Every artist has their own songwriting process, but many songs are created following a few common stages. Often, it begins with a small idea – maybe a short melody on a piano or a cool guitar chord progression. From there, the songwriter hums or strums out a rough song structure (for example, deciding on verses and a chorus). Next comes crafting the lyrics and tweaking the melody to fit those words. Finally, they revise, polish, and eventually have a finished song ready to perform or record.

This is a simple overview of a process that can actually be quite messy and creative at heart. In truth, there are countless ways to write a song and none of them are “wrong.” Some musicians start with lyrics, some start with beats, others begin with a mood or a rhythm – and all of those approaches can lead to great music. Songwriting is an art, so how you reach the end product doesn’t matter as long as you end up with a song you love. There are, however, time-tested steps and tips that help beginners find their way. Think of the following guide as a roadmap: you don’t have to follow it exactly, but it can give you direction if you’re feeling lost on where to start.

Writing a song can feel hard when you’re staring at a blank page or messing around on your instrument with nothing to show for it. The truth is, starting is often the hardest part – once you catch a spark of inspiration, the process gets easier and a lot more fun. Many songwriters say the first few lines or the initial melody are the toughest to nail down. After that, you might find yourself “in the zone,” with ideas flowing more freely.

Everyone’s experience is different. You might be the kind of person who needs to create the music first – strumming chords or laying down a beat before any words come to mind. Or you could be someone who thinks of a lyric or a poem first and builds a melody around those words. There are famous artists who do it every which way, so there’s no single “correct” method. As you begin your songwriting journey, stay flexible and find what works best for you.

“I wish I were one of those people who wrote songs quickly. But I’m not. So it takes me a great deal of time to find out what the song is.” — Leonard Cohen

Don’t let this scare you – let it remind you that even legendary songwriters struggle and take their time. Songwriting can be challenging, but it’s also deeply rewarding. The key is to be patient with yourself. Read on for a step-by-step guide that breaks down the process into manageable pieces. By following these steps (and bending them when you need to), you’ll see that writing a song is totally possible, even for a total beginner!

The first step in making a song is figuring out where you should begin – and that depends on your musical skills and strengths. Are you an experienced piano or guitar player, or have you never played an instrument in your life? Be honest about it, because it will guide your process. If you’re already comfortable on an instrument, you can start by jamming on it (more on that in the next step). You understand notes, chords, and melodies, so you have a bit of a head start on creating the music for your song.

On the other hand, if you don’t play any instrument yet, that’s okay! Many hit songs have been written by people who only sang or wrote lyrics and then teamed up with a producer or instrumentalist. You might need to spend some time learning basic piano or guitar, or use digital tools to create music (loops and beats), or collaborate with someone who can play. The process will look different if you’re primarily a lyricist or singer working with pre-made beats versus an instrumentalist writing everything yourself. But whatever your skill level, trust that there is a way for you to make a song – you just have to find the right approach and work hard at it.

If you’re brand new to songwriting, don’t be afraid to start small. Maybe you only write a single verse and chorus on your first try. Maybe your first melody is super simple. That’s perfectly fine. Focus on getting something down and learning from it. As you practice, you’ll improve your skills bit by bit. Every songwriter has to start somewhere, so embrace where you are now and build from there.

Need more inspiration or guidance? Check out some of our other songwriting guides like how to write lyrics in 8 steps, how to write a love song, 9 tips for writing better songs, or our basic songwriting for beginners. These can give you more ideas and techniques to fuel your creativity.

Now for the fun part: making some noise! If you have an instrument, grab it and start messing around. Don’t worry about writing a masterpiece immediately. The goal here is to discover little snippets of music that sound interesting to you. Strum a few chords on guitar, try different chord combinations on a keyboard, or noodle on a bass or ukulele – whatever you have. You might hit two chords that together have a vibe you love, or stumble on a short melody when you run your fingers down the piano keys. Follow those sparks. Even if it’s just a tiny 3-note melody or a cool rhythm between two chords, that’s enough to get you started.

