One of the most frequently asked questions is how to make a song. Not how to create a chord progression or how to make a melody but how to start from scratch to create a song.
Many musicians, professionals and amateurs, often confess to me that they have been playing for a long time but still don’t find the way to compose, or don’t understand how the composition process is and how to put lyrics to the music. And it is that although to make a song, it is not difficult, (in fact it is very easy) but to be something more intuitive than logical not that to be able to understand the process.
In other words, it’s how a painter understands how to give the brushstrokes, how color theory works, perspective but how do I create the work?
In this article we will learn the most usual method of How to make a song. It is important to point out that it is very common to rearrange the steps according to your comfort, some start with music, and others with some element that suggests an idea.
What’s a song?
We all know many songs, in fact we voluntarily and involuntarily listen to dozens of them for days. But do we know what a song is? Although music is the sum of melody plus harmony, the song goes further: it is the sum of melody plus harmony plus lyrics (or text).
In other words, the song differs from the music in that it has a meaning. In that there are words playing with it.
We will see this, how to make a song, that is to say, to create the 3 elements of a song and that they integrate in perfect harmony.
How to make songs?
To make a song there are several methods or paths by which to start. We will take a shortcut to look for inspiration and to make it easier to understand the idea of how a song is made or what the composition process is like.
Here is one of the most common ways to make a song, of course you can vary the order.
The first thing we have to do is look for a base.
If we play guitar or piano we create a simple harmony. When I mean to create a harmony I simply mean to play 3 or 4 chords in a row for 3-4 bars. The idea is that each of these chords lasts the same time as the others and we give each one a rhythm that is obviously the same for everyone. Of course we can vary this and even make a riff but we go slowly. That is to say, we have 4 bars of C-F-G-C let’s suppose.

At this point there are several ways, you can record the progression, note it on the guitar pro (or with the program you make music), play it with the guitar or your instrument. The point is that this base can be repeated tirelessly.
Personally it gives me a lot of results to do it with the guitar because you feel the vibration of the instrument, it is easier to penetrate and get fully into the song. If you use this method it is better that you have a recorder nearby. At first it’s embarrassing but it ends up being too useful.
If you want to know more about creating a base for the song: How to compose songs? There you will find the basics to make the basis for your song. You can also read: How to compose a song from a musical base or motif?
A VERY important detail creates an easy, simple, practical base.
Many people believe that they have to create the perfect base, the reality is that if you get complicated you won’t create anything. It’s better to start with something simple, and then with more experience you can develop more complicated ideas or even improve the current base.
Let’s think of a phrase.
For this example it occurred to me “It was Thursday and today the clothes looked bad”. I know it’s not THE inspiration, but did I ask for inspiration? No, I asked for a phrase…the first one you can think of no matter how silly it is.
If you look for the great phrase you won’t do anything. Start with any phrase and then write the genius. To a common phrase for a great song!
To make a song… just sing!
To make a song, just start playing the progression and sing your phrase about the music. If you don’t like it try changing the way you sing it or make it up to another phrase and try again. So on to the melody, the rhythm, the time and the length of the verse.