We’ve talked a lot about mindset, tools, and ways to get past perfectionism. Let’s lay it all out on the table. Here’s how to write a song every week. Use a Template This is covered in the next section, but the basic idea is this; have a template for your DAW, whichever flavor you choose to use, that lets you sit down and get right to work. Go With the First Idea That Happens If you’re writing a lot of music, two things are going to happen: 1. You’re going to have an idea that you want to make happen.  2. You’re not going to have any ideas.  Either of these situations is optimal for writing more music. If you have an idea, sit down and do your best to run with it. It may or may not come out of your head the way you heard it. That’s ok. Play Anything, and Create a Variation of Anything. If you don’t have an idea, embrace this. Play anything. I find that starting with a melody is a quick and easy way to break the ice. Play a chord on your guitar or piano. Load a virtual instrument and play with the first preset sound that you load up. DO NOT spend hours searching for the “right” preset sound. Record That Sound. Once you have a sound – anything – record that sound. Then, record even the slightest variation of it – change the chord, timing, or even the key – and record it. Now you have written two key components to a song. Move Onto the Next Part and Create Variations Next, move onto either the bass or drums; I personally like to move onto the drums from here. Again, repeat the steps as previous with melody for drums or bass; record what comes to you first. Then, record a slight variation. You now have two parts to a song, or four, or perhaps more, if you play with these variations. Next, move onto bass (or drums, if you opted for bass in step 2). Repeat the previous steps of at least two variations. In the purest sense, you now have the building blocks for a standard structure song. If you increase each of these variations to three of each instrument, you’ve now written the basic structure for 90% of pop songs released in the last 50 years.

Setting goals for writing music is important. Personally, I set a goal to write a song every week. I have done that 45 times over this year, so far. I have done this by setting aside at least an hour for writing music. If I can do that, I know that I'm going to, at the very least, get something written. Will it be perfect? Probably not. Will it be something that I created, something that I made? Absolutely. Will it drive me to create more? I'm sure it will. If you're working to write more music, the best way to get started is to do it. That sounds super simple, but it's more than true. If you think you don't have the skill, you probably do! The important part is allowing yourself to write, experiment, and have some fun. What are your goals for this week in your music?

If you delete some of the snark and the incredibly stupid meme image from this, it's pretty true. You should just produce music instead of thinking about it. You don't HAVE too know what to do at each stage of the song creation process, but, once you build a system for yourself, you'll be able to do it quickly. Writer's block isn't a thing if you just allow yourself to write instead of focusing on, "Is this good enough for others?". You certainly CAN be prolific ;) Quantity doesn't exactly lead to quality, but doing and then doing again and again leads to finding your own system that lets you create more often. Flow states are a thing for sure, when you sit down to write more frequently, you'll find yourself in them quickly. Do you agree with anything I've said, here?

Soundtoys PhaseMistress is FREE until November 15th! Part of being in this community is that I want to find cool deals for you to take advantage of. There's certainly going to be a lot during the holiday season this year, and here's one to kick it off! Get it for free here: https://www.soundtoys.com/product/phasemistress/ And use it with your One-Week Song Club templates I offer in the masterclass!

We've done it, we have 20 founding members. Thank you all for being here! You get FREE lifetime access to the One-Week Song Club. I'm curious what you think the knowledge I offer would be worth to you in a monthly subscription. I know that money is tight for EVERYONE. I believe in investing in yourself above all else, however. If I can offer you knowledge that helps you reach your goals, that means I did my job. If you can tell me what you think in the poll or comments (or both!), that'd be awesome! Please share the course. The more we grow, the more we can all help one another. Thank you all for being here!