At the heart of writing a good song is understanding the concept of “prosody,” which includes the rhythm, stress and intonation of speech.

When you’re creating a song, try to remember the length. Today’s popular songs are generally between 3 to 5 minutes long. Anything that runs much longer may be difficult to get radio play.

Having a crisp structure and clear progression is particularly crucial for narrative songs. When you’re done writing, step back and ask, “does this make clear sense?”

Make music that’s bigger than yourself by thinking about what the song needs instead of what you want. Songs often have a mind of their own.

The next time you sit down to play or write a song, concentrate on improvising. But conscientiously avoid your usual patterns and instead work on exploring interesting new concepts.

Get feedback on your songs as often as possible, but only constructive or critical feedback. Groupies and adoring fans don’t count.

Some songsmiths find it effective to begin their songs by coming up with a title before they do anything else. They often insist it provides a unifying concept around which the rest of the song is based.

A good melody will take occasional leaps. Upward leaps can be an excellent way to create emotional energy.

Create a list of different word associations. The word “water”could evoke the word “thirst,” or it could bring up images of “underwater, drowning, swimming, floating.” Lyrics can form via these associations. Follow The words wherever they go.

Don’t worry about composing a full song every time you write. Writing short fragments is an excellent way to sharpen songwriting technique.

Experiment with rhythm within a line. A line can have its own rhythmic bounce or flair and still fit in within the overall rhyming scheme.

Struggling with writing a catchy song? Maybe try the method used by Vera Matson, who took a public domain song from the Civil War and used her own lyrics. That was how she wrote “Love Me tender,” which became a major hit for Elvis Presley and other musicians.

Malcolm Gladwell observes in his book “Outliers” that natural talent only goes so far. Regardless of how much talent you have, you can’t realize your full potential without a lot of practice. It takes approximately 10,000 hours of practice to become a master in your field. So it’s time to get a move on!

Rhyming is an important element of writing songs. But if you have to make a line sound ridiculous to make the rhyme work, throw it away and start again.