KJones

I've wrote and helped write over 100+ songs. When I was in a band, what I would do is tell the members to play something, could be anything at all, and then create a line of lyrics to it. It can also go the other way. Soon enough a whole song will be made using this method. It is much easier to be in a band and write accordingly with them.

If you're by yourself however, you can write a simple chord progression and then write a line to it, play the same chord progression or move on to another one and write another line. But you usually want the chord progression to repeat or be in a pattern in verses and choruses. You will have the occasional song or two that changes chord progressions constantly regardless of verses and choruses. (Listen to some Coheed and Cambria, Mastodon, Periphery, and Tesseract) You can also have a line wrote and play a chord progression that fits to it.

Take it a little bit at a time. Also, take time to think on it. It is very rare a song will just pop up in 10 minutes, and if it does, don't expect it is the greatest thing in the world. It could be a week of thinking before a whole song comes together.

Make sure the words flow, and make sure the beat is real tight unless you're going for djent or progressive or some Enter Shakari, then the beat can change and do whatever it wants.

Also, don't write symetrically. When you make a riff, don't play it over and over again. Like four of the same riff to a progression and then repeat, put some pizazz and put your own character and little clink-clanks, boop-bops here and there that stray a little bit off of the riff but go right back in. A good example of symetrical writing was in the Classic Rock days and the Rock n Roll days. I'm not saying these genres are bad, but the norm today is to REALLY get down and dirty with creativity. If you're interested in Electronic music, listen to Skrillex, he usually sticks to a main riff but has many attempts to stray off a bit and do his own thing.