10 Tools For Your Songwriting Process

Tim H. Swanson

After many of his shows, national Christian artist, Shane Barnard, commonly asks any willing audience members to help tear down all his gear. A few years ago, I was at one of those shows. Being passionate about songwriting, I rushed down to the stage to help. I had little interest in helping clean up. I really wanted to meet Shane, and ask him a question that had been burning in my mind.

I ran down to the stage after the show, and coiled a few cables so I wouldn't look too eager. Then I had to wait for a couple other people to finish talking to him. The moment he was available, I hustled over to him. Trying to be sensitive to his time and exhaustion level, I simply introduced myself and went right into my question, “How do you come up with the melodies for your songs?”

He paused for a moment seeming unsure of how to answer. Then he said, “Well, everybody in the band takes turns driving the tour bus. So I do most of my writing while I’m driving. I just keep a little recorder by the steering wheel and start humming and singing to God. When I find something I like, I record it.”

I was dumbfounded. I thought, “While you’re driving!?” I have to sit down with my guitar, and a special songwriter journal in a perfectly quiet room to even begin to think. And he writes songs that are nationally acclaimed for their ability to connect people with God while his guitar is packed away underneath his drivers seat on Interstate 10! I was a little jealous.

The truth is, everybody has a different process for songwriting. Some of us have more ritual than others. Some of you are like me, and you need the conditions to be just right. Others are like Shane Barnard, who can produce great music seemingly on a whim. Whatever it looks like for you, there are lots of great tools out there. These tools will help you with your process. If you get the right tools, you can actually make your process easier.

Digital Tools

1. A basic voice recorder app. They make them for iPhone and android devices (I have an android phone and I use Smart Voice Recorder). If you go to the App Store or Google Play, you can just search 'voice recorder', and there'll be a number of highly rated voice recording apps. I actually came up with a good hook the other day while I was running. The recording sounds ridiculous since I'm completely out of breath, but its audible.

2. Voice activated memo app. Again, there are apps for both the iPhone and Android devices. These are great if you're the type of person who writes lyrics first and saves the melody for later. An app like this will be especially useful to you if you're a visual person who likes to see the words written out. Use an app like this to record lyric ideas while you're driving.

3. RoadWriter app - This one has the best reviews, and there is a light version. This one is good because you can record yourself and write out your lyrics. This allows you to work more toward a completed version of a song, where you have a scratch track, and written lyrics. 

Hardware

4. Mole Skin Notebook. One of the songwriters for MV Music (The music ministry I lead) carries a mole skin notebook around with him absolutely everywhere. It's his information vault. He keeps all his thoughts in it. If you're the type of person who likes to have a little more tangible way to keep track of your thoughts, you may want to try one of these.

5. Zoom H1 Handy Portable Digital Recorder - If you’re going to buy a digital recorder, you might as well invest the extra money and get this highly rated recorder. Recorders like this one are nice because you can do a lot more than record song ideas. They're designed to record rehearsals and shows as well. They do a great job of picking up overall sound of a room.

Books

7. Paul Baloche’s book ‘God Songs’. I know a lot of worship leaders who love Paul Baloche for his over sized heart for worshipping God through music. This book is a collection of his thoughts about how to create great worship songs. It also contains inspiring song stories from Paul and other worship leaders you may know. This is a great book if you want to write good worship songs yourself, or even lead a team of songwriters through a worship writing exercise.

8. The Songwriter's Journal. This is another great book for songwriters. It has 52 weeks of great tips for songwriters. They are simple things you can do once a week to improve your songwriter skills. The author seems to have a good undrstanding of the creative process since he encourages the reader to feel free to skip around or go straight through. He seems to understand that everybody's process is a little different.

9. ‘A Whack In the Side of the Head’.Creativity can be hard to come by. Typically the trouble with creativity comes right when you need to be creative. If you're anything like me, you'll carve out some time to write, sit down and freeze up. Trying to be creative on command can be difficult. But this is a book on how to be more creative. Go through this one if you want to expand your creativity, learn new methods of capturing your natural creativity, or get unstuck when you're having a creative writer's block. 

Community

10 Another songwriter - I wrote for years without ever collaborating with anybody else. Then a little less than a year ago, I sat down with a good friend and wrote a song. Now I feel kinda dumb for not doing it sooner. Some of my best stuff has come in the form of a co-writing relationship. Of course not everybody will be compatible, but when you find a person you can work well with, hold on to him or her. Then write like crazy together.

11. A Songwriter's group. This is a little different than just collaborating with one songwriter. Songwriters groups are great because they give lots of songwriters a chance to bind their resources and challenge each other. If there isn't a songwriter's team in your community and you don't want to start one, there are bunches of them online. I'm involved in a songwriter's community on Facebook.

Today, there are just no excuses for not growing as a songwriter. There are just too many resources out there. Most of the ones I listed above are free. The only thing they require is the one step it takes to interact with them. And the payoff is huge. Whether your goal is to simply impress an audience of One or connect thousands of people with God through music, these tools will help you achieve your goal and become the best you can be as a songwriter.

Question: When you write music, do you begin with words, a melody, or instrumentation?