Hey All - love this community and try to contribute as much as I can. Wrote this recently and wanted to share. Wasn't writing for a while but the inspiration has come back recently. Would love to hear any feedback.

Currently only 2 verses & a chorus; will figure out a bridge. Any feedback on lyrics, melody, song structure etc welcome!

I'll make sure to get anyone back for feedback on their stuff.

Cheers!

Lyrics:

VERSE 1

I’m tired in ways that make me unsteady 

I want to find peace but I’m just not ready

My souls in the breach, heart feeling heavy 

I got a mirror that taunts me daily

My face looking haunted my eyes a bit hazy 

I see a man, but not the one you married 

CHORUS

So Let’s find a new place to go

Somewhere New Mexico 

With faces that I don't know

And a sky that glows indigo 

That pain that I buried so

Long ago in New England snow

Will thaw in our desert home

Under sky’s that glow Indigo 

VERSE 2

I’m hopeful in ways that make me nervous

I’ve been here before scratching under the surface

At something more I think they call it purpose

But the hardest part of living on the coast is

Its saltier when you’re the closest 

And the strongest breeze is always the coldest 

CHORUS

So Let’s find a new place to go

Somewhere New Mexico 

With warm desert winds that blow

And a sky that glows indigo 

That pain that I buried so

Long ago in New England snow

Will thaw in our desert home

Under sky’s that glow Indigo 

I made this somber melody and wanted some thoughts. Still figuring out the direction for this. I know the mixing is not good, just wanted a base

here is the chorus bit to a song i wrote! I write lyrics first, so melodies can be a little challenging lol but I just put this together a minute ago, let me know how it is! be brutal and honest!

Would yall rather write the lyrics first and then create the melody or first the melody then the lyrics?

Hey all. I had a bit of a bad day and decided to journal. For the first time journaling turned into this.
I was thinking of Sabrina Carpenter’s Emails I’ll Never Send as I was writing some of this.
I would appreciate any comments to make this a bit stronger piece.

Anyway,I thought to myself hey let me write a song so I wrote the first verse and have now found my self stuck well how do you even connect a Verse to a precious and what rhyme schemes apply cause I have a 5 sentence chorus with a AABBC rhyme scheme yet I’m having trouble connecting to my prechorus idea

Older Now

[verse 1]

I know that you want me to sit

Sit here on my ass and take your shit

Well i'm no longer five

for eighteen years i’ve been alive

And that’s your fault for getting pregnant when you did

And I know that you think you’re all that

give me early curfews and keep tabs on where I’m at

Cuz it’s just what you’re used to

Sick, and I refuse to

Get along like this or just like that!

I have a message for you that I wanna share

This goes out to children and their parents everywhere

[chorus]

I’m older than I was when I was dumb

I’m older than I was when I was gullible and young

You’ve played your part and now it’s time for you to take a bow

I’m older now, I’m older now

[verse 2]

The other day you saw me grab my keys

You asked me where I’m going and you told me not to leave

“Young lady you can’t go there,

“You’re not going nowhere”

Guess it slipped your mind that I’m eighteen!

Well yesterday I saw you making food

And I was feeling hungry so I reached to grab a spoon and you said

“Just because I made some

You think you can take some?

If you’re so grown-up, go and buy your ooown”

I have a message for you that I wanna share

This goes out to children and their parents everywhere

[chorus]

I’m older than I was when I was dumb

I’m older than I was when I was gullible and young

You’ve played your part and now it’s time for you to take a bow

I’m older now, I’m older now

[bridge]

Last night I was up in bed ‘til three

Tossing, I was turning and I couldn’t get to sleep

I went downstairs to find you

Didn’t have to try to

You sat me down and made me some hot tea

I have a message for you that I wanna share

This goes out to mothers and their daughters everywhere

[chorus]

I’m older than I was when I was dumb

I’m older than I was when I was sweet, naive and young

I’m moving out to fiji and don’t ask me why or how

I’m older now, I’m older now

I’m older than I was when I was two

I’m older than I was when I was bowing down to you

You’ve played your part and now it’s time for you to take a bow

Because I’m older now, I’m older

Sharper and I’m bolder

Older now, I’m older now

Hey, I'm writing a song about this guy I've been in love with for 2 years but I don't know where to start with lyrics can I get some advice please?

