So what do you write about?

Anything! Have you ever experienced something that bothered you or delighted you? Well, get that down! Write about how you felt. For example, “I didn’t know that it would happen like this”. That’s not a very good lyric but it’s the first thing that popped into my head. If that technique works for you, then go ahead and use it! Now, about that lyric I wrote, I could improve it. I could probably combine the “it” and the “would”, to make it sound better.

Once you’ve got your first line, just keep it going like this, “I didn’t know that it would happen like this, it wasn’t as easy as it seemed”. Again, this was the first thing that popped into my head.

Make sure you add in a chorus to the song, just to make it sound professional. The chorus should be the main idea of the whole song.

Just keep it going like this, keep it flowing, and you’ll have a song in no time! Of course, this would probably be a draft, but you’ll get there soon!

Men and women who are natural forces of the cosmos and exist just as the music that flows off of them. Like good mothers, seemingly divinely put here to do good, musicians appear to have grown from something else to purely function as one of those fine things you could feel tingle in the back of your neck.

True artists are desperate, strung-up junkies who shuffle about town through the mist of smoke coming up through the streets as if the whole city's about to blow. And live in a static, frenzied fear of being apprehended in their weakest moment, with hookers clawing outside the kitchen window and strange men in hats trying to shove letters in underneath the door, and forever be committed into history as the hacks they know they are between those flashes of genius.

We're talking about people who have no choice but to hurl out their emotions through their chords, words and various strange constructs, merely in order to not literally explode or all together shut down as a product of their inability to rid themselves of all these beautiful and ugly vindications to the only question that matters in the bitter end.

Artists are God's speakers on a multicoloured carnival of joy and misery; we are the beat and notes of a disco train that's always on the verge of leaping off the tracks, but never does.

A writer, the ceaseless martyr, in most cases fancies himself the single one man to ever be in the doorway of emotions in which he stands at any given moment. Often, as a product of his own mind, a writer will assume that the quantity of time spent inside his own head could not reasonably be normal, and so believes he has given many matter considerably more time, than the average person, to evolve; in turn reckoning he can grasp a much deeper understanding. As a consequence of this, when faced with a dilemma brought on by a person not of his calibre, if you will, the writer can often been seen terribly stumbling into his dark corner at the outlook of not understanding what must be easier than it bears out to be. That is of course a rude and mostly exaggerated vision of ignorant self-satisfaction in the creative man's face. However, what is noteworthy is the writer's resemblance to two key human emotions; Love & Grief.

It has been said about love, that besides its resemblance to the writer's brooding and nearly spastic behaviour being as infectious as decease, what truly mends the two together is the writer's initial thought at reaching a breakthrough and a lover's profound, subliminal feeling that all through the day leaves her unreachable by energies of negativity.

She walks with this Kaiser of feelings that she as found what makes it all worth it, what's more is that she's gotten it and tomorrow she can have another kiss; in a sense confirming that the point at which she thought her life climaxed, was merely a second before the real good stuff came along, that when something nice stops, it doesn't end, she'll just have to wait a moment. And when that moment is upon her; when the next kiss is so close that the air feels like electric sugar, and she can't help but to pray for the energies to make her lover want it as bad as she does. That's when it comes, what binds the romantic and the lover together, the sentence, this is the first time anyone has ever felt like this. This is new, this is unique. The love of the world glides through me, one says. I have mastered myself, says the other.

The downside to which is how this might become a crippling abundance to the writer. Having experienced the mother of all feelings already, at confronting love he expects what would be a doubled dose, all to his confusion and heartbreaking disappointment, by which time he will infamously stumble into his corner to ponder it for years. Either that may make us the worst husbands, or best of lovers.

Do not emulate other artists, absorb them

Certainly, this does not mean that you should not learn any covers. On the contrary, artists should always be learning other artists' songs so that inspiration can be drawn from them. Too often however, musicians fall into the common trap of being too similar to another artist. Now you might be pretty good at sounding like that artist, hell, you may even be better at singing or playing the instrument than them, but people will have heard it before and that puts you at an incredibly large disadvantage. What I like to do is designate one cover at the start of every week from a genre that I usually do not listen to. You may not even be able to remember it after the next week starts but what's important is that you have played a different style with different rhythms, notes, beats and etc. Your brain is an amazing tool and playing these songs alone is enough to help contribute to your unique musical style in the long term.

Stay true to yourself

Ever since I started playing the guitar and singing, my style had always gravitated towards slower acoustic songs. However, like most kids my age, I was listening to headbanging bands such as The Mars Volta, Rage Against The Machine, or System of a Down and was basically in denial that I could not do what they did. As a musician, the hardest thing to grasp is acknowledging what you are best at. We must understand that just because we love a certain style of music does not mean that we should try to play it. People always responded positively when I played the songs I had written that were slower and more fitting for my voice, but when I tried to sing faster and harder with my band, the results were never as good. Since my realization, I have began to strongly develop my personal musical style at a much faster pace than ever before.

