Fret Fiend: The somewhat daily blog about all things guitar.

Ask any inexperienced guitarist how they would write a song, and I bet you they’ll say something like “Oh, I get my guitar, some blank music sheets and a pencil, and I just play until something sounds right.” I know only one band that has made it big like this: Fall Out Boy (knock on wood). So, are you ready for the hardcore method of writing songs? No you’re not. You first need to get a portable voice recorder. Most newer cell phones have this capability. If you don’t happen to have a cell phone like that, I’d suggest picking up a portable voice recorder of somewhat decent quality. Ok, now you’re ready.

My Method

This is a method that I used early on in my guitar playing, and it helped me a lot. Here you go:

1. Make sure to keep your sound recorder (whether it be a cell phone or an actual voice recorder) on you at all times. This is crucial, because inspiration can strike at anywhere.
2. Once a cool beat pops into your head, don’t hesitate. Get out your voice recorder and hum the beat into it. Even if it’s not all that great, record it anyways. Sure, people may stare, but just wait ’til you get up on stage and start blowing peoples’ brains out with your insane song. Who’s the stupid one now?
3. After you have recorded a decent amount of riffs, sit down with your guitar and play back some of the stuff that you’ve recorded. This is probably the most difficult part (which isn’t very difficult at all) of the method: learning to play the song on the guitar. Here’s some tips on that:
   • Listen to the riff and repeat it over and over in your head. Then, moving fret by fret, search for a note on the guitar that matches the one in the song. Once you get the first one, the rest are usually located close by.
   • If you found that the stretch between two notes is too far, try play that same note on a string next to it. Remember, each string is offset by five half-step (except for the G and B, which is offset by four) in regular EADGBe tuning.
   • Also, experiment with different tunings. I like to use DADGBe tuning in some songs because it is easier to make a powerchord; you just have to bar the two lower strings. Try a couple different ones and see which suits you best.
4. Select about 3-5 of your favorite ones and put them in order, leaving one to be the chorus.
5. Practice playing them all in succession until you have it down-pat.
6. Melt faces.