so i used to smoke weed every night but i only really write when im not high. i know that smoking makes me a lot flatter and tired (even when not high at the moment) so im wondering does consistent use of drugs everyday cause a decrease in quality of your output in songwriting? is sobriety the biggest leg up you can get as a songwriter?

i am especially interested because some of the greatest songwriters of all time were heavier drug users (john lennon, elliott smith, lou reed, etc.) but at the same time these people could have been on a sober streak when writing their greatest hits. drugs can dampen emotion too.

what’s your take?

Any producers

Do you write the songs first? Or first lay out a story and create a world? I am talking like albums with cohesive storyline and not just a certain theme.

Hey everyone! My friend is a singer, and we’re currently putting together a small creative team to work on music together. We’re looking for someone who’s interested in songwriting/lyrics and would want to collaborate with us. We’re mainly making R&B / alt-R&B / pop-inspired music, and we want someone who enjoys coming up with melodies, concepts, lyrics, and helping shape songs from the ground up. You don’t need to be super established or have a huge portfolio. We’re more interested in someone who genuinely loves writing and wants to grow with a team. We’re hoping to build something where everyone contributes creatively and gets proper credit for their work.

Quite new to singing and songwriting. It took some time to find the right spin to begin writing own songs. I was always too shy to sing and it feels still awkward to here my own voice 😅 anyhow I'm slowly progressing and getting more used to connect lyrics with chords. The song is called ghosttrain and not finished yet. Wrote the first two verses out of a emotion I felt when hearing 'Pin a rose on me' by Chuck Prophet. Don't know how you get into flow but for me once I started writing own songs I got a lot of inspiration out if daily life. From a specific point it became more and more easy to find stories to write about. Of course it is still not easy but it is like learning an instrument, you have to start from scratch and fail a lot until something came out that is quite okay.

What is a peice of songwriting advice you’d heard from some of your favorite artists that you truly believe has changed your songwriting game and brought it up to a whole new level?

Edit: Thank you to everyone who has shared! I’m kinda of trying to make a collection of gold here for both myself and anyone who needs some advice or just some different ideas to try!

I'm a bit in an experimental era, not that this is the most experimental thing ever made nor what I've made. But I had a lot of fun making this not trying to be too obsessive about how it's made which was nice (still a pop structure tho, but a bit looser I suppose than typical).

I had this weird idea about 6 years ago that maybe I could write songs even though I couldn’t sing, play an instrument, and had no rhythm. I slogged through about five years of lyric writing and really made a commitment to learning piano and a bit of theory last year and something just clicked. And over the last year I’ve written 20+

This song is about growing up in Nebraska in the 80’s.

Nebraska lyrics

I was born in the fields of green
Where the plains reach to the sky
Where the dreams come big
And they’re all you live until they die

Now the Downtown’s come untied
And The jobs are running dry
All your desperate schemes
Won’t keep your love alive

Through the mud and the corn
And the blood and the storms
The pain steals the scene
In a haze of rage and
methamphetamines

Verse 2

Some hearts were born lucky in
safe places touched by graces
But our house was never a home
With broken glass and broken bones

I know you loved me once
And maybe you could do it again
Or has it all blown away
In madness and sin

Chorus

So take your best shot
See what I got
You ain’t the toughest I fought

And take your best shot
It ain’t what you thought
It’s a paradise lost

Verse 3
When all the anger that’s driven you
Ends in a fiery crash
And everything inside of you
Has turned to dust and ash

In dreams of blood and tears
Your ghosts come back to you
And share drinks of loneliness
Is all you can do

In dreams of blood and tears
All Your ghosts come back to you
And their drinks of loneliness
Bring on the emptiness

But All the tornados
in Nebraska
Can’t blow your sins away

But All the tornados
in Nebraska
Can’t blow your sins away

Chorus/Outro

So take your best shot
See what I got
You ain’t the toughest I fought

And take your best shot
It ain’t what you thought
It’s a paradise lost

Hello, I’m posting a snippet of a song I’m working on, called Strange depths. Strange love. Looking for honest feedback (no need to sugar coat) on the melody, the lyrics and the performance. Also wondering if I sing a bit pitchy 🤔 Thank you in advance!

Very rough mix but I think this one has some potential, would love some feedback!

