#howiwroteit

[howiwritemysongs]

See how I wrote this song, what it means, and read the lyrics by checking out the rest of my blog! You can also download the song for free on my Soundcloud! ENJOY.

[howiwritemysongs]

UFO's and Eskimos - How I Wrote It

How I Wrote It:

Like the majority of my songs, this song started with the Lyrics for the chorus. I usually come up with an idea for a title, like I did this time with a theme in my head. Once I had the words and melody for the chorus, I then figured out which chords I wanted to go behind them.

“'Don’t bore us to get to the chorus'. Aerosmith churn out the hits because they are nearly all chorus – they start with a Chorus. It’s Chorus, Chorus, PreChorus, Chorus. Think about 'Love in an elevator', or 'Janie’s got a gun'." - Dave Grohl

After playing the chorus a couple times round, I decided to take the key of the song down a bit so I could sing it more comfortably. This is also something I do quite often as my vocal range is quite limited. Once I was happy with the chorus, I came up with an intro riff and some verse chords to go into. Decided on the following verse chords wasn't something I logically thought about, I just felt the direction of where the song was going in my head and played what felt right.

The next step was coming up with two sets of Verse lyrics that fit the chords I had laid out. The words can take a bit of time, but they come from the theme of the song I plan upon and the images that run through my head. Imagination plays a big part in sparking off lyrics for me, making up scenarios in my head. Once the verses were written, that's the majority of the pieces of the puzzle for me.

The last part of the puzzle, always the hardest for me is the 'Middle 8' section. Trying to come up with a short part that takes the song in a slightly different direction for a short period, to make the song a little more interesting. With this song I took the same approach as I did with the verses, chose a bunch of chords that felt right and then followed with the words.

After I had written all the pieces of the song, I started to think more about how to structure it. After much thought, I decided the song made most sense by taking the typical:

Intro, Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Middle, Chorus. 

Once I had recorded the song in full structure, I just decided to add a little lead guitar part on the bridge from the Middle 8 to the last Chorus to jazz it up a little. And there we have the first song!

Feel free to ask any questions!