One of the greatest hurdles in songwriting is getting over that first step of starting on a song and getting that first part. You need sources of inspiration for songwriting for getting past that first hurdle and I personally draw from a number of different sources for where to get inspiration for songwriting.
In this article, we’re going to look at three different sources of where to get inspiration for songwriting.
Where to Get Inspiration For Songwriting
One of the greatest triggers when it comes to inspiration for songwriting for me is to listen to specifically new music from my favorite artists of the first time.
When you hear a song for the first time, you don’t know exactly where it’s going to go from the intro to the verse into the pre-chorus and into the chorus and beyond. Actually take that unknowingness and work to map out and predict where you think that song will go next.
Whether that’s imagining the vocal hook for the chorus if the song starts out with an intro which is actually the chorus only without vocals or if that’s just anticipating the next section of the song, you can stop that song the first time you hear it before each progression occurs.
From there, you can predict your own idea of where it will go and this can be a great way to come up with some unique ideas of your own. Nine times out of ten, the song itself will go nowhere near where you thought it was going.
The next place to get inspiration for songwriting comes from the seasons/weather. I get a lot of inspiration from my surroundings and good and bad weather has a substantial effect on my mood and spirit for any given day.
In the summer time, when the sun is shining and you just have this feeling of energy and life about you, I like to write and find myself being inspired to write vibrant and very exciting hooks whereas conversely in the wintertime the mood is more subdued and the parts don’t have the same feeling.
Finally, one of the greatest universal sources for inspiration for songwriting comes from emotions; taking exactly what you’re going through in any given moment and turning that into a song is a great outlet for coping with and capitalizing on different feelings whether they are depressing or jubilant.
Breakups are very difficult to go through for anyone, but I take a bit of solace with every breakup which I go through in knowing that I can channel those emotions into a song and share them with other people and just getting them out as well.
Knowing that I can share these feelings and have them heard by other people is extremely therapeutic and makes for a great and potent source of inspiration.
The last place to get inspiration for songwriting is to use methods which are proven to work. Take my book on how to write a song aptly titled “How to Write a Song – The No ‘BS’ Songwriter’s Bible” which is full of methods for starting a song and then developing existing ideas and even getting over writer’s block using a number of devices.
