Like any kind of writing, songwriting usually requires that you revise your work several times.
How to Revise Your Songs
There are three main approaches you can take to revising your songs:
- Improve the lyrics: Reread your lyrics and remove parts that feel contrived or redundant. Try to eliminate all clichés as well. If any portion of the lyric makes you cringe or leaves you flat, change it.
- Change the song form: Once you’ve written a complete song, consider adding a bridge or prechorus, or including another verse or chorus.
- Simplify the song: Some songs benefit from being stripped down lyrically and musically. If the process of writing the song has obscured the idea or emotion you aimed to convey at the outset, scale back the song to just a few verses and a chorus and see whether you prefer the simplified version.
How to Tell When Your Song is Finished
Use this checklist to review your song once you’ve made revisions. If you can answer “yes” to each of the questions below, consider your song finished:
- Lyrics: Do the lyrics express a familiar subject in a new way? Are they easy to understand and free of clichés?
- Melody: Do the melodies complement the lyrics, and vice versa? Are the melodies well suited to the average singer and/or the singer who will perform your songs?
- Verses: Do the verses develop the main idea or emotion of the song? Do they build tension leading up to the prechorus or chorus? Do the first, middle, and final verses do what they’re supposed to do?
- Chorus: Is the chorus the central, most memorable part of the song? Is it easy to sing or hum?
- Transitions: Do the various parts of the song (verses, prechoruses, choruses, bridge) flow seamlessly from one to the next?
- Length: Is the song an acceptable length? (Note that the average pop song is 3 1/2 minutes.)
Solicit Criticism About Your Songs
Songwriting is inherently personal, making it difficult to judge your own work objectively. To improve as a songwriter, you must solicit and learn from constructive criticism:
- Make a basic recording: Use a portable, handheld recording device to record yourself singing or playing a rough draft of your song. Alternatively, if you have a computer with a decent microphone, you can record directly onto your computer and email your song to the people from whom you plan to solicit feedback. Either way, don’t worry about perfecting the sound quality as long as the melodies and lyrics are audible.
- If you don’t play an instrument: Record just the vocal melodies, or hire someone to play your song for the rough recording. This process shouldn’t take more than an hour or cost more than $25–50 per song. You can find musicians for this type of project by posting a free classified ad on Craigslist (www.craigslist.org).
Feedback Sources to Consult
The best source for feedback on drafts of your songs often comes from strangers—people who can evaluate your songs without any bias based on their relationship to you as a friend or family member. Some of the best sources for unbiased feedback include:
- Other local songwriters: Attend open mic nights, events usually held at cafés at which songwriters share their songs with a small audience. Rather than playing a draft of your song at an open mic night, take the opportunity to meet local songwriters from whom you can solicit feedback on a one-on-one basis.
- Songwriting workshops: Open mic nights are also a good way to get involved with local songwriting workshops, which songwriters often conduct for free in their own homes. Some local colleges also offer songwriting workshops for a small fee.
- Online songwriting review services: Certain websites will review a draft of your song and provide a professional evaluation for a fee. Use these sites only as a last resort, as they’re expensive and often prey upon beginners who are desperate for feedback.
Revise Songs Based on the Feedback You Receive
Since songwriting is such a personal craft, songwriters are often very touchy about the feedback they receive. If you find yourself instinctively rejecting criticism about your songs, you’re not alone—just playing a song you’ve written can be excruciating, let alone receiving feedback on how to change and improve it:
- If you agree with the feedback: Work on revising the song to accord with the advice you’ve received, such as adding a prechorus or a bridge.
- If you disagree with the feedback: Let a few days pass, then revisit the song and feedback. If you still disagree, trust your instincts and stick with your draft. If you’re unsure of what to do, get a second opinion from another source you trust.
Though the process of soliciting and implementing feedback on your songs may seem grueling at first, over time it becomes easier as you begin to see feedback less as a personal critique and more as the fine-tuning process that it is.
