“Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose – a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.” (Mary Shelley)

When inspiration comes at you, it strikes with words, melodies, & music that can often seem overwhelming. It can be such an information overload that if sidetracked for one slight moment, all creative ideas could be lost. The most important thing to know in times of inspiration is acknowledging the desired end result.

Here are 3 Songwriting Tips for Lyrics and Making Beats on a Time Crunch:

1) Capture your Lyrics and Theme: Lyrics are Simple. Keep the words flowing on paper, keep them coming until there is nothing left. ‘Afterwards’, figure the theme and song title, then edit, and arrange lyrics.

2) Choose your Song Melodies: Melodies can be a bit trickier.Some melodies can sound great but when adding the words, they get hard to understand or too complex to be enjoyed by your fanbase. The best thing is to get a small recorder to record those great melodies that come randomly. Then, when new lyrics are finished, go through the melodies and see which one blends with the lyrics. This process can transform average melodies to solid hooks. If you need to come up with melodies on the spot, just get on the mic, adlib and record until you find the melody that fits your lyrics.

3) Making Beats for your Songs: Music can be the most challenging because it can be hard to discern when a song is completely ‘finished’. The most important thing is to know your style of music and fanbase. Are you writing songs for yourself, the underground, for a particular style or for the radio? After determining your audience, the last factor is can you listen to the entire song and not hear ‘a thing’ wrong with it? Can you live with the instrument performance or can you ‘really’ do it better? Now this method is assuming that your ears have been technically trained to hear too much compression, eq, an unbalanced mix, etc. If you’re unsure, get a second opinion from someone you know in the industry or who has great sounding productions. Ask them to shoot straight and be honest with you. Once you can listen to a song from front to back without something ‘bothering you’ creatively and technically, it is a sure sign that your song is as complete as you can get it. From there, the ultimate test is to make sure you and your fan base are happy with your creativity.

These 3 Songwriting Tips can help bring clarity to those emotional explosions of inspiration, prevent loss of focus, and can help you write more songs in less time…