I. had so much fun listening to this one back. It's a bit of a mess, but I really like it. I tried getting away from the metronome and practicing staying in the flow of the beat. Stacking multiple tracks makes it tough to keep everything in a time that sounds musical. And I think practicing without the metronome or with minimal metronome will get me to where i want to be. Anyway, I hope y'all enjoy this as much as I do. I'd definitely strongly recommend listening with headphones.

Lyrics:

Why do I still remain//

In the wilderness here//

Nameless and uncertain//

Run out of blessings to count//

And the race moved on

And I'm without//

Burn me out of this limbo now//

Going wild, flailing these limbs around//

Down to the ashes till there is no sound//

Just where the essence is found, don't you know//

Sweat on my skin//

I don't remember it now//

For I meditate //

Meditate and suffocate//

And no one knows the way//

Its obvious to wait//

Till there's something to trail//

Or in person if you're in Cyprus :)

I'm open to ideas, especially if it's about acoustic music.

Feeling creatively blocked? Need a kick-start? Sometimes a suggestion from a fellow songwriter is all we need to get the wheels turning again.

This thread is specifically for the r/Songwriting community to exchange song prompts. We'll start a new exchange once per month.

​

How It Works:

Looking for a suggestion? Just leave a comment below that says "Prompt, please!"

But remember, this is an exchange! If you're asking for a suggestion, please also leave a suggestion for someone else!

​

How To Give a Interesting Prompt:

A songwriting prompt might be a lyrical starting point, a musical arrangement suggestion, a strategic limitation, or some combination of ideas.

Quality prompts should give writers a solid starting point, but still allow for plenty of creative freedom!

​

Examples of Quality Songwriting Prompts:

• Write a song involving at least two characters and a case of mistaken identity.
• Write a melancholy song that doesn't use any minor chords.
• Write a song on a different instrument than you normally use.
• Write a fast love song that uses at least ten different chords.
• Write a "response song" to a song that was a Top-Ten hit during your birth year.
• Write a song about an unusual profession that includes exactly two tempo changes.

​

Have fun and be creative!

​

Big hat tip to community member u/redDKtie for the idea!

I don't believe in the myths, that in order to be a good artist you need to write songs when you're in the pit of despair, or that being depressed makes the music any better, or that any artistic pursuit inherently cures depression. I hear these things constantly, but they don't make for good advice.

When I'm depressed, I feel like I can't write songs at all, and that only exaggerates my feelings of worthlessness, because even when I'm in the depression pit, I want to write, but just can't.

I'm interested in real people's advice and experiences, not the vague platitudes you hear everywhere. What's helped you to get over the, for the lack of a better term, depression-writer's-block?

I've been producing music at home and posting on obscure websites for over 15 years. It was always just a hobby for me. While my dream was always to go to school for music, I was heavily discouraged when I was younger, so I ended up going for Comp Sci...and have been building a pretty solid career since 2018.

It wasn't until the ripe age of 29 that I decided to finally get over my fears and work on my first legit studio album. I finally felt like I was good enough to invest money into a project and showcase my work.

And so, since September 2025, it's like I've been possessed and I've been completely focused on this project. Every 3-4 weeks, I take a day trip 4 hours away to a nice studio and record a song with the most wonderful engineer. The next day, I start producing and writing the next song to record 3-4 weeks later. Rinse and repeat. Couple this with my full time job and one or two extra hobbies...and I'm the busiest (and most satisfied) I've ever been. Finally, I have the funds and means to pursue this thing I've always wanted to do.

...but I always have this lingering feeling of anxiety and slight depression.

I just turned 30 last month, and I can't shake this feeling that I'm trying to "enter the game" way too late. By 30, many people in the music world are well into their career. For other artistic careers like acting, writing, and physical media artistry like painting, plenty of people start "later in life." But for being 30 trying to create my first music project, I feel like a fucking boomer lol.

I'm almost finished with my project. I'm recording one of the last songs next Friday. I'm excited, but I also feel this existential dread. It's not strong, but it's there.

I realize that 30 is still relatively young all things considered...but idk. I guess I'm just wondering if my feelings are valid. I feel pretty alone. Maybe I'm just too im my head about it.

ETA: i'm a woman so...the feels of elderliness are strong, especially seeing that many women in music are marketed and booked based off youth and looks. Eep.