Be tasteful

Do not complicate your music with unnecessary notes and layers unless it fits into the grand scheme of the music. The last thing you want as an artist is music that sounds convoluted and schizophrenic. For many artists, the most difficult part of the songwriting process is determining when a song is finished. It is usually during this phase that people tend to add unnecessary layers for fear that parts of the song may sound too bare. Of course, knowing when this is or isn't true all comes with experience. My main advice is to follow your instinct. Listen to the song all the way through from the perspective of a casual listener. Convince yourself that you did not write this music. That way, you can be detached from your own material and if something sounds slightly out of place, you'll be able to critique it objectively.

Experiment and focus on your strengths

When I was a part of a band, all of our members had become so enamored with our self-designated roles and identities that we never experimented. I was firmly cemented as rhythm guitar/vocalist, with our bass player, lead guitar, and drummer. For the first couple of months, we wrote some good music. What we found however, was that eventually, we became firmly planted within our roles/identities and this reflected strongly in our music. Our new stuff became stale and seemingly recycled. We decided to abandon our roles for the band and focus on the music. What this entailed was that each member would contribute their largest strength in the context of the song. Our bass player started playing keys while our guitarist played bass. I stopped playing rhythm and focused on singing more unique vocal melodies. Or sometimes, I would play lead and sing while my lead played rhythm. Experiment folks! It will add a level of creativity and personality to your music that is difficult to do in confined roles.

Connect with your music

Finally, my last tip is to connect with your music. It sounds easier said than done but I have found that if you keep in mind the tips above, this one will come naturally. This is also the most important one because if you believe strongly in your music, it will show when you perform it. Just like getting someone to love you requires that you first love yourself, getting an audience to love your music requires just as much self-confidence and love in your work. And remember, if you write a song that you absolutely love, odds are in your favor that there is also someone else out there in the world who loves it! So be confident, express yourself, have fun, and I promise that connecting with your music will be a foregone conclusion.

First, I highly recommend using a musical composing program because it makes it so much easier to compose music and it will really help you along the way. The program I suggest you use is “Finale Notepad” which is very user friendly and it plays the music you composed, so you can actually hear what the piece sounds like and it will help you in improving it.

Now it is time for the actual tips for creating your own music and these tips are only what I do. The hardest part of creating a song is generally the melody and the beginning of the piece. One thing you can do if you can't think of what to put on that blank sheet on the screen is to put a few random notes. This does not mean just clicking randomly everywhere but trying to put different things together to start off the song and then you will start to develop the song more and create a melody and a theme maybe.

Also, be in mind that when creating a song the one thing that shouldn't be random is the tempo (speed of the song), the instruments you have (ex. Piano, tuba, etc.), and key signature along with time signature. Generally I just choose these things depending on what I feel, such as deciding to go with a slow and sad song. This means I put the tempo at a pretty slow pace and choose the instruments that I feel will best represent the mood and I choose time/key signature on what will fit the most.

Also a big part of the song (for me that is), is the title or name of the piece. The reason is the title generally expresses the feeling of the song or what its about, though it is very hard to explain. I don't suggest creating a title when you just start off a song but instead to title it at the end or middle on what you best feel matches your own piece.

If you're intending to add lyrics (which I don't do), then you should think of the words beforehand and then create the melody or line and add the words in, but I am not an expert at this. Also you don't need lyrics to express a song's intention or mood because the notes speak for themselves. Another thing that sort of contradicts what I said last sentence is the person playing in the piece really determines how the song sounds like depending on how the musician interprets it.

One of my biggest tips is never get frustrated or push yourself into composing the music or if you get stuck. This is because generally the piece could sound really terrible if you don't feel like composing but just want to get I over with, so maybe a little inspiration helps you. You can get inspiration from almost anything from events to nature and inspiration heavily influences the piece.

Those are some of my tips to creating your own composition, but I am a novice at composing and these tips I made are the things I use to compose with. So good luck composer and keep on writing music!

The outspoken young woman who made it into the top twelve (12) finalists out of thousands of contestants who auditioned, expressed the sentiment on behalf of the other eleven contestants. She explained that having reached so far in the competition gave them a sense of freedom. For this reason she sang the song as a dedication to being on the way to success.

American Idol is my favorite television show. I am among the 30 million viewers on US television who look at this popular show. The months-long competition from auditions in January to finish in May is one of the major topics of conversation among Americans during this time. My other favorite shows are' So You Think You Can Dance' and "America"s Got Talent.'

