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Gwen Stefani is scared of songwriting. But you don’t have to be because the kind of songwriting I’m going to introduce is one that sets you free. Like any endeavor we embark on I believe the ultimate goal is to experience a freedo

m that reflects a seamless passion between who you are and what you do. And perhaps Mrs. Stefani is more of a mom at this point of her life than a songwriter so she’ll have to dig to get the etching itch back.

If you however are at the point where you want or need to write check this out. The steps that follow are easy to read and not technically challenging but this most definitely is not a guide for the hobbyist and you are expected to have some performance or recording background to read on.

So what does it mean to write a song where you can be free? That depends largely on what you determine to be your unique voice or “sound” and what you’re trying to accomplish with it.

Freedom to me means you first come into a conscious awareness of your choices–choices that set you apart enough from them to recognize they aren’t forever attached to you but are preferences made by you along the way to take a liking or disliking to them. So let go of any baggage of what you thinks sells, what’s a hit, or who will even listen to your music and let’s go over those choices:

1) Unless you’ve been living under a rock your whole life, you should already have a collection of music that you like because they somehow resonate with you. Since you like them for a reason or another, it would ultimately serve your songwriting to implore why. Is it the lyrical message, the instrumentation, the dynamics, the mix, the structure, etc.? Or could it even had been the marketing conditioned by the TV or even from your family that got you to pleasantly associate the music with a product or experience? This car commercial for example caught my attention. There’s a lot of built-in reasons to base your songwriting on your current music collection and towards the end I’ll detail my explanation. But for now, know what you like and why.

2) After you’ve jotted these down you’ll want to be able to mimic them to some degree. Choose a song and go through your music theory or your listening chops to transcribe and perform it on your chosen instrument. If you can’t play it by ear and you need a little help, a site like Ultimate Guitar Archive could help you follow the chords and tabs. If your instrument is your voice, for example, I find it best to sing along or use a karaoke-like adjustment to transpose the key up or down to your range of comfort. Take note not just of the key, mode, or chord progression of the song but also its structure. Is it in ABA or AABA form?

3) Repeatedly rehearse your performance of the song–dynamics and all–until you’ve got it memorized. This could take a few minutes up to a few weeks depending on your level of musicianship. But no matter how long it takes, the purpose of the repetition is to seep the song so deeply into your mind that, on a cellular level you’d be confident enough to perform it to an audience of yourself or in an arena into the tens of thousands. By this time you’re essentially playing a perfect cover of the song and could even fool some people into believing you were the actual artist or musician performing if they didn’t see you.

Click here for the final four of this 7-tip songwriting advice in Part 2.

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