Songwriting creativity is hard to teach. It is because creativity cannot be passed to someone. Creative songwriting is important for success and since it cannot be taught, it can be demonstrated.
Being a successful songwriter needs 3 basic things to develop creativity:
1. Singing ability
2. Ability to play instruments
3. Sense of music trend
The background to develop singing ability and ability to play instruments needs some in-depth musical background and experience. Or else creativity is not well demonstrated. Take for example a great composer like Beethoven, he is known for his creative symphonies but he knows to learn musical background first. It is why it gives him a technical edge among great symphony composers during his time even he is deaf! Also it is advisable to practice instruments first before writing songs because you cannot be creative if you do not have certain influences in your musical background.
A well crafted song is something very pleasant to hear and the construction of the melodies is what really makes the song creative. And these construction of great melodies paired with marketable lyrics and targeted song promotion is what makes a song hit.
The problem is how to create a well crafted song. In my 15 years of experience as songwriter, I think these are the requirements:
a. A well crafted song is what seems to be normal and pleasant to hear so it needs to follow the most common chord arrangements.
b. It is how the lyrics are delivered with correct melodies.
c. It has great instrumentation even how simple it is.
d. It is easy to remember.
e. It is not boring to listen but always makes you turn the volume loud.
f. Sound belongs to the current trend or else you are behind the front stage.
Let get this to detail:
1. It is recommended to follow the most common chord arrangements at first. Although, time to time when you get to know music in detail, you make unique chord variations to your songs.
Common chord arrangements that human hear used to listen since the start of pop and rock music:
a. A-E-F#m-D
b. A-E-D-E
c. A-F#m-D-E
d. A-D-A-D
e. C-G-Am-F
f. C-G-F-G
g. C-F-G
h. C-Em-F-G
i. D-A-G-A
j. D-Bm-G-A
k. E-C#m-A-B
l. F-C-Dm-Bb
m. F-Dm-C
2. It is how the lyrics are delivered with correct melodies. – The best way to test, is to sing your lyrics and get a feel if it fits your desired note or not. Change your lyrics to fit your note, not changing the note to fit your lyrics.If you think you created a million dollar melody line!
3. It has great instrumentation even how simple it is.- Consider imagining your song of what will it sound commercially, if you are a great guitarist create great intro and riffs for your song. Well crafted riffs can get you into the song, just like what we normally hear in rock tracks before such as “Sweet Child o mine” from Guns n’ Roses where we always love to great great guitar tracks in a great rock song.
4. It is easy to remember.- Only a great song can be remembered. There are billions of song in this planet and the great ones are remembered. Why? , because of the great song “hook”. “Hook” is the most memorable part of the song, it is created with very catchy and memorable lyrics paired with great notes to give life to the lyrics. Typical hook are included in the chorus. Songs from the “Beatles” are created with very great hooks.It is why people can always remember it and have the radio to play it always. Songs such as “Happy Birthday” and “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” got legendary hooks that even a pre-school child can sing.
5. It is not boring to listen but always makes you turn the volume loud.– It is why not advisable to create songs in a hurry, it will result in horrible and repetitive melodies. Making it very boring to listen. Typical great songs are created in a month or even more. Great songwriters such as Diane Warren (writer: “I don’t wanna miss a thing” by Aerosmith and “Because of you” by Celine Dion, says most of her great songs are created typically in a month or more.) Take note that for a particular song catalog, it is not the quantity of the song matters but it is the quality. So give your best melodies when you create your own song.
6. Sound belongs to the current trend or else you are behind the front stage.– It should belong to the current trend to be promoted commercially or else, no one bothers to listen because your own belongs to the stone age.