I love these shows because I feel a deep sense of joy when I see a young person get an opportunity to live his or her dream. I feel so happy for them,. There are millions of talented people throughout the world, who live a life of drudgery, either because they never dared to dream, or they never got the right break to live their dream and be successful. They let their dreams die.

I commend the organizers of these shows which give talented people the opportunity to showcase their talents and rise to stardom.

I think that tapping into the freelance writing market and getting one's work published gives a similar feeling of euphoria to the freelance writer. The first advantage here, is that there are no age limits; although "America"s Got Talent' does allow a certain amount of leeway. There have been the rare contestants on that show, who participated between the ages of 60 - 80. Writers can write or compete in contests until they are 100, if they are so inclined.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of young people who believe they can sing or dance, line up for hours, and some even sleep overnight at various venues throughout the country to vie for a place in these talent competitions. In the end, the finalists are all "winners" and they usually get very good contracts, There have been instances where a finalist has gained even more popularity and opportunities than the winner himself.

Freelance Writing

We writers live a life of competition everyday. There are hundreds of thousands of writers throughout the world vying for the attention of publishers, both online and

print. In the talent contests, there are contestants who have auditioned for the same show for two years, sometimes three or more, before finding a place in the semi-finals. Some of them have succeeded in moving forward to the finals. Many writers get as many as seven rejections from a publisher before their work is accepted by the same publisher, or another.

There are several editors who have admitted to having turned down writers as many as six times before assigning them a feature.

Many freelance writers write because it is their hobby; some write for a living. Not many write for greatness. Their successes cannot be compared to the celebrity status of the talent contestants, unless they succeed in selling millions of copies of book publications for example. Many writers are contented just to have their work in print and earn whatever they can. After being "beaten down, and feeling like birds with broken wings," they feel free when they have finally acquired a place in the publishing world. They feel great because greatness can be described as finding joy and appreciation in what is important to you, in feeling that what you do is unique.

This greatness which relates to the person and the great work he or she produces, “is invariably the result of an original mind pursuing an intense interest with great patience.” according to New York Times bestselling author Barbara Sher. Barbara Sher published her first book at age forty-four.

Persistence in both the music talent industry and the writing industry is admired if your work is really good and professional. So, like those young contestants in the music talent industry , writers need to be persistent. Never give up. There's plenty of work out there for us all.

When writing a song there are a lot of things to consider at first, not just what it'll be about. “There are five elements that frame every well-written lyric: a genuine idea, a memorable title, a strong part, a payoff, and the correct form" (Davis6). No matter what your piece of art is about it should always be believable unless it is clear that what you're creating is a fantasy world. A must when beginning is as Davis says, “Consider for whom am I writing this song? Can I fulfill this song with my voice or what artist cans I imagine in my mind's ear singing these words?" Writing a song isn't like writing a paper for school, you don't have to worry about punctuation or perfect grammar which is always a great thing, especially when you're impaired!

To begin with, writing a song isn't a piece of cake. The fundamentals of music in general are something to learn before trying to write a work of art. Just like being taught how to read and write in grade school, stories weren't written by us then. “A start that pulls the listener in, establishes the who, what when, and where in the first few lines is needed" (Davis 10). When writing a song, a piece of art, consider what it is the listener should feel, the purpose of the song. A song is just like a story in a way it needs a beginning, middle, and end. There's a plot, a build up, something that connects beginning to end, a contrast. “The importance of contrast enables songs to keep fresh and original, while still sounding familiar enough to sing along with “(Josefs1). Every well-written song gives the listener an experience (Davis 10).The listener should feel what the main character is feeling. Imagery is very important in this aspect to give the listener not only a sweet sound, great vocabulary, but an amazing

Picture as an artist does. A lot of writer's foreshadow events or findings. This is a great technique to keep that fresh, original feeling. Surprising the listener even works in this aspect.

“There are three ways to surprise the listener: One being the turnaround, a last-line effect that's often accomplished by reversing a key word in the title with its antonym. Two being the discovery, the dramatic technique of which the truth of drama is not revealed until the end. Three being the twist, the same way as the discovery, withholding truth until the end with an unexpected conclusion" (Davis 13). All important steps to making this song believable and original.

The listener wants to know the meaning of the writer's song. This meaning can be implied or the interpretation of the meaning could be left up to the listener.

Getting down to business, those were just small things compared to what comes in after them. Only the correct form will support, enhance, and deliver the desired result of the song" (Davis15). There are many song forms. Having an understanding of them first will help in determining the right one, after determining the right one, work from there.

