Here’s a good block-breakin’, stimulatin’, new-idea-creatin’ songwriting tool: Ask yourself ‘What If…?’

For example –

* If I’ve written the song in the first person, What If… the Bridge is in the third person?

* What If… I try the Chorus in another key from the Verse? Or the Bridge?

* What If… the Chorus lyric is just the Title repeated, with no other lines?

* What If… I change the gender of someone in the song (maybe the narrator?)? Or the friend into a parent? Or the parent into a lover? Or the lover into a god?

* What If… I leave out the chords for a while, concentrating on just the melody until I get it right? Then try reharmonizing the melody?

* What If… I look through the lyric for places to raise the stakes, make it more dramatic, wherever I can?

* What If… I change the location of the song? Or, if it doesn’t have one, give it a specific location?

* What If… the objects in the song all had colors? What would they be? What If I look for other ways to make the song lyric more visual? Or aural?

* What If… I make the song about friendship instead of romantic or sexual love? Or vice versa?

* What If… I make a bad person in the song (or the narrator) much worse – a murderer, a rapist, a pedophile?  What if I completely destroy something in the song, burn it all down? What If I go there?

* If one section of the song has a narrow melody, What If… I give another section a wild, rangy, and unpredictable melody? Or vice versa?

* What If …I use curse words if they fit the character, even if I don’t think that’s my style? Or don’t use them if it is?

* What If… I make this song’s narrator someone completely different from me?

These are thirteen ‘What Ifs’. If I look at any specific song I’m working on, many others will come to mind.

It helps me get out of my comfort zone. How I can make a song more interesting? Turning it upside down and asking myself ‘What If…?‘ is one way to do that.

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