Not that I have ever been much of a song writer, but I never really thought of thinking of a theme to start with, especially for an intrumental track - I would normally come up with something and then see how it makes me feel and go with that
For me I would substitute number 3 with “create plenty of ideas - none of which I can play up to tempo!”
You may approach it differently for an instrumental track. I think for instrumentals, usually you may have a melodic idea, or “head” first. And you would build around that.
I’m personally interested in more full band compositions, and don’t really listen to instrumental music all that much unless it’s a tonal piece. The few instrumentals that I had to do for school projects way back when, that’s usually what I did.
A lot of times I think I feel a mood for a piece more than a specific topic, then the topic comes to me as I’m writing it and it can affect the flow of the pieces - for example, this one
I wanted it to be kind of triumphant power metal but since it’s about vampire hunting I wanted it to have kind of a darker “boss theme” feeling dip in it, and come back out to the main theme.
I do that all the time, I couldn’t play the above song for a couple months after I wrote it - I used it as motivation to woodshed the hell out of my sweeping and economy picking non-stop. Definitely never let a physical barrier stop you from writing - I’ll keep myself motivated by building the song in Guitar Pro, exporting the MIDIs to Reaper and generate synth versions of the songs with different instrumentation.
Lately I’ve been using Serum packs for that, I’ve used Sylenth before as well - find something that sounds cool and experiment without being able to play it on guitar. Then maybe as you get close to being able to play the desired parts, also feel free to adjust them if it still sounds right with the piece but is easier to play.
Then for this one
I was really going for a more proggy Gothenberg sound, but I decided it kind of reminded me of the intro to Hell in Diablo 2 - I actually want to add some more to this for an intro section still and keep re-writing the solo portions. I don’t have them recorded on guitar yet. However, I bought a Serum synth pack for Mick Gordon sounds and some others, and layered them in throughout. I think I also decided to layer in the section around 1:11 after making that the theme as something more brooding than the main theme. I don’t recall entirely how I came up with that portion - I think mostly playing with different suspended chords, what’s really the key thing is I had come up with a lot of it for something entirely unrelated and realized it fit the theme so I brought it in and scrapped the other thing I was writing with it. I feel like when I’m in a writing mood I generate a lot of ideas and cannibalize them for something else.
I’d like to try doing some full band compositions, even some more mainstream oriented stuff with vocals, but when it comes to lyrics I’m just dead in the water - I have nothing to write about, nor the skill to do it if I have a theme/concept. Probably because I don’t tend to take much notice of lyrics in general - I barely know the names of songs I like, let alone the lyrics. 
I just like the sounds and delivery… I think that is a very stupid place to be, but thats where I am!
Not random at all, but you could phase shift a mediocre riff and see if placing the emphasis in a different place spices things up a bit?
There are a couple of you tubers who do this. They take famous songs and offset them by a beat, against the drums, and they end up sounding like completely different songs. It’s kind wild how much of a difference it makes.
It’s been a while since I wrote a song, but I think I used to just jam until I could come up with a cool idea. Then, I would glue together different ideas, sometimes in not-so-obvious ways, like gluing a 5/4 section to a 12/8 section, like you can see here:
I think I used to prefer working on the guitar parts before adding lyrics and vocal melody. The latter can be a LOT more difficult for me to figure out than the guitar parts. It can make or break a song, whereas a cool guitar lick will always be a cool guitar lick. But if the lyrics are just slightly off, I cannot really feel comfortable.
I would say that my greatest “secret” is to not be afraid of doing things that most people would never dare to think of. Nevermind the theory and whatever notion you have about what constitutes a “good” song. Just pick two chords or two notes at random in sequence. Hell, don’t even look at the guitar while you’re doing it. You have a certain progression in your head? You might want to go for it. But then you make a mistake and play a chord that you wouldn’t really think would make sense, and in a odd timing too. Well, so what? Just keep it and elaborate on it instead! Don’t dismiss your mistakes, appreciate them and incorporate them in your songs, because if you don’t, if you only write what you are aiming for and what you think it makes sense, your music will sound a lot more predictable and boring.
I thinl it’s a good idea to think of it like going to the grocery store. You can go through the most direct route, or you can try to go through a completely different street that you’ve never been before! You are now getting to know a completely different part of town that is unknown to you. Oh, but now you’ve got lost and you don’t know where to go! Just ask that shady person in the corner instead for directions rather than using your phone’s GPS. Perhaps they are a robber, perhaps they are honest and will give you the right directions, perhaps they will mislead you to get a laugh out of it and you just get more and more lost BUT THEN you end up meeting the love of your life in a hipster coffee house at the end of the street. Then you catch a bus to the grocery store and you look through the window and you can see a child holding a huge chocolate icecream and then you remember how your dad used to buy you icecream everytime you were on vacations together. Every damn thing can happen if you just take the risk of trying something new. Even if it gets you lost or in trouble. But you’ll live something new. And that’s how I strive to write music: always be on the lookout for a creative, crazy, fun idea that you would never imagine if you just stayed in your safe place all the time, afraid of doing mistakes and what people might think of your songs. Screw what people think, screw the theory and screw your own plans and expectations about how your song should turn out. Screw you comparing yourself to your favorite musician. Screw all of that, really.
If you don’t believe what you have to say is worth being listened to, then you’ll never write anything and be always feeling like an impostor who has no business doing music. Never allow yourself to believe that.
This is something that resonates with me and follows on from one of my previous posts - I’m very much in that camp of not believing what I have to say is worth listening to. I try to think of a subject and come up short, so then I force myself to pick a theme from another song so that I can put pen to paper - whatever I write makes me be sick in my mouth a little!! Haha so cringe! I think a ‘how to write lyrics’ might need to be a separate thread!
