Humans have been making music a long time
Recently, in the hillside caves of southernwestern Germany, archaeologists discovered the beginnings of music and art by early modern humans. These early musicians probably were not writing songs, but they were creating music by playing flutes made of bird bone and mammoth ivory. One of the best preserved bone flutes has five finger holes. Tests determined the instruments were 42,000 to 43,000 years old. This is around the time when the first anatomically modern humans were spreading into the area of Central Europe. Of course, the music creation process has evolved dramatically over time. The implementation of language, certain discoveries, and other types of knowledge had a profound effect on the evolution of music.
An essential building block
You can learn a lot by studying successful music from the past. Writing your own songs, or creating your own music can be achieved by implementing your cumulative music knowledge. You do not need to rediscover the wheel. Music is part melody, rhythm, lyric, and harmony. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction. A big part of this is chord progressions. They are a vitally important building block of contemporary western music. Chord progresses establish the basic framework of a song. Researching popular chord progressions will be quite beneficial.
If you analyze a large number of popular songs, you will discover that they contain certain patterns or combinations of chords that are used repeatedly. The reason is very simple. They sound really good together, and are pleasing for most people to listen to. Once you learn and can implement these popular and successful chord progressions, you are definitely ahead of the game. If you are going to be creating music and writing your own songs, it will be very helpful to at least know some basic music theory. Songwriters should have a solid working knowledge of how popular chord progressions are created and used in successful music. Chord progressions can not be copyrighted. You are free to use all, or part of, any popular chord progress in existence.
Song structure is important
Music in general can be up to personal interpretation. With songwriting, there are certain formulas and patterns that have proven to be highly successful over a long period of time. This is true when it comes to popular music and hit songs. Most songs have a recognizable formula relating their structure. The following is a good example: You have the intro, a verse or two, a chorus, a bridge, then another verse and chorus. You may also insert a solo in the mix. Research tells us one of the most popular hit making structure forms is the Verse-Chorus-Bridge song. A hit song could include a verse, chorus, verse, a bridge or solo, then finish with another chorus. Songwriters realize how to effectively put songs together that are comfortable to listeners.
In conclusion
Writing hit songs and creating music will take some musical knowledge. You will also need to learn a few successfully proven formulas which you can emulate. It would be wise listening to, and analyzing hit songs from many different styles of music. Pick a subject matter, and choose the style of music you want to put your lyrics to. Your song needs to be memorable. Give it an affectional impact. Say something that people can refer to. Come up with a great hook in your song. That is something very catchy that listeners can not seem to get out of their mind. It can be words, a solo, intro, or even something else. Proper knowledge could help you become a successful song writer. There is much to learn, and I have shared with you a few successful basic concepts.