Here’s a new category: Songwriting! You might not care at all about songwriting, but I do. And so I shall write about it. So there.
I’ve been writing songs seriously for about 30 years. Are my songs good? Yes, they are. I think some of them are very good. Is it conceit to say that? Let’s flip the question around to the post title – how can I tell if a song I write is good? I think you need to be a good musician and a good music listener to answer that question. You also need a level of musical maturity. How many different genres do you like? If the answer is one, you’re not musically mature yet. If you’re 16, that makes perfect sense. If you’re 46, that’s a whole ‘nuther matter.
OK, I’m kind of being a pompous ass, so let me backtrack. Most guitarists I know (including myself) go through an evolution. As a young player, you find what you like and tend to look down your nose at everything else. Age and experience teach you that there’s a whole big world of music out there, and if you give it a chance you’ll find a lot of new and interesting styles. I was into KISS, then Rush, then Genesis. Then I went to college and learned to like jazz. Some young players already have the maturity to listen to all styles of music with an open ear. Some guitarists (like me) had to learn it with age. Some never learn it.
The point is, step one of knowing if your song is any good is being able to recognize a “good” song. And a good song is NOT just a song you like. A song you like IS a good song, because it’s good to you. But the songs you don’t like are also good IF people like them, and a song is great IF people feel an emotional response to the song. Not just you… people in general.
When you first start writing songs, you may or may not think your songs are good. If you don’t, keep writing. You can’t write a good song without writing a bunch of bad ones first. But if you are a good musician and a good listener, you’ll be able to tell if your song is, for example, in tune and in time. You’ll know if your rhymes are the same rhymes you’ve hear a billion times before, such as “love” and “above” or “girl” and “world.” Yes, some big name artists have used those exact rhymes. There are always exceptions. You’ll know if your song makes you tingly when you sing it (meaning the song is making you FEEL something.) Tingly = ASMR = good song.
Side note – ASMR is going to be a musical genre in the future. I’m stunned it hasn’t happened already. I promise you there are ASMR musicians out there right now, recording “ASMR” music, ie music designed to give you “tingles.”
Ahem. Anyway, that tingling sensation we feel when a song really moves us is a good clue that there’s something good about the song. Art at its best will make you feel something. So determining if your song will make you or anyone else feel something is a skill that you need to master to write good or great songs.
In addition, you need to either record or perform the song for it to be completed. Recording a song takes a whole ‘nuther skill set. It’s important to be able to listen to a recording and say “The vocal is a little flat there, but that’s OK. But on the chorus it’s too far off, so it needs to be sung again.” Music is about emotion and making people feel something. The Ramones made simple music, badly recorded, and people loved them. Rules were made to be broken, but at the end of the day, someone has to like it or love it.
The best person to initially make that judgement is you. If YOU don’t like it, toss it. Write another song.
I’ve written a lot of words, so most of the immature guitarists haven’t made it this far into the article. But in case some have, I know what you’re thinking. You clicked on the “check out my music” thing and listened to my song “But Ya Don’t Care” and you hate it. You think it’s crap. You’re looking for the comments section so you can say “dude ur so gay ur song sucks” or some variant. This is what I’m talking about when I say musical maturity. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s a bad song. People have bought that song. People have streamed that song. It’s not for everyone. No song is. Nor is the song perfect, nor does it need to be.
So you have to be able to tell if your song has any emotional impact, and you also have to be able to tell if it’s musically solid – are there wrong notes, bad chords, etc? Does it sound good in terms of audio quality? Could it be used on TV or the radio, or in videos? If you have your own studio, you’ll spend the rest of your life trying to make your recordings better and better, and you’ll enjoy the process (hopefully.)
Write what makes you feel something. If you have listened to enough music and you’re a good musician and you’re willing to be perfectly honest with yourself, you’ll know if it’s good. If you’re not to that point yet, write anyway. You won’t be a good songwriter until you’ve written a bunch of songs. I think anyone who likes writing songs can get to the point of writing a good one. There’s all kinds of educational resources online to help you. Here’s a neat tool:
Check it out. Keep writing songs. Keep listening to music. Eventually you’ll get to the point where you don’t need to ask the question.
