garfunkel, Peter Paul and Mary, Creedence Clearwater and of course in 1970 the songbook for Sweet Baby James - James Taylor.

One of my first performance was in junior high at a talent show where a buddy and I did "April Come She Will" straight from that songbook.

So that's how I started - I will fast forward next blog with my most recent song, Change The Way, and break it down lyrically for you to give some insight to where I am today.....
still learning - and always learning - to write a better new song.
Musically yours!
arnybarn