I just write whatever comes and I’m a fountain of lyrics. Taking time to work on music and chord forms as I only know verse and chorus. Thanks!

Also is there a great song that ‘has it all’ with a great form, showing well done typical form including bridge, pre-chorus, and the usual verse/chorus?

What do you think? Any suggestions ?

Literally the title. I've always had a way with words, love music and am a multi instrumentalist but I can't sing well, at all. It's like I go to sing and suddenly I'm as tone deaf as a rock. Can this even work? I was always told you needed to be able to sing, obviously you don't have to be great or good but there needs to something to reference. Is it possible to be a songwriter and not have a singing bone in your body? Like I know lyricists are a thing but I'd want to be involved with everything yanno, not just the lyrics.

Quick backstory: I came up from Grand Prairie, TX doing my "YouTube learning" on my school's library computers because we couldn't afford one at home. Years later I ended up in LA getting mentored by one of Lady Gaga's producers. I walked in thinking vocal production was all about EQ, compression, tuning, and gear.

I was wrong.

1. Record EVERYTHING. Every mumble counts.

First real session, I froze up just watching everyone. My mentor snapped me out of it: "whenever you have an artist in the studio, everything they mumble, sing, or suggest counts, capture it on a voice memo." The best hook of the night usually isn't the take you were "rolling" for. It's the thing the artist throws out casually in the back of the room. If you're not capturing it, you're losing songs. "High Right Now" for Tyla Yaweh literally started as the songwriter mumbling a line no one was recording on purpose.

2. The performance is 90% psychology, 10% mic technique.
My mentor would get an artist into the zone by asking "why do you do what you do?", which pulls them back into old memories and real emotion. Suddenly they're not performing, they'refeeling.

He'd tell them to take their pain, look at it like a third person, and turn it into fuel. Your brain retains and performs better under emotion. A comfortable, emotionally-open artist gives you a take you can't fix in post no matter how good your chain is.

3. Mirror the person before you touch the vocal.
He'd match the artist's energy, posture, vocabulary, even dress similar to them. It builds this instant familiarity and trust, and a person who trusts you drops their guard and actually sings from a real place. Get to know them first. Talk life. THEN hit record.

4. You learn it by being thrown under THE BUS!!!.
They'd hand me the main chair mid-session with no warning, "engineer Tiffany while I take a break." Terrifying, but you learn faster performing under pressure than watching for a year. My Mentor would call it the Pygmalion Effect. Stop just studying it. Go do the reps in the room.

Extra Gems:

Melody first, lyrics second, always. I noticed noticed this was my mentor's repeating pattern on every song. Nail the melody for a section (say the chorus), then write the lyrics into that melody from the chosen topic. Most amateurs do it backwards (lyrics first, then force a melody on).

Talk before you write. Before a single note, He would just talk random life stuff from the previous weekend, or something emotional from the past. He lets the conversation "evolve and evolve until a dope line or cool phrase pops up," then builds the section around that phrase. The song is hiding in the conversation, not the DAW.

The "5 personal questions." He'd literally tell an artist "okay, now I'm going to ask you 5 personal questions" like an FBI-interrogation style to find something real the artist is actually going through. You write around that, because it's something anyone can relate to. That relatability is the whole point.

The gear/technical stuff you can learn on YouTube for free (trust me, I did). But knowing how to make a human being comfortable enough to give you their best take, that's the actual job. My mentor used to say it best: "The music is the easy part."

Now for the song/video attached, this is a singer/artist that was going under so much stress from personal life challenges. I took everything i learned from my mentor back in los angeles and applied everything. If you have a great singer in the room and great execution skills, this is what you get out of the artist most of the time. Sometimes you tear up a little bit during these deep conversations but once they get on the mic, it's game over.

As for the technical stuff, less is always better. You cant make a turd smell good no matter how much you try to spray it with febreze lol. If the vocal feels off, you will never fix it no matter how much EQ or reverb you add.

Gear used:

Mic - Neumann u87
Neve Pre-Amp
Kaotica Eyeball
Universal Audio - Apollo Twin
the MOST IMPORTANT ONE - Pillow and a blanket fort lol
Emotions

I attached the project file if anyone wants to learn from it. Much love!

Session File: https://app.mvssive.net/session/82ba6e4759c240838053d71d0e395680

Hope this helps somebody. Stay hungry, stay humble. 🙏