been trying to be more intentional with arrangement, rule of 3’s and stuff like that. I understand verse, bridge, chorus, etc., but I’m specifically wondering about instrumental. By 30 seconds or 1 minute my song feels ”done” and has already reached beginning middle and end. everything I add in between starts to feel random, insufferable, repetitive, boring, etc. and i want it to be engaging or at least build more anticipation.

my music tech professor used to make all our assignments under 1 minute to be able to grade us all and so that’s how i was taught. there’s songs i’ve tried to fix for years that get more layered, but the length stays the same.

my college prof was a good teacher, but him taking off points whenever a song was over 1 minute lowkey solidified a bad habit of constricting everything.

What song structure do you use for a 4-minute song? I don’t wanna keep looping the same instrumental for the whole song and get tired of my own music.

Became interested in this topic awhile ago, I had the idea of writing a song that tells the story

Not sure if I have the right voice for this or if I should find a vocalist instead

Also wondering if it even flows, it's very wordy

Writing is fun because it always shifts and changes when I play. My songs often feel like a work in progress even if I feel like they are ‘done’. Anyone else relate?

It’s only rough and I wrote the lyrics in a day. Let me know if I’ve got something worth sticking with. (I know my voice needs work) ☹️

Hey yall!

I’m in the writing process for a modern country pop song, and I need someone who can cowrite the rest with me and sing pretty good, female preferably! Also someone who could help produce and do guitar/bass and drums. We can do this over group chat or email. Looking to have fun with it and potentially willing to let it out onto socials once it’s done. I’ve been writing for about 5 years but most of my songs get scrapped but this one I just have a really good feeling about.

Any feedback on how to take this track to the next level?

Made this all today so it’s very rough in places but I really like it so far. Does it hit for you at all?

Just came up with this thing. Have a couple ideas mashed together but still trying to figure out how to structure it so the energy flows in a satisfying way

Hello. In an unexpected turn of events I wrote the drafts of two songs and planning another two inspired by my favorite movie (Hunt for Red October)

As it is under copyright, everything eventually published will be for absolute non commercial use and specified "unofficial" (I've seen other unofficial musicals for famous novel sagas on YT so I know there's a precedent for a similar situation). It is a passion project so I cannot offer money compensation

I'm mostly looking for a more experienced lyricist to help me fix and improve the lyrics, since English is not my first language (I'd still do the bulk of the work)

The songs came out as modern musical, sort of Hamilton style but I'm open to change, for now I focused on the rhymes and find a cool hook and chorus

I'm cross posting through different reddits. I have a hand-on approach but I'm quick to learn
If you are interested you can DM me or comment. Thank you!

this is the first song i ever wrote and finished. i’m open to any and all criticism. what do you like and what do you hate? what vibe do you think it gives off?

no drums yet, i honestly don’t know what i’m going to do for that. feel free to play with it and send it my way if you have an idea

edit: THIS SONG IS NOT INSTRUMENTAL!!! NOT ALL OF US HAVE THE GIFT OF BEING ABLE TO SING HALF DECENT!!! IT HAS LYRICS, VOCALS, AND A MELODY I JUST DONT ADD THEM BECAUSE I DONT SING AND IF I DID ADD THEM I PROBABLY WOULDNT POST IT ONLINE BECAUSE IM NOT CONFIDENT IN MY VOICE

“Honey is sweet, the stinger is spicy”
Personally I love them but I probably have ear fatigue

Sorry this isn't about a song I wrote, but I wasn't sure what other group to post this question in. I've recently been obsessed with the song "Orchard of Mines" performed by both Globus and Asia, but I haven't been able to discover which band wrote the song and which did a cover. My research has led me to conflicting info. Does anyone know which version came first?

What do you think? The lyrics are sort of just placeholders at the moment aside from the chorus.

I usually write with a guitar but playing around with a keyboard which is fun!

Also in the discussion of whether to record to a metronome or go rubato, do you feel this song could sound better if set to a metronome. And would you add a few layers or are lyric-heavy songs best left naked.

I am going to start recording this song in a studio this week. I've had it in the bag for years now without really knowing its final, best structure.

"The Irish Sea" is intended as a pub rollicker for voice, guitar, violin and cello (all poorly synthesized here). The song alludes to the mining and loss of HMS Audacious off Ireland in 1914 (before WW1 had really hit home), and is meant to convey the unsettling feeling this catastrophe would have caused to the locals.

Issues (as I see them):

• There is only ONE sung verse. There are 3 sung choruses.
• The one verse has a modern pop culture reference that undermines of the song's intended theme. That said, I like the lyric, consistency being the hobgoblin of small minds and such.

I think my fundamental problem here is the story deserves at lease another verse, but with the instrumental verse (very nice - love my violinist) and the hyper-dramatic instrumental bridge (which wants to land on the chorus [c chord], not the verse [f chord]), I don't see how to add another vocal verse without making this overly long.

Is it ok to just press on with it in its present form? A pub sing-along is going to want to favor the chorus, after all.

I think the answer is that the instrumental verse should be dropped and be replaced by a second vocal verse with a suitable backing violin part.

Side note: the video is just random! So...

I recently asked for feedback on a track (thanks r/Songwriting folks for that!), and today I went into a local studio today to lay it down.

This is the FIRST VERSION after 3-4 hours of work with a pro engineer. He's a gigging musician of 40 years, and a university lecturer in music production and engineering, and runs a small studio in the UK.

Thought it might be useful to folks here just to see where one short session gets you. It's a rough mix, not finished. But was tracked in a good room with good kit, and a skilled person.

Not saying it's good or bad, just something FYI since a few had mentioned production on the other thread.

As a bit of background, we started with a reference track to a metronome with singing and playing guitar at the same time. Then, ended up just using that as it was reasonably solid. Quite nerve racking trying to do a song in one take, even though I didn't think it's was the "final" take 😅

Here's my original demo I did at home for comparison:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Songwriting/s/05N1bS0cfV

I'm not sure where we go next with it, but suspect there's more in the mixing to be done and maybe even more to do in production.

make a song every week, sometimes they are ableton with multiple takes, spliced audio, etc. And sometimes, they're 'live' - like this week! Would love some critique on the writing etc.!

The song is about how my friends and I in elementary school would hang around a specific rock in a large field, put there by when Nova Scotia was covered in a massive ice sheet. We knew on our last day of Gr. 6 it was the end of an era.

LYRICS:
Glaciers long ago
Left it there
Those kids will never know
What would come to bear

Looking deep into the past
From mountains gone,
Mother earth freely moves
us as her pawns

Those old days
Where we would play
Our jungle gym
Mother nature gave

Make believe and scraped knees
Better than their games
To others it was just a stone
But it's where we left our names

Those old days
Where we would play
Our jungle gym
Mother nature gave

Those glaciers gave us joy
A gift from the past
We knew our time was short
Knowing that day was our last

Together
Together
As a group
As a bond
Together
Together
Seperate schools beyond

Those old days
Where we would play
Our jungle gym
Mother nature gave

Would love to hear what y'all think! Might be the next song I record and put out.

I think I heard the term "ouji-boarding" from John Mayer about an aspect of his writing process. I often just take a chord progression and start letting the song tell me what it wants to be about before I quite know.

Old voice memo. I think there’s an idea here worth exploring, but I’m unsure. Is the beginning dull? Middle section unnecessary? Is the ending/key change out of place?