Even though the core of a song should have an emotional base, there is a learned technique that informs every song. Songwriting is a learned craft. It takes a great deal of concentration and attention to detail. Paying attention to the details of a song separates the good songs from the bad ones. If you get really serious about songwriting, you will nitpick the melody notes, the harmony, the rhythm, the lyric, the lyric pace and how each individual syllable is connected to its corresponding note.
Phew, songwriting sounds dangerous! It can be! You can be consumed by songwriting. You can obsess to the nth degree about the details. My suggestion is try not to be too perfect. First of all, perfect doesn’t really exist, but if you do try to be too perfect while writing your song, sometimes the feeling that drew you to writing the song in the first place will dissipate/flush away, and it is difficult to recreate that initial feeling.
*Your goal should be to finish a draft of your song. Once you have an initial draft, you can always go back to it and re-work it.
*Giving yourself some distance between drafts is a very helpful way of being objective about your work.
*There is no time limit on how slow or fast a song emerges. FYI: Some songs emerge slowly over time.
All of that said, if you feel that something isn’t ‘just right’ with your song, go after it. Rewrite it. Try to perfect it. But perfect doesn’t really exist!
The art of writing is rewriting. Randy Klein
