How to Organize Song Ideas?

Question by Maggie:


Hi,

My songwriting notebook is filled with words and phrases and random thoughts & ideas are scribbled in the margins. I want to organize all my ideas & keep the similar phrases together so that when I write lyrics I can easily pick out the lines that are best. (What I mean by similar are different phrases have the same word or idea in them).

When I think about organizing, I get overwhelmed because I have so many random ideas and I don't know where to start. How can I keep all my stuff organized?

Thanks!


Answer:

Hello M,

If I were you, I'd start thinking about some features that are similar about your ideas and group them based on that.

I can think of two main methods of categorization at this moment:

1. Based on mood
2. Based on themes

Because your thoughts & ideas are probably very diverse, in some cases it might be difficult to decide which category some of them belong to. If that's that case, you could include these ideas in two categories - maybe cross referencing, i.e. writing a note next to them that they can also be found in another category.

1. If you decide to group your ideas according to mood, you could pick from the following categories:


• Amused
• Angry / Annoyed
• Apathetic / Depressed
• Ashamed
• Bittersweet / Cynical
• Determined
• Disappointed
• Flirty / Hot
• Grateful / Satisfied / Thankful
• Happy / Cheerful
• Jealous
• Lonely
• Optimistic
• Pessimistic
• Touched


2. If you decide to group your ideas according to themes, you could pick from the following categories (most of them are about love since the majority of hit songs are about this topic):


• Craving love
• Being in love
• Flirting / hitting on someone
• Partying
• Being jealous of someone
• Cheating on someone
• Breaking up
• Love fading between two people
• Beginning of a relationship
• Feelings about the concept of love
• Religion
• Society
• Nature of life
• Feelings about yourself, self-confidence issues
• Family & friends & loved ones
• Places you love / hate
• Making your dreams come true


Of course, you should leave out or add categories according to your needs and ideas.

If your songwriting ideas are on paper, you might also want to consider digitalizing them. There are some great pieces of notebook software, e.g. Evernote that you can synchronize with your PC/Mac/laptop/iPod/iPad. All of this for free!