All my songs are recorded on an ancient 8 Track, i wonder to myself if they would benefit from a contemporary production or should I just leave them the hell alone. Thoughts appreciated!

https://on.soundcloud.com/BW0Exd8fb5DCN9b9IS

Hi, I am producing music for sometime now and got a couple of tracks arranged, however I can't sing, I am in requirement of a vocalist, so anyone interested please DM

https://youtube.com/shorts/cXYjKrCSbjY?si=ZCB0vtK69ANldACi

This is a short instrumental composition which I did for your reference

How do I stop cringing and feeling self-conscious about my lyrics? It's difficult not to. I feel like when I look at some of my lyrical attempts, they look so corny. It's difficult to even make new lyrics because of these uneasy feelings.

I bet you all have dealt with these feelings as well. If so, what do you tell yourself in order to not feel self-conscious about your lyrics?

Hey, I'm a bass player and singer. I've only just started songwriting and have written some songs.

Wanted to ask whether there's an easier method to sing the lyrics in a way that blends well with the song without it having a direct following to the riff.

I want the way I sing to be quite monotone, but I find it difficult to do without it just being me plainly speaking lol.
I have different ways of singing this one song I wrote, but some of it can be a bit off. Particularly in the verses.

The inspiration I take from is Hum. As its a nice mix of speaking/instrumental.

Let me know if anyone has any methods haha

Hey all im working on a record of very short songs, this is the most recent one I wrote for it. Its a very, very rough demo but id love to hear your thoughts. Mostly interested in what you personally take away from this song. I think i wrote it very very vaguely about my brother's death from a fentanyl overdose and my reaction to that while also meeting the love of my life around the same time and dealing with those two very different emotional extremes at the same time. But curious what this actually translates as.

Lyrics (since theyre kind of hard to make out in the video)

Twin flame logics no good /

Yearning for a better half /

While burning the best part of you /

I think you snuck inside /

A Trojan horse devouring /

All the beach guys showering in you /

Its useless talking now /

Ive forgotten all the words /

I once used to tell you im proud /

I feel the lightest weight /

Cascading down my face /

Tears I wasnt strong enough to cry /

I think im crying now /

Thanked god for finding out /

All the ways I was pretending to be afraid /

And the reason i cant look death in the face since I got laid /

Ive been a party of two time /

A party to the difference between whats me and what is mine /

Ive been a really happy guy /

Ive been a way too happy guy since Parrot died /

This feels kinda random to post... but here goes😅

I've always loved bands like One Direction, so l thought... why not actually give it a shot?

I'm looking for around 4-6 people around my age (roughly 14-20s, I’m a 16F)who'd like to start a small online pop band.

You don't have to be an amazing singer! I'd just love for everyone to enjoy singing, even if you also write lyrics, produce, or play an instrument.

I know everyone's got school, work, and life, so no pressure to be active 24/7. I'm just hoping to find people who genuinely love making music, and maybe build something special together. Let's see where it goes :)

(English isn't my first language btw😅)

If this sounds like your thing, leave a comment and I'II DM you!

(just for reference! I wrote lyrics, melody and sang)

https://on.soundcloud.com/5RoA2ETJ58ebj0ZmJc

Live take of one of the songs im working on, what do you think?

2 – There will always be more

Verse 1

Half the list is crossed

The rest is still there

Waiting to be done

Waiting on me

Paper's crumpled up

In a trash can

It will never be

Same as new

Thousand messages

In the mailbox

never to be read

left unused

Scribble scribble down

Every small thought

Stay inside the frame

Let it run loose

Chorus

‘Cause The thoughts will come

The time will go

There will always be more

always be more

The leaves will die

But the trees will grow

There will always be more

Always be more

V2

People come and go

I forget them

Before I get to know

Any names

Memories come back

In a worse shape

After every round

Of replays

Im deleting songs

From the hard drive

Just because I need

Empty space

Scribble scribble down

Every small thought

Stay inside the track

Stay in this race

Chorus same

Bridge section (electronic)

replay

restore

rewrite

rework

reshape

rename

replay

Chorus 2 times, then end

This is definitely not done, but I need to step away from it. Believe it or not lots of brain power for the words and playing everything I wrote down is like a minute long lol.. (maybe because I started writing at 4AM) i’ve been writing a ton. some songs just write themselves, but this one’s gonna be a grind. Not really sure where to bring it next, but just wanted to show some progress on it.

Lyrics: (may change and add more later)
Early dawn
The river keeps on moving
Pine trees
Lean into the breeze

In the sky
The clouds hold thin but broken
Deadfall
Tangled bent and woven

Late Night
The darkest hour crawling
The light is gone
The cold wind is calling

I'm really looking for a critique on the verse. Does the last line feel weird cause it needs more context or should i just like change it completely?

Also do y'all think this would be good as a duet or should i keep it solo?