Q&A for How to Write Songs As a Teenager

Take advantage of your unique perspective! For example, think about Taylor Swift's debut album. She wrote like a teenager, and teenagers loved her, because she gave voice to their experiences. Right now, Billie Eilish is one of the most interesting songwriters on the charts, and she started recording music at 14. She certainly doesn't shy away from teen angst. The more honest you are, the more likely it is that your lyrics will resonate with other people.

There's not really a guaranteed way to make a song famous, but getting it recorded and getting it out to people as much as you can is the best way to start. Use YouTube or a music service like SoundCloud. Or record physical CDs and pass them out to people.

If you want to write a song, but don't have any ideas, there are a couple things you can use. 1) If you have a feeling that you want to express, try to give some meaning to it by explaining it to somebody. OR 2) Ask for suggestions from someone who knows you well; ask them what they would recommend for an individual with your personality.

Songwriting does not usually follow a strict process, so you can switch many of the steps around.

If you have a melody written down, try and pinpoint what the notes are. A useful tool for that can be a guitar tuner that uses a mic instead of vibration. The readings aren't always accurate, but it gives you a general idea of what the notes are. Once you have that down, try using chords that match the melody. For example, if you have a C, play a C chord. Or if you change to F, play an F chord.

Having repetitive phrases in the song is always useful, as is the use of rhyme and a catchy melody. Just find a hook and run with it.

There isn't really a rule about how long songs should be, but most popular songs are around three minutes long.

If you don't have an instrument, you can use an app and write out the notes on a sheet of paper. You can also just hum it if you are not going to share it.

A trick is to not think of the song as lyrics, but as your feelings. Just sort of brainstorm them on the paper. Take the lines that really make you think of him, and form the phrases to make a song.

If you don't feel comfortable asking someone else for help, you can always try finding a deeper purpose in a basic topic, like feeling sad or mad. Find out the source of why you want to write about that and why you feel that and just spill it out onto paper. Go back and find a melody and a musical part and try just singing what you have, even if you don't like it.

You can use Garage Band, but there are also more specialized apps and composition apps you can find for free. Do a search in the app store.