There’s no right or wrong way to do this experimental phase. You could find something great in five minutes, or it might take a couple of hours of tinkering. The point is to keep going until you discover a musical seed that excites you. When you do, capture it! Write it down, record a voice memo, or loop it on your computer – anything so you won’t forget it. Some of the best song ideas are fleeting, so don’t rely on memory alone. Save that riff or melody as soon as you think, “Hey, this sounds cool.”

No instrument? No problem. You can still start writing a song without formally playing one. Many beginners today use technology to help create music. There are free programs and apps that let you combine loops, beats, and virtual instruments to make backing tracks. For instance, you can use apps like GarageBand (on iPhone/iPad or Mac) or free digital audio workstations (DAWs) on a computer to layer drum rhythms, chords, and more. Another approach is to work with your own voice – try humming a tune or beatboxing a rhythm, then build on that. There are even websites where you can drag and drop premade loops and chords to experiment with song ideas.

The bottom line: not knowing how to play an instrument shouldn’t stop you from songwriting. Use whatever tools you have. Some chart-topping songwriters only use their voice and basic software to write songs! It might also help to partner with a friend who plays guitar or piano – you bring the lyric or melody ideas, they can help with the chords. One way or another, you can get the musical foundation you need. The video below offers some great tips on how to start crafting a song even if you can’t play an instrument yourself.

Sometimes, musicians don’t start with the music first at all – they start with an idea or lyrics. If you began by doodling on an instrument in Step 2, you might already have a little piece of music. But whether you have a melody ready or you’re starting with words, now’s the time to think about the overall tone and emotion of your song. What’s the song really about, at its core? Is it a love song, and if so, is it joyful and celebratory, or sad and heartbroken? If it’s about a personal struggle, is the tone angry, or is it hopeful and determined? You can twist almost any topic toward different emotions. For example, a song about love could be happy (“I’m so in love with you”), lonely (“I miss you so much”), bitter (“You broke my heart”), or even sarcastic or funny. No approach is wrong, but choosing a direction will guide everything else you do.

Once you decide the emotional tone, it will influence the lyrics you write and even the music. The words for a sassy, confident pop song will be very different from the words in a vulnerable, sad ballad. The music should match too: if you’re writing an angry song, you might use louder dynamics or minor chords; for a carefree summer song, maybe bright major chords and an upbeat tempo. This step is about committing to a vibe. It doesn’t mean you can’t change it later, but having a clear mood in mind acts like a compass for your songwriting. It keeps all the elements – melody, harmony, rhythm, and lyrics – working together towards the same feeling.

So ask yourself: what do I want someone to feel when they hear this song? If the answer is “I want them to feel like dancing,” that points you one way. If it’s “I want them to cry because it’s so relatable,” that’s another. Pinpoint the feeling, and keep that in focus as you continue writing.

By now, you should have at least a small kernel to work with: maybe a couple of lines of lyrics, a catchy riff or chord progression, or a clear idea of your song’s theme and tone. Now it’s time to take that little idea and flesh it out into more of a song. This part is a mix of creativity and experimentation. If you have a lyric idea, see if you can expand it into a full verse. If you have a melody for one line, what might the next line sound like? If you’ve got a great chorus concept, think about what a verse leading into it could say.

Don’t be afraid to explore different directions. Songwriting is a bit like following a trail of clues – you’ve found one clue (your initial idea), and now you’re searching for the next. Try playing your chords or melody repeatedly and humming nonsense words to it; sometimes actual lyric ideas will pop out naturally when you do this. Or take the story or emotion you decided on and free-write about it in prose form to generate more lyric material. For example, if your song is about moving to a new city, jot down everything you felt and experienced in that move – those details can spark lines for verses.

As you’re fleshing out the song, capture all ideas, even the ones you think might be silly or “not as good.” A tiny throwaway idea might become gold when you look at it later. Maybe you mumble a random line while improvising lyrics – write it down anyway. You never know what lyric or melody fragment could evolve into the cornerstone of your track. The key here is quantity over quality: generate lots of content. You will refine it later. For now, let your creativity run and see where the song wants to go. You might surprise yourself with a verse and chorus drafted before you know it.

