The 13 Biggest Myths Around Songwriting
So you’re wanting to start with or improve your songwriting, but you’re somehow feeling blocked… If you’re experiencing this, there’s a fair chance that you have some limiting beliefs around songwriting. So let’s address some common songwriting myths so that you can get unblocked and start writing (again)!
Myth #1: You need to know music theory to write a good song
While I know a ton of music theory from my Berklee education, I literally never think about it when I write a song. This is also the reason why my 10 year old student Maren could write a great song! She didn’t know any music theory and didn’t even know how to read sheet music. She just liked to sing.
While knowing some music theory can be helpful with understanding WHY something worked in your songs, it is not needed to write. Rely on your ears to write your songs, not theory. Remember, the vast majority of people who listen to music don’t know music theory either.
Myth #2: You need to know how to play piano or guitar to write songs
I used to believe this as well! We had a songwriting contest in high school and remember wonder how my classmates - who didn’t play any instruments - were going to write a song! Turns out, there are ways to write songs without instruments:
Collaborate with other musicians or producers
Topline!
Toplining means you’re writing to a track that already exists, so all you have to do is just come up with the melodies and the lyrics. This is how I wrote the songs on my album that won songwriting contests and how many #1 hits were written.
Myth #3: Toplining is cheating
Toplining is today’s industry standard so if you want to say that everyone is cheating, then sure go ahead! But the only person you’re hurting with this is yourself. And just remember - chord progressions are not copyrightable… only lyrics and melodies are. You could use a completely different track but as long as you keep the same melodies and lyrics, it’ll still be the same song.
Myth #4: Lyrics are the most important part of songwriting
While lyrics are important, they are not the most important - melodies are. Melodies are universal! That’s why you like songs in languages you don’t speak or sing along to songs you don’t really know the lyrics of. Melodies will get the people hooked and the lyrics will then keep them around and make them feel something.
Myth #5: I don’t have any trauma so I can’t write good songs
Hahah that was literally me as a teenager! That’s because of all those TV shows like American Idol where seemingly all contestants have some tragic backstory. You can write meaningful songs without trauma or having lived a hard life.
Myth #6: Good lyrics have to be poetic and/or rhyme
Good lyrics tell a story - that’s it. Sure it’s cool when they rhyme, feel clever or even poetic, but if they don’t tell a story at the core, it doesn’t matter.
Myth #7: If I can’t remember the melody I wrote, it’s not a good melody
At some point you will have written 100+ songs… You probably won’t remember all the songs you wrote. That doesn’t mean they’re not good though! It just means you’ve created many different melodies! So make sure you always have some sort of audio recording of your songs - even if it’s just a voice memo!
Myth #8: Melodies should never repeat, that makes a song boring
Repetition is what makes melodies stuck in people’s heads - without it, no one will remember your melodies. Of course, if there’s too much repetition it will get boring, yes, but no repetition at all will make a song forgettable.
Myth #9: You have to be born with talent to write songs
I was born with 0 talent for songwriting… My first couple of songs were so bad all my teachers told me that I have a lot of work left to do. But after learning more about songwriting I got better and better and better and eventually even won songwriting contests. You don’t need talent, you just need the right framework to write good songs. And just like with any skill, you can get better at songwriting too.
Myth #10: Every song has to be completely original
Nope! It’s ok to write to tracks (toplining), co-write with other people and even use samples in your songs (as long as you credit everyone properly)! Don’t make your life harder than it needs to be… Just do what you need to do to get started.
Myth #11: You need to wait until inspiration strikes to write something good
If you do that, you’ll maybe write one song per year… You won’t get anywhere that way. Inspiration follows flow. Use a system to get you into that flow state and I promise you’ll start feeling more and more inspired.
Myth #12: If the song doesn’t flow out of you all at once it’s not a good song and not worth finishing
While it’s always a great feeling when you’re super inspired and a song just flows out of you, that’s just not how most songs work. But that doesn’t make them bad songs! I would actually argue that songs that were written with a lot of intention and thought behind them usually perform better! Every song is worth finishing - you never know where it will take you.
Myth #13: Writer’s block is a myth
Writer’s block is totally a thing - I would say most of us have experienced it at some point! But there are things that you can to do get out of that block. This is why we always teach our students a step-by-step songwriting system so it makes it easier to start and not get stuck in the process anywhere.
🎧 Check out the full conversation I had with coach Juliana here:
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