Learning music theory isn’t necessary to write a great song, but doing so can certainly enhance your understanding of how music works. This understanding will be useful when you decide to attempt to take your music in more complex directions.

While actually mastering theory can take you years (if not an entire lifetime), you can pick up the basics fairly quickly. Learning the 12 notes, scales, chords, and chord progressions can all help take your music to a deeper level.

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Some songwriters find it helpful to mentally envision white noise when trying to brainstorm. This effectively creates a mental “blank canvas” where your mind can freely explore the sonic possibilities.

This allows you to remove the rational structure of the world around you, allowing you to make mental associations that you might not otherwise created. Follow this and other key songwriting hacks to improve your songwriting process.

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Today’s Songwriting Tip: If people say your ideas are wrong, then you’re probably one step ahead. If they laugh at you, then you’re probably two steps ahead. Great artists aren’t always understood in their own time, but if you write songs on your own terms, you’ll never have regrets.

Of course, if you’re trying to be commercially successful, it’s probably best if people aren’t laughing at your songs (unless that’s your intention). The point, however, is that if you’re writing songs that are on the cutting edge, you can’t worry too much about how the wider world criticizes them.

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Change your phrasing patterns between each section to create more engaging melodies. Set a pattern and match it each time that section comes back to repeat your most powerful melodic moments.

This is an excellent way to make your songs more musically interesting. And by doing so, you’ll peak your listeners’ interest and create more memorable songs.

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All those song snippets you’ve written down in moments of inspiration are like building blocks for fuller compositions. Never write off a song just because the idea didn’t complete itself right away.

Instead, do your best to refer back to your ideas in moments where you’d otherwise be stuck or paralyzed by writer’s block. This is among the many ways to overcome writer’s block in your songwriting.

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Try keeping a list of potential song titles hanging in the wall of your practice space. Any time you hear a catchy phrase or have a compelling idea, add it to the list.

This will help to keep your creative process in constant motion. Every time you see the list, your mind will be trying to add new ideas to it and you’ll start thinking of lyrics to add to existing titles as well. While there are many unique ways to get your creative juices flowing, this is an effective go-to technique.

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If you need something to get you started in the right direction, you could always try using a melodic fragment from a public domain song. An ages-old folk song or even a nursery rhyme will do. Work it and rework it until you’ve made it your own.

By the time you’re done, it probably won’t be recognizable at all. Ideally, the only thing left will be the ghost of that melodic fragment. The idea here, of course, is that it’s just another of the many ways to boost your creativity.

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Choose a natural starting point for your song instead of trying to force it. In essence, let your song begin where you feel it’s supposed to begin.

If your brain naturally starts with a melody, then just throw some nonsense words into the mix until the right words form to take their place. That’s how Paul McCartney wrote “Yesterday” — his original version of the song was about scrambled eggs, and he used the phrase as a placeholder until his real lyrics had mentally congealed for him.

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