After enough brainstorming and jamming, you’ll reach a point where your song starts to have a beginning, middle, and end. Congratulations – you’ve made it to a rough draft of your song! This is often called a “demo” in the music world. Your rough draft is a version of the song that’s complete in structure: you likely have at least one verse, a chorus, maybe a second verse, possibly a bridge, and so on. The lyrics are written (or mostly written), and you have a melody for each part. In short, you can play or sing the song from start to finish in some form.

This is a big milestone. Many people who talk about writing songs never actually finish one. But you did – at least in draft form. Give yourself a pat on the back! Now, it’s important to understand that this rough draft is not the final product (in most cases). It might be messy. The lyrics might be clunky in spots, the second verse might feel weaker than the first, or the bridge might actually be nonexistent because you haven’t figured out how to transition back to the chorus. That’s totally normal. Even professional songwriters often consider their first complete run-through as just a starting point.

Sometimes, a rough demo turns out so well it ends up being very close to the final song – but when you’re new, expect to do a lot more work before your song is truly polished. The purpose of the rough draft is to give you something to refine. Think of it like a sculptor’s clay model: the shape is there, but now you have to chip away and mold the details until it’s art. But first, before you get into editing mode, it’s often best to take a break and gain some perspective. That brings us to the next step.

It’s tempting to charge ahead and keep working on your song the minute you have a rough draft. After all, you’re excited and you want it to be amazing. However, one of the best things you can do for your newly written song is to step away from it for a little while. This might sound counterintuitive – why pause now when you’ve got momentum? The reason is that our brains (and ears) need a rest to become objective again. When you work on a song for hours or days straight, you get so close to it that you can’t really hear it fresh anymore. Everything is familiar, so you might overlook problems or areas that could be better.

So, after finishing your demo, take a break. It could be as short as the rest of the day or as long as a week or two. Work on other music or switch to a different creative project, or just take time off and do unrelated things. This “breathing room” lets your mind reset. Don’t worry – you won’t forget about your song. (It’s probably playing on loop in the back of your head anyway!) When you return to it later, you’ll have a new perspective. Parts that you thought were perfect might suddenly reveal some flaws, and parts you were unsure about might actually sound better than you remembered. That little bit of distance can really highlight what needs work.

It’s also possible that stepping away will confirm your love for the song. You might come back, listen, and think, “Wow, I still really like this!” If so, fantastic. But if not, don’t be discouraged. Almost every songwriter experiences that moment of “Hmm, this sounded cooler yesterday.” It’s a natural part of the creative process. Remember: the goal is to make the song better, and sometimes to do that you have to give your ears and heart time to reset.

After giving yourself some time away from the song, it’s time to return to it with fresh ears and an open mind. Play your rough draft recording or sing through the song anew and really listen to it as if you were an outsider. This can be tricky, but try to imagine it’s a song your friend wrote and you’re hearing it for the first time. What stands out to you? Do the lyrics communicate the feeling or story you intended, or do they feel a bit off in places? Is the melody in the chorus as catchy as it could be, or do you find the verse more memorable than the chorus (which might indicate the chorus needs more punch)? Jot down notes on what’s working and what isn’t.

This step is all about being honest with yourself in a constructive way. You might realize, for example, that the second verse is basically just repeating the first verse’s ideas with slightly different words – a common rookie mistake that can make a song boring. Maybe you’ll notice the bridge doesn’t add anything new to the song’s narrative, or that the key you chose is a bit too high for you to sing comfortably. Identifying these issues is a victory, not a failure, because now you know what to fix.

It can also be helpful to get feedback from someone you trust at this stage. Play the song for a friend or family member who will be honest but supportive. Fresh ears from someone else can catch things you missed. They might say, “I love the chorus, but I’m not sure what verse two means,” or “The tune is great, but the intro feels long.” Take their feedback into account (you don’t always have to agree, but consider it). Sometimes we’re so close to our own song that we can’t see a glaring issue, and an outside perspective can be invaluable.

