10 Quick & Creative Songwriting Exercises
When we feel stuck in our songwriting routine, or lack thereof, there are some exercises we can do to get the inspiration flowing again. Think of these like lifting weights at the gym. Over time, they connect us with our instincts as they keep the stakes low, and ensure we don’t go too long without writing or creating something, regardless of whether we’ll use it in a song. Treat them as intentional, low-pressure experiments to spark fresh ideas and curiosity.
1. Rework a Familiar Chord Progression
Pick a progression you love, or even just borrowed from another song. Slow it down, speed it up, or exchange just one of the chords. You could even put the chords out of order. Now, spend no more than 30 minutes creating a brief verse and chorus, refraining from getting overly complex or verbose.
2. Play freely and Record for 15 Minutes
Jam freely with no expectations, and a willingness to sound how you always sound. Go ahead and press record, even if you sense nothing in particular is worth keeping. Sing some nonsense lyrics, experiment with different pitches and rhythms, and aim to never sing or play the exact same thing twice. On another day, listen back with the purpose of choosing one moment that’s not half bad and writing a full section around it using plenty of repetition.
3. Two Pages of Free-Writing
Write nonstop for two pages prompted by any person, place, or thing, such as “waterfall” or “the barista at my favorite cafe.” Wait until the next day to read what you wrote, circling phrases that immediately sparked a tiny shred of interest from your instincts or felt like a title.
4. Use a Sample Beat
Grab a drum loop from YouTube or GarageBand or any source you’re accustomed to. Spend 30 minutes building a verse-chorus over it without second-guessing. The catch is, you can’t change the loop, and you can’t take more than 30 minutes. This need to be decisive forces our strong judgment to take a hike and wait for a time when the party is more accepting of its discernment.
5. Record 15 Minutes of Melody Ideas
Spend no time at all determining a chord progression, and simply begin to sing. Play with pitch first, exploring your whole range. Then focus on rhythm, singing short notes and long notes, highly syncopated rhythms and straight ones. Next, sing short phrases with plenty of silence within your melodies. Try stretching a single syllable over multiple notes, as if you were comfortable with your voice and were capable of singing any melody you wished to write. Resist the urge to judge the quality and skillfulness of your voice. The focus here is all around melody, and bursting open the box we make for ourselves.
6. One Title, Three Tempos
Choose a simple chord progression of no more than 3 chords. Sing a little lyric line of one to three words over the chord progression at a slow tempo. Record the result. Now speed the tempo up at least 20 BPM and sing the line again. Close your eyes and feel how the message has changed. Play it again if you can’t yet feel it. Record that one too. Finally, raise the tempo another 20 BPM and repeat the process, noticing how the meaning once again shifts. If you really want to be a star student, try outlining possible content for the song in simple language, explaining what the different sections might be ‘about.’
7. Write with Poetic Rhythm
Bring up some spoken word on Youtube and just watch the artistry express through rhythm and language. (I recommend Phil Kaye to start). Notice how significant rhythm is to the expression of an authentic thought. Applying this to songwriting, consider how your melodies make use, or don’t, of rhythm to give the words their true and nuanced meaning. Though we generally can’t flex the meter of a song, we can choose from a multitude of ways to rhythmically set a lyric line, and therefore the melody that accompanies it.
8. Combine Random Words
List unusual nouns, verbs, adjectives. Mix them randomly to spark surprising metaphors (“rusty lips,” “friendly carousel”). Use these vivid images as lyric seeds, or pop it right up front in the first line of the song.
9. Switch Instruments
Remember switching seats in class to mess with the substitute teacher? Challenge yourself on an unfamiliar instrument. Strip away performance pressure and let new chord voicings or melodies emerge, embracing the moments you don’t know what you’re playing.
10. Play off a Riff
Don’t forget you came to songwriting for the music, even if your skills lie in lyric writing. Imagine you’re a bass player, or shred on lead guitar. Design a short instrumental hook or riff that starts the song. Write your melody and lyric to alternate with the riff, like a ‘call and answer.’ Think ‘American Woman’ by Lenny Kravitz, or ‘Dude Look Like a Lady’ by Aerosmith.
On days when writing feels like an uphill climb, bring back the fun by releasing the need for any particular result.
For more tools and guidance for your daily writing practice, check out my course: The 30-Day Songwriter, created to help songwriters unlock creative flow and momentum across a month of deep, consistent work.
Stay creative,
