If you’ve been writing songs for a while, there’s a good chance that at some point you’ve felt like you keep writing variations of the same song. The most frustrating thing is that when you try to write something different, it doesn’t sound as cool, or you have a harder time working in unfamiliar territory, so you stick to what you know. I’ve certainly had this issue. Over time I began to notice that my songs used similar chord progressions, melodies, and rhythms, to the point where I was accidentally writing “new” material, only to realize that I had copied something I previously wrote. To avoid falling into this trap, here are some strategies that I’ve employed in my own writing to help push me creatively.
1. Assess your own music
Before you start exploring new facets of your creativity, it makes sense to understand what’s making your songs sound the same in the first place. Do you use the same tempo? The same chord progressions? Find out what the common thread is between your songs so you understand what it actually is that you need to do to add fresh ideas to your music.
2. Listen to music that’s different from yours and study it
This is an obvious but extremely helpful point. There’s a good chance you listen to music that you wouldn’t necessarily write yourself, yet you still love it. Listen to this music, and really study it. Transcribe the melody, the chords, and the rhythms, and take in how it differs from your own. Oftentimes, we stick to the same patterns in our writing simply because it’s the most familiar, so the best way to get out of this cycle is to fully immerse yourself in music that’s different.
For example, I tend to gravitate to the major and minor modes in my writing, but lots of songs that I love have been written using the mixolydian mode. To push myself, I would try writing music using this mode, and even if I don’t end up with a finished song it will still be a great exercise. In short, listening to music that’s different from yours is an excellent way to explore new sounds and ideas which you can use as a reference point for your own creativity.
3. Write in a different key
This may seem odd, but always writing in the same key is a way that many songwriters can lose inspiration in their creative process without even realizing it. For example, I write and record most of my ideas into my DAW using a keyboard because it’s the most convenient option, however piano isn’t my main instrument. As a result, I admittedly fall into writing in C most of the time because it doesn’t interrupt my flow. I recognized that only being able to play proficiently on the white keys wasn’t ideal, but I didn’t realize that it would hinder my creativity.
During one writing session, I opened up an acoustic guitar sample in my DAW that was automatically set to play chords in C minor. I didn’t bother changing it, so when I added a keyboard to the session I started writing chord progression ideas in C minor to stay in the same key as the guitar. That ended up being one of the most creative and productive sessions I’d had in a long time, and the only thing I changed in my writing process was writing ideas in a different key.
Why is this so effective? I have a few ideas. One, you have to change your fingerings and technique slightly in order to play each key on your instrument (this varies depending on the instrument). Second, even for those of us who don’t have perfect pitch, our ears still perceive a tonal quality unique to each key. For example, F major is considered calm and complaisant, while Ab major conveys graveness and death. Regardless of whether you agree that F major is calm and Ab major is grave, the point is that each key carries its own unique character, and by writing in only one key all the time you’re missing out on new possibilities with your music.
4. Write on a different instrument
Most of us write songs on a keyboard or guitar, and for most if not all of our writing sessions, we pull out the same instrument to generate our ideas. This makes sense because writing on our main instrument gives us the option to express more complex ideas. However, each instrument comes with its own unique set of abilities and limitations that change the way we create music on it.
Think of how different it is to write music on a piano versus a trumpet. A piano has the broadest range of any instrument, and it requires little effort to jump from the lowest key to the highest key. Contrast that to a trumpet, which has a much more limited range and requires more skill just to produce a sound. There’s no doubt that if I’m writing music on the trumpet, my melodies are more likely to be stepwise and generally simpler because large interval jumps would be much more difficult to execute. Furthermore, it is a wind instrument, which means that I’m more likely to have more space present in my melodies, since I need space to breathe.
Even the change of timbre when writing with a different instrument (or the same one) can bring about a new wave of creativity. Take for example the song “Losing My Religion” by R.E.M. It all began when guitarist Peter Buck started learning mandolin, and in the process came up with the main riff to the song. Although he could have easily come up with the riff on electric guitar, there’s no doubt that the experimentation with the mandolin played a large role in the song’s creation. Not only did the new timbre create a new sonic playground for Peter to explore, but his limited ability on the instrument confined him to writing simpler, more concise melodies, which is a skill in itself.
5. Try a different writing process
I have my own process that I use for writing songs. I always open up my DAW and start with a basic drum loop. Then, I write a chord progression on top, and continue to layer instruments until I get I basic groove. Once I have a few chord progression ideas down, I usually have them playing on a loop while I experiment with melodic ideas on my keyboard. Once I’ve finished writing the melody, I start putting lyrics to the melody.
This process had always worked well for me, but as you might have guessed, I reached a point where this same approach left me a little less inspired each time. To counteract the creative draught, I made a slight change and started writing the lyrics before the melody. By writing the words first, it forced me to write my melodies differently in order to accommodate the lyrics. For example, since words have their own rhythms (ie. syllables), it forced me to use rhythms and phrasing that I normally wouldn’t have done in my melodies. Understand that you don’t need to completely flip your writing process on its head in order to get the ideas going again. Oftentimes, one minor change is enough to shift your perspective and cause you to approach your writing differently.
Conclusion
Changing up your songwriting process, even in the smallest ways, can light a new spark in your creativity. Doing something as simple as writing in a mode you’ve never written in can suddenly cause a creative frenzy because you’re no longer on auto-pilot; you’re flying on manual. Now that you’re in unfamiliar territory, you’re working with fresh, fertile soil. In other words, you’re less likely to fall back onto the same ideas that you recycle in every writing session.