Yup! I released an EP a couple of years ago and the lyrics I wrote are so bad that I cannot listen to it now 
Currently working on lyrics to a new ep, but not even sure where to start. It’s such foreign territory for me
It doesn’t help that I struggle to actually hear the words that people sing, unless its REALLY clear. It might as well be in a foreign language (which I would enjoy regardless)
Some of my favorite songs have lyrics that are, in isolation, pretty juvenile. I still think the songs are great – and the lyrics fit them!
The point I’m trying to make here is that it goes both ways – if people like your song, they’ll probably wind up liking your lyrics anyway.
Really? I would probably change it to ‘tolerate your lyrics’ 
I always go back to this video from time to time whenever I need a little motivation, in music or life. I hope it helps you too!
We all got something worth saying. But sometimes we feel so stomped on by people who will do anything to convince us our voice isn’t worth listening to that we end up believing it. Many people will hate us and try to put us down if we dare to believe in ourselves, but others will love it and feel inspired by it. As I said, do not allow yourself to put yourself down even before others have the chance to put you down! Come on, it’s just not very nice to deny them the opportunity to realize how wrong they are!
Lyrics are definitely the trickiest part for me too! I spend a lot of time just trying to figure out what the hell I want to say, but sometimes I feel like I spend more time criticizing whatever ideas I have and blaming myself for not having the ability to instantly figuring out the most amazing lyrics ever than actually writing! I guess it’s all part of the process and we have either to learn how to enjoy it or endure it.
When they say “anything worth doing is worth doing badly…” 
I capture moments of inspiration on my phone, either right after or while I’m writing them. These are “song seeds”, usually 30 seconds to 2 minutes long. Sometimes I will keep coming up with variations or multiple ideas for 20 or 30 minutes, so I keep the recorder going. I can edit out nonsense later.
On days I don’t have any ideas coming I go through my seeds. Sometimes I delete them or relabel them. I also record when I work on a seed, especially when I feel I’ve added something new.
I recently finished a song that I started almost 20 years ago.
I have very little experience with writing “songs” as such. I’ve been a terrible improv player all my life, I’ve never had the discipline to record some of the better jams as I’m sure there were moments of potential songs in there, but then I go and listen to Chick Correa or something later in the day, which is rather humbling. Most of the time when something comes our right I’m sure it’s just a shard of something I’ve heard before but can’t remember where, when or what.
I’ve only tried to capture some ideas in the last year or two, and I think I’m onto a second track, the first one is far from done. I’ve posted it here before.
I think the drum loop idea is cool, though maybe with and without have their moments of possibility. Getting stuck is what I’m best at 
I still have no idea what makes a chorus a chorus and a verse a verse, is it just an A and B part thing or is it more than that. I know there can be an underlying motif but beyond that it’s over my head.
This insight is pure gold, I’m struggle beyond the cool guitar part. I need to put more effort here. I have a lot to say, the world is rather colorful, more so today than ever with social media, news etc.
I should write stuff down and see what comes of it, but I know I have this issue of struggle with finding a middle ground, the imposter thing you mentioned, but also I over do things, I can brood over a sentence till it’s lost it’s original simplicity and is now a garish monster of wasted time. I suppose this take a lot more practice than I appreciate… I’m doing it again.
As far as coming up with bits, I think what works sometimes is a mini sabbatical from playing, always a good idea to be mindful of your first play after a break for new ideas. I haven’t been playing for months, it’s quite evident but the good thing is it takes me a day of intense playing to get back to the level I left off at, almost I guess.
Always here’s an idea from yesterday, new strings n all… it’s really rough, first cut, and totally out of it. I thought there were some interesting ideas there, I developed them further today but I haven’t recorded that yet.
I struggle with this too, I keep telling my self i’ll pay more attention to it but I never remember, I guess I haven’t had enough emotional turmoil 
I say that because that’s when I know I really don’t want to pay attention 
I think it all comes down to emotion. You know the difference between a verse and a chorus simply by feel.
Sure, there are other things, chorus tend to repeat themselves and be very similar to each other, but even that isn’t necessarily true. Take Smells Like Teen Spirit. Verses vary by lyrics, while chorus remain the same. Verses are more low-key, chorus are intense, climatic. It’s easy to identify which is which. But take a song like Lover, You Should’ve Come Over. There’s no easily identifiable chorus. There’s one part when Jeff starts to sing “Sometimes a man gets carried away”, which I would call a chorus, but that part doesn’t even repeat itself! I got songs with very clear-cut chorus and songs without easily identifiable chorus. I’m not worried whether a song has a chorus or not. Some of the best songs, like Bohemian Rhapsody, are more like a story, they don’t follow ABAB-C-B, simple, clear-cut formulas. I"m more worried that the song tells such a story, shows emotion, means something, than that it follows whatever structure people say sells best. The songs sometimes write themselves when you have that mindset, in my experience.
You make good points. I hadnt though it through all the way.
I really like the story telling format, like theater. Or opera. I grew up with jazz and classical which is rather free for the most part.
I usually start by jamming to a drum beat, this is where I come up with a riff or idea. Ill sometimes use a bass for this step then layer guitar riffs on top of the bass riff etc. I have tried starting with guitar then laying drums over that also, but usually Ill have a drum beat first. I am not a vocalist or lyricist so , ususally the lyrics come last or near last, and sometimes my lyrics are minimal. As far as a song structure you could start with a traditional ABACAB arrangement or any variation thereof. I have written songs with just verse, chorus, verse, chorus ,solo outro structure etc. There is no set rule for structure IMO if it sounds good go with it .