By the end of this critical listening phase, you should have a clear idea of what could be improved. Don’t be discouraged if the list seems long. Even veteran songwriters often find many tweaks after a first draft. The difference is, they expect it and embrace it as part of writing a great song. Now you will do the same in the next step.

Now it’s time to roll up your sleeves and make your song better. Take the notes you made (your own observations plus any feedback you got) and start editing and rewriting where needed. This is your second draft, and maybe not the last, but it’s a crucial one. You might be doing small tweaks, like swapping out a word or two in a line to make a rhyme work better or adjusting the melody in one bar so it flows more smoothly. Or you might do bigger changes, like writing an entirely new second verse because the first one said it all and you want verse two to add a new dimension to the story.

Don’t be afraid of fairly dramatic changes at this stage. If something in your gut tells you a part of the song isn’t as good as it could be, explore alternatives. Maybe your chorus lyrics sounded catchy at first, but now they feel clichéd – try brainstorming new lines that say the same idea in a fresher way. Perhaps the bridge you had was weak; consider if the song even needs a bridge, and if it does, write one that takes the song somewhere new (emotionally or musically) for a moment before returning to the final chorus.

This editing phase is where good songs often become great. It’s also where you practice the real craft of songwriting: revising. Songwriting is rewriting. Even legends like Taylor Swift and Paul McCartney have rewritten sections of songs to make them stronger. So take pride in refining your work. You might go through two or three iterations of the song in this step – that’s normal. Each draft should hopefully be better than the last because you’re building on what you learned.

Keep in mind that at some point, you have to stop rewriting and decide on a final version (we’ll address that next). But while you’re here in the second draft stage, give yourself the freedom to experiment. You might end up keeping 90% of your original draft and just polishing the rest, or you could end up with a song that’s 50% new material compared to the first version. Either way, if it’s stronger, it’s worth it.

One of the trickiest parts of making a song is knowing when to wrap it up. You’ve written a song, taken a break, revised it, maybe revised it again… but theoretically, you could keep tweaking forever. How do you know when your song is “finished”? The truth is, this can be subjective, but there are a few signs you can look for. First, listen to your latest draft and see if anything major jumps out as wrong or out of place. If not, that’s a good sign. Then, ask yourself: does this song express what I wanted it to? Do I feel proud of it and excited to share it? If the answer is yes, you might be done (at least for now!).

A common piece of advice is that a song is finished not when there’s nothing left to add, but when there’s nothing left you want to take away or change. If you reach a point where further changes aren’t clearly making it better (and might even risk making it worse), that’s when it’s time to call it done. It’s true that you could polish endlessly – there will almost always be a word or note you could argue about. But remember, if you never stop editing, the world will never get to hear your song. At some stage you have to just say “This is it,” and move on to the recording or performing phase.

Perfectionism is a big hurdle for many new songwriters. You might worry, “What if it’s not good enough yet?” Here’s a secret: even big stars sometimes aren’t 100% sure if a song is perfect when they release it. They simply decide it’s as good as they can make it at that moment. If you’ve genuinely put effort into your song – you’ve crafted the lyrics, shaped the melodies, improved the weak spots – then trust yourself. You’ve done the work. Could you rewrite it five more times? Maybe, but it might just be different, not necessarily better. Celebrate the fact that you’ve created something from nothing! That’s a huge achievement.

Now for the final step: turning your finished song into a form that others can hear. This doesn’t mean you have to rent Abbey Road Studios and hire an orchestra (though hey, if you can, go for it!). “Recording your song” can be as simple as using your phone’s voice recorder app to capture you singing with an acoustic guitar or piano. It can also mean opening up recording software on your laptop and laying down multiple tracks – whatever resources you have. The point is to get the song out of your head and into a shareable format.