"Early in the songwriting process four decisions are made. One - What viewpoint will the story be told from? First person, second person or third person. Two- will the singer be talking to someone or thinking out loud? Three- will the action be set in the past, present, or future? Four- Will the lyric happen in a specific (implied) place or simply in the singer's mind? (Setting)" (Davis16). For this

Viewpoint information and time frame information are important to understand. It's very hard to write a convincing song if the listener doesn't know whose speaking or if it's past, present, or future. Keeping those in mind will help the structure of a song. Consider creating convincing characters to help keep everything in balance.

To keep a listener's attention there are many things to consider and follow up on. Such as simplicity, so as not to confuse the listener, keep to one idea. Clarity is also involved in this, establish the identity of a person or group of people before using he/she, or they (Davis20). Compression, don't use a bunch of little words, aim to say a lot in just a few words (Davis20). Emphasis, avoid certain things

Such as exaggeration, pluralizing and overblown clichés. Everything should be in its natural order. Coherence, a matter of logic, put all ideas in an easy to follow sequence because if the listener gets confused they will no longer be a listener (Davis21). Repetition is a must when writing a song. Repeat important words and/or lines for emphasis (Davis21). Especially the title. Unity is very critical in the songwriting process it gives a balanced/relation of parts to one

Another and to the whole (Davis24). Don't be afraid to experiment with metaphors and similes they are helpful, when having a hidden meaning within a song. The true meaning can come out with them. But, always be you when writing music because if someone else's work is created than it's not "yours" it's not original.

Write what you know, what's in your heart, as you learn more your style will change (Cobain). Words from a very talented singer/songwriter. He's always written what was in his heart and television tried to ban it.But the truth is as a writer being able to take risks is a freedom issue. A freedom of speech to express in a way never thought possible. A way not every person can do that's why it is called a

Talent.

After learning all of these different things to write a song, a song needs to be found. AS Branheny says, “Songs can be found in the simplest things such as the tones of a telephone" (Branheny4).

Let the approval of people around the world, friends, family etc. become your motivation. Inspiration is not needed if it's there great! But, it is not a must have. The craft of songwriting is described as a

Game of organizing ideas, a kind of word engineering and problem solving experience (Branheny5). A popular theory suggests that the human mind is like a computer it responds according to the way it's been programmed.

Consider the length, no less than three minutes, usually no longer than five minutes. Always have a sense of audience; imagine whom it is the singer is speaking to or for. Rhyme; don't ignore it, its needed.

There are many different types of rhyme depending on the style of music and what needs to be said, and how easy it is to match words up.

Last but not least consider the following while doing finishing touches on the work of art, a song. Range, does the actual singer have a modest, average or wide range? Scale context scale tones are used in the melody; they have a great deal to do with style.

Harmony, a very important piece of the big puzzle, unites pleasing sounds. Pulse, recurring beat if there isn't one it's hard to follow. Tempo-speed of the pulse. Meter, the way the pulses are grouped in bars. Syncopation occurs when there are rhythmic accents on the weak inner beats .Texture a finer point of distinction. These are all very important, keep in mind that with out them songs are near impossible.

Songwriting, an art itself, is highly intellectualized activity. It takes a lot of talent to build beautiful songs and a lot of thinking. There are many different things to consider. But, when starting off let all the emotions out first then rewrite or fix. A song is an

Intellectual property: There's a big piece of the writer in it each time.

1. Write songs that people can relate to so they are more likely to listen to it
2. Try looking through magazines or newspapers for small phrases and see if you can somehow put them in your song lyrics
3. Have a good understanding of the scales and how the intervals between the notes sound, for example a major 5th interval is the same interval as the “twinkle twinkle” part of twinkle twinkle little star, and I'm sure everyone can remember how that sounds
4. Do not expect to be able to pick up a guitar or sit at a piano and write a song straight up, sometimes you will find yourself humming something and ta da! You have yourself a song
5. Just because your song sounds similar to another popular song doesn't mean people won't like it, in fact it's the opposite people like songs that sound familiar
6. If your favorite writing instrument is a guitar then try a piano, the change of tone color might be just what you need
7. If you're afraid your song is a cliché and has been done many times before, e.g. boy likes girl, he finds out she has a boyfriend then finally she admits that she has loved him ever since they met. Do not worry about it because if selling c.ds and making video clips is what you want, clichés are the kind of stuff that sells. When you make it big you can write whatever you want and they will still love you!
8. Learn how to read/write notation, that way any good musician will be able to play your song without much effort. For guitarists you could use TAB but I don't recommend it because it doesn't show the timing the song is played in.
9. Don't write songs for the sole purpose of getting money because you will find that you may not enjoy playing the song if it means nothing to you
10. HAVE FUN! If you don't enjoy writing music go become a lighting guy or sound technician