Q&A for How to Write a Song with Guitar Chords

Practice is the key component here. It helps to sort of break down what a solo is. It's really just a sequence of melodies strung together. So, breaking a solo down into the key components is often a really helpful exercise.

I would recommend learning the blues pentatonic scale. That's an extremely good vehicle for improvisation. It's also really good to know that scale if you're interested in playing any blues or blues-adjacent music.

You automatically own the copyright to any song you create. As long as you can prove you are the original composer, there is no need to register a copyright.

Write what you feel. Any emotion is a great start. Just write your feelings and go from that point on.

Think up some autumnish feelings, put them down on a piece of paper and make music that has that feel and then you will have an autumn song.

Music shouldn't have rules. Just write what you feel, it's artistic expression. You're probably trying too hard or approaching the steps too rigidly. Relax and see what comes to you.

To play it on guitar with exact chords, you'll need to have an ear for music and know key scales.

Just try to evoke your emotions into the song. Don't worry about how it goes together in lyric form first. Just write down how you feel, and then things should start to flow. For a nice sad sound, try going in a minor key and use a slow tempo.

MusicCollegeTV on YouTube is good.

Yes, you can play the song Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffet with three chords, and it sounds amazing!

I would suggest using little hammer ons and strumming patterns to make the song sound either upbeat or relaxed.

Find your key voice, the voice that matches the chords. You could try humming while finding your key using the guitar.

It's better if you make the basic tune first on an instrument, if you have one. But it is possible to write a song without any instrument. And as for what the song is about, it could be anything. Just think of a plot, or a subject, and try to tell the story, with the song.

If it is a tab, you could but if it’s a chord, it depends on what guitar chord it is as to how successful this will be.

It is not about the individual chords. If you are already playing the chords, most people tend to sing in the right key. Most people can sing 2 octaves, so just sing where you are comfortable. But if you have a chord progression already and your voice doesn't fit, you can try to transpose the chord progression online or with a chart. As an example, if I tried to sing to these chords: Am F G Am and that didn't feel right, I might try to play these chords in another key: Em C D Em. I transposed my A minor chords to E minor.

Try learning chords to the 12 bar blues. This is a common format used in most simple rock songs. If that's not your style, try researching simple chord progressions for your favorite genres.

A typical song structure includes a verse, chorus, and bridge in the following arrangement: intro, verse — chorus — verse — chorus —bridge — chorus — outro. This is known as an ABABCB structure, where A is the verse, B is the chorus and C is the bridge.