The Songs to Write Project

Part of my daily practice (See Day 3 on Daily Practice Leading to Songs to Write) in addition to practicing piano skills is to work through a section of the Amy Appleby book, You Can Write a Song. I love doing this because it feels to me that I have a songwriting mentor. It probably doesn’t matter what book I use as long as I do it consistently a little bit every day.

Today’s topic is Song Titles. Many songwriters start with a title they believe in and build from there. Others will create the song title after the song is written or in progress. Song titles should give an idea of the subject of the song. Some are more obvious and others are more indirect and allow the listener to discover the true meaning. A catchy or memorable song title is good to strive for in writing pop music.

Song titles fall into a few general formats that can even move the song forward. Here are a few format ideas to think about:

• Label. Captures the essence of the song in a word or phrase.
• Statement. Sums up the theme and idea of the song. Keep it short.
• Question. Asking a question catches the listener’s attention and gets them involved.

There are numerous professional techniques to make a title interesting and catchy that come from using the figures of speech that creative writers use. Rather than study them right now, in the interest in starting to write lots of songs, I’m starting a list of titles on as many themes a possible. I’ll post some of these in the next day or two.

How about you? Please comment below on your technique for getting started on songs to write.

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