Chapter 2
Inspiration
Inspiration will help you narrowing down the potential endless possibilities of WHAT KIND of song you’re going to write.
Will it be a heavy metal song? Or a folk song? Will it be a love song? A funny song? Or do you want to write a sad song about that horrible thing that happened to you lately?
In my experience the best way to get inspired is by listening to music.
It’s very likely that you are already inspired and that you know what kind of song you want to write on your guitar.
If not do this: Create a playlist of songs on Spotify or Youtube that you like, find inspiring and that you enjoy listening to. This playlist should include songs that are in the style and mood of the song that you are attempting to write.
Listen to this playlist in preparation of your songwriting session.
If there is a particular song in your playlist that you really like, check if other playlist have the same song and browse those playlists for more inspiration. If you find another good song, add it to your playlist.
In the particular case of my song, I wanted to write something with a slight pop / folk influence, because this is the kind of music I’m listening to at the moment. I kind of already knew what I wanted to write about: Austria (my home country).
The idea came from a particular song by Michel Polnareff, a French musician that I really adore. In his song “Lettre à France”, he sings about his home country, France and how he misses it (he basically spent half his life in exile). I heard this song on the radio.
That particular song was the starting point of my inspiration.
So before even picking up my guitar, I already had a rough idea what the song will be about. But what about the music? Since I knew it will be a song about Austria, I created a playlist on Spotify with Austrian artists and listened to the playlist when I was riding in the subway or when I was travelling. It included some very well-known artists here, as well as some artists that are maybe lesser known and that I discovered while browsing playlists of other people. I tried to pick songs that fit my idea of a song with a pop / folk edge.
Listening to the playlist did not only give me the joy of listening to great music, but it also got me into the mood to write my own song.