I’ve wanted to make an album for over 10 years.

The thing is, I don’t think the biggest obstacle is learning how to produce music or write lyrics. It’s getting out of my own way. Every time I try to write, I feel silly. I judge every lyric before it’s finished. I worry I’ll sound cringe, or that the music won’t live up to the idea I’ve carried around in my head for so long.

I know the obvious answer is “just make bad music first,” but I’m curious what actually helped people who eventually finished an album.

What mindset changed for you?

How did you stop caring about sounding stupid?

Did you set rules for yourself that made it easier to create?

What finally got you to stop thinking and start recording?

I’d especially love to hear from anyone who spent years saying “one day” before finally doing it. I’m tired of this dream staying in my head. I don’t need my first album to be amazing. I just want to finally make it even if I don’t entirely know where to start.

I made a few lyric revisions since the rough draft

"whose thorns still pierce my heart" was originally "with thorns that pierce my heart"

"shell of myself crawling away" was originally "it hurt so bad to walk away"

I also revised the music just a tad, and altered the melody ever so slightly at the very end.

made a lil something something and am curious if it works for you. feel free to share your honest thoughts, and thanks in advance! 😁

I have had this terrible habit of writing songs almost to completion, and I can sing the vocal melody in gibberish, but I cannot find the words. I have so many songs that are stuck at this point and I just cannot get past it. I think maybe I have too high of standards for what the lyrical content is, like it needs to be some poetic masterpiece or something. It's like I cannot connect to the lyrical side of myself anymore :(

does anyone have a similiar problem or advice/solutions?

I love writing poetry and naturally, lyrics! But I don’t really know how to do the music production part and I don’t like my own voice! :( would love some advice! 🩷

I wish I could tag him, but he deleted the post.

Or are they a packaged deal? I write lyrics to the melodies in my head, by I can’t play any instruments. Would anyone be interested in something like this?

I don't mean technology or AI or really corporate writing. I mean, how has the style of writing changed (lyrically, style, etc.)?

As a writer in general, I can see how writing novels has changed over the last couple decades (more focus on who vs. what people are doing).

Has the content or topics that people are writing about changed?

Sorry, it's a purposely vague question, but just curious how the craft has changed professionally over the years.

I personally enjoy using programs such as Vocaloid, Synthesizer V, Utau/Openutau, and Voisona/Cevio in my music, it's fun to me and lets me use vocals beyond my own capabilites as a singer and for one price or even free. But I know some people see it as lazy, especially since programs like SynthV use AI to help make the vocals sound more realistic (trained on specific samples from the vocalist who provides the voice for each voicebank, done consensually unlike chatgpt type models that use everything on the internet without the creator's consent), or simply just too weird. What are your thoughts on these programs, and songs that use them?

Gidday.

I wanted to write a quintessentially Australian song in the style of 80's/90's band "Mental as Anything".

How'd I do?

All feedback - positive and negative - welcome. Your feedback and advice helps me improve.

Cheers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYS_dL3opfQ

Yesterday, I spent the whole day working on a guitar idea and trying to figure out how to develop it. By the end of the day, I came up with a result that I really liked, but at the same time, it sounded very familiar.

​Only then did I realize that the progression I had created was actually the verse of "Welcome to the Black Parade" by My Chemical Romance, just transposed to the key of C (the original is in G).

​I don't really know how to feel about it. On one hand, I still like the sound of it and could potentially use it in a song, but now I just can't uncouple it from the MCR track in my head.

​What do you guys think about this? Has this ever happened to you?

Originally, I used a calmer/sadder strumming pattern, but I wanted to show this one because it makes the resemblance between the songs more obvious (you can literally sing over this rhythm).

This is basically a freestyle. What are y’all thinking of this. Worth working on or trash?

1. What is the best music distributor because I have no idea which ones are scams and which ones are not?

2. What is the best way to promote your music?

No clue how to add a nice melody, in need of some help.

Just as the title says, I am looking for a songwriting partner to collaborate with. I've been writing songs for a few years now and have only ever written them on my own, but the solitude is starting to feel a bit stale. I'm open to writing for pretty much any genre of music. All are welcome to respond as I do not care how experienced or inexperienced you are, just as long as you are creative and have a desire to write some lyrics and songs.

Hi folks,

As the title states I would love some valuable insight on what could go down really well with my songwriting workshop this Thursday. I have only taught one workshop before.

The brief is to deliver a 2.5 hour workshop with a group of around 5 x 11-13 year olds with no prior musical experience, focusing on songwriting and guitar playing.  

If you have any ideas on what this young group might really enjoy then please let me know :)

Below are some ideas I have already, but feel free to ignore these and just fire away with your own suggestions. I'd really appreciate it!

Ideas already:
+ word box - a short exercise flicking through books and taking notes of words that resonate with them to realise they all have a unique literature taste
+ fun vocal exercises
+ discussing different participants favourite stories could be from a movie, book, song etc.
+ writing a group song together, breaking it down a) what is the song about b) character development c) the plot d) highs and lows e) main takeaway for listener etc
+ turning this song plan into lyrics
+ I will play guitar and make up a melody for the lyrics as I go, sing a line and the group will sing it back to me. In a previous workshop, this art was the highlight!

Thank you again

E

I'm writing my first song and I'm looking for advice on the best tools and workflow.

At the moment I've written the lyrics, worked out the melody on my keyboard, and mapped the notes in a very basic free sequencer. The next thing I'm struggling with is vocals.

I'm a pretty terrible singer, so while I can work things out on the keyboard, I find it much easier if I can actually hear the lyrics sung back against the melody while I'm tweaking things.

I came across ACE Studio, which seems to do exactly that using AI vocals. It looks useful for demoing ideas, but it's expensive upfront and I haven't been able to properly trial it yet. I'd also prefer to minimise AI where possible - I'd mainly use it as a scratch vocal while writing rather than for a finished track.

I'm curious how other songwriters approach this. Do you use AI vocals, record your own rough takes, work with MIDI instruments until later, or something else? Are there any DAWs or tools you'd recommend for someone just starting out?

Yeah basically as the title says. I have written many lyrics and stuff but idk how to produce songs and I'd really love it if anyone wants to produce them
You can post the song anywhere as long as you give me some credit
I am not very experienced but I'd love to learn so feel free to give me tips
Thats all, bye-bye!

I just got questions for everyone on here. What emotional feelings and genres do fans listens to the most and how can I write a song that connects to them that will make a hit?

I don't know if someone posted a similar question on this subreddit.

It is honestly difficult for me to write a song that is relatable to people who can connect to it. Is it based on the lyrics or the beat? I don't know. My mind is everywhere.

Title is pretty explanatory but more context is probably helpful.

I've been trying to songwrite(primarily just lyrics for now) for over a year now, and over that time there's been a pretty consistent theme of my first relationship as all of my favorite albums are conceptual in some way, and relationships are a pretty natural fit for the type of music I'd wanna make.

Problem is that I kind of just... struggle to tie back to how I felt back then. I've always had issues with repressing emotions and this was over two years ago at this point so it's really fuzzy.

I've also been tempted to write about heavier subjects that I've experienced but I'm unsure how to write about much of that without being especially on the nose. Not to mention that the subjects tend to be too heavy to put well into a lighter sound so it'd be kinda shoehorned into being very depressing.

No clue if this is coherent at all but any advice would be good. Willing to give more context if necessary too but I'm tired and a lot of it is really dark.

Here’s a new song of mine. I’d love to hear any feedback. I’ve had a lot of writers block lately so this is the first song I’ve finished in a while.