For me, when I tried writing songs following a format, I wrote garbage. Pure junk. What's the solution?
Well..............................not that easy of an answer.
I recall trying to write cool lyrics and then trying to put cool riffs to them and like I said above, yuk. I would suggest that the best songs come from small ideas. A single melody. A catchy line or two you've thought up. Then it build organically from there. Whatever story the song tries to tell, the music will find it place.
Today driving home, I had an idea for a country song. I'm not a country guy, really. Still, the idea rang as country and the melody that built around the small lyric had a twang. That's what's inside my head so I didn't stop it.
It was a small chorus lyric/couple of lines. I then started humming a little rock/country riff just because that's what came next to my head...It was a good verse riff...then I started rolling a few verse lyric lines that would work with the song idea and riff.
I didn't think in terms of actual structure. Years of listening to music sorta built that in. I just started to let the marriage of song and lyric build itself.
Sure, it sounds nice to have an organic process but the reality is, the further away from organic you become, the less inspired your songs will be. Something has to get your interest.
I don't really much listen to country but the song in my head would be pretty radio friendly. Hit? Who knows. The thing is, I didn't stop the process to fit it in to what I perceived as my style and in to a specified process.
I took the kernel of an idea and let a grow without trying to wrangle it in to something that it is not.