If you’re serious about songwriting, it’s worth learning some basic recording skills. Luckily, it’s easier and cheaper than ever to do at home. You can download free or affordable music production software (DAWs) and use a simple USB microphone to record vocals and instruments. Programs like Audacity (free) or GarageBand (free on Mac) are beginner-friendly for simple recording tasks. As you improve, you might invest in better gear, but to start, use what you have.

Of course, recording can also be a collaborative effort. If you wrote a song but don’t feel confident in producing it, you could partner with a producer friend or even hire someone to help polish it. There are also studios that aren’t too expensive where you can book an hour or two to record your song with professional equipment. Choose a path that fits your goals and budget.

Once you have a recorded version of your song, take a moment to appreciate how far you’ve come. Not long ago, this song was just an idea – maybe a feeling or a couple of words jotted in your notebook. And now it’s a real piece of music that you can play for people. Whether your audience is just your best friend or the whole internet, that’s something to be proud of. Share it if you want, get feedback, and learn from the experience. Many songwriters find that the process of recording and getting listener reactions teaches them new things, which they then carry into their next songwriting project. And speaking of the next project… you might already feel a new song idea coming on!

Before we wrap up, let’s talk about a few real-life truths about making songs. Songwriting is an amazing creative outlet, but it comes with challenges that every writer faces. First hard truth: not every song you write will be great. In fact, your first few might be pretty bad – and that’s okay. It’s all part of learning. Think of writing songs like exercising a muscle. You have to work through the flabby bits to build strength. Even the most famous songwriters have a pile of cringey songs they wrote when starting out.

“When you stick on an old tap, it runs out muddy water for about a minute and then it starts flowing clean water. Songwriting and doing gigs is like that.” — Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran’s right: you often have to let the “muddy water” (the not-so-great songs) flow out before the clean water (your great songs) comes. So don’t beat yourself up if your early attempts sound more like noise than music. Learn from each one and know that every songwriter goes through this phase.

Second hard truth: it can be frustrating and time-consuming. You might spend hours on a song that goes nowhere, or get stuck on one line of lyrics for days. You might compare your work to your musical idols and feel like you’re miles behind. Here’s some friendly advice – try not to compare your beginning to someone else’s peak. The songs you love on the radio or streaming playlists have probably gone through multiple professional songwriters, producers, and years of an artist’s experience. They started exactly where you are now, writing simple tunes in their bedrooms. So keep perspective. Your job is to make each song a little better than the last, not to outwrite a Grammy-winner on your first go.

Another hard truth: sometimes inspiration will dry up, and you’ll hit “writer’s block.” It happens to everyone. One day you might feel like every melody you play is boring or every lyric you jot down is dumb. Don’t panic. It’s a phase, and it passes. The cure is often to step away, live life, listen to new music, or try writing something totally different (like a silly song on purpose, or switching instruments). The spark will return, often when you least expect it.

So yes, making a song from scratch has its challenges. It can be tough, emotional, and require patience. But here’s why it’s all worth it: there is nothing quite like the rush of creating your own music. When you finally finish a song and play it back, knowing it didn’t exist before you pulled it out of your mind – it’s a thrilling, satisfying feeling. Every struggle in the process makes that moment sweeter. And each song, whether good, bad, or just okay, teaches you something and brings you one step closer to writing something truly amazing.

Remember, every famous songwriter you admire started as a beginner. They wrote mediocre songs, learned, improved, and kept going. You have the same potential. The fact that you’re taking the time to learn how to make a song already sets you on the right path. So face those hard truths with determination and a sense of humor. Embrace the learning curve. Keep writing, keep experimenting, and keep improving. Your persistence will pay off.

Most of all, enjoy the journey. Songwriting is as much about self-expression and fun as it is about end results. Even if a song doesn’t turn out how you hoped, you might have gained a new skill or discovered a new favorite chord. Every song is a stepping stone. Who knows – the next one you write might be the one that clicks with the world. But you’ll never get to that great song without writing the not-so-great ones first. So go on, start your next song, and keep the music flowing. You’ve got this! 🎶