I’m a musician and songwriter who for over a decade has also been facilitating Songwriting workshops and teaching Songwriting.  And I still haven’t found any ‘rules’ or ‘formulas’ for songwriting.

There are customs and traditions, all of which, when used well, can add tremendous power and resonance to a song; both structurally and because listeners bring certain expectations when listening to a song (though those expectations change with genre and time).  The writer can then fulfill, postpone, or subvert those expectations, or surprise the listener altogether.

As in any field, it’s a very rare genius who can go too long or far without knowing what’s been done by the greats who preceded him or her.   Sooner or later most people run dry, and then the history and tradition of our craft is where one goes to get schooled, renewed, replenished, and inspired.

How great songwriters have used melody, rhyme, rhythm, harmony… Choruses, Titles, Verses, Pre-Choruses, Bridges… the power and usefulness of learning that can’t be underestimated.  It’s essential.  The process of discovering the craft of those who’ve gone before is thrilling, and being able to adapt what previous songwriters have done to one’s own song(s) is so empowering.

But I think that trying to make a formula out of that, even if you wanted to (which I don’t), isn’t particularly useful – because… shhh… the ‘formula’ doesn’t exist.

Songwriting is a moving target – because it’s always changing.  Think about it – what was ‘acceptable’ in a song in 1930?  1950?  1970, etc…?  And now?  Right now is a time of great songwriting creativity; an explosion of possibility and freedom that rivals some of the great ‘golden eras’ of the past.  What we’ll ultimately make of all of it only history will tell.  But it’s a particularly bad time to say, ‘This is what a song is’.

To digress… A song is just a moment – it’s not a 2 hour movie, a 3 hour play, a novel that takes a few days to read.  You don’t have to keep a song ‘afloat’ for that long.  It lasts a few minutes.  It’s almost all about emotion (for the listener).  If it works, not many questions are asked.  Also it’s a form that’s still very close to the ‘street’; still a kind of folk music, even at its most mainstream.  So it pops up in all kinds of different forms.  It encompasses everything from ‘I Feel Good’ to ‘Sophisticated Lady’ to ‘All The  Single Ladies’… and everything in between and beyond.  The ‘formula’, such as it is (or was, by now), is always changing… then sometimes it changes back again.

As well as writing my own songs, I help other people write theirs (only rarely as a co-writer; I’m offering experience, support. and suggestions – not answers).  I try to help them find their way, their own path.  Yes, we stand on the shoulders of our ancestors.  But I don’t teach or preach formulas or rules, only traditions and customs – and suggestions for how writers can put them to use, or work around them – in practice, by writing.  How they’re put to use is always changing.  Every song is hand-made.

Modern popular song is still very much ALIVE.  Fortunately!  It hasn’t calcified into something academics can put in a case and study like a dead civilization.  It lives and evolves.

There’ve already been so many great songs written that sometimes it can seem like ‘it’s all been done before’.  But that’s not true.  Just listen.  Creatively, it’s a great time to be a songwriter.