How to Write Songs Faster (8 hacks for speedy songwriting)
I write this post to share the solutions I’ve found for my own slothful songwriting. These are my top moves that help me finish more music. This is how to write songs faster.
Let’s get to it.
1. Create Urgency
Urgency doesn’t always work for everyone, but it’s definitely a great place to try first.
Sometimes, having a little external pressure moves us to take action quicker and finish things. There’s a saying I’ve seen floating around, it goes something like:
“Nothing makes me more productive than the last minute.”
I don’t know who said it first, but yea, this. This says it all.
So adding a little last minute pressure can help us finish projects and make music faster.
For example, making an announcement to your friends, family and followers that your new song is dropping on a particular date can definitely motivate you to work faster.
Or you may try doing a songwriting challenge — like my song-a-day in 2023 project.
Either way, adding some type of urgency to your songwriting can help move things along quicker.
2. Use A Workflow
Creating a workflow is a great way to foster and strengthen better songwriting habits. And having solid habits supports quicker songwriting.
I think the creative process definitely has a lot of mood-based, willy-nilly flair to it.
But throwing in even just a little strategy (by using a workflow) can help us to better manage motivation, discipline and finishing more of what we start.
When I finally adopted this strategy for music production, I definitely felt myself getting better and finishing more things faster.
So I have the experience to say that this process can definitely work.
It’s especially important in the early stages of forming new habits or addressing specific weaknesses and bottlenecks.
As with most things in life, it’s a dynamic strategy that will evolve and adapt as you grow and your goals and demands change.
3. Stop Trying to Be Perfect
Perfectionism in music is a trap. Avoid it at all costs.
When we stop trying to be perfect, we have more fun. We move faster and make more music.
So this tip is straightforward, but incredibly effective. As soon as I stop trying to be perfect, my music magically gets done.
Once I ignore perfectionism (and focus on fun), I stop spending hours searching for the “perfect” sounds for my synths and I stop writing yet another version of how my hook should go.
I just make a decision, record the takes, make the adjustment and move on.
It’s cathartic. And the music always sounds great – especially after stepping away and coming back with some fresh ears and objectivity.
So while I love the nuances of music, it’s also important to stop focusing on every little detail all the time and instead just try to finish the damn thing.
Because perfectionism is an illusion, and doesn’t exist.
4. Self Motivate (trust the quantity principle)
Sometimes, we just need a little motivation to finish things quicker. And this idea of quantity over quality is one of my go-to sources of inspiration.
Here’s the basic concept.
By focusing on creating more songs (quantity) rather than creating the single best song (quality), we end up creating higher quality songs in the process.
I think this is due to a few key reasons:
Focusing on quantity takes away the pressure of perfectionism and subjective “quality”
It’s statistics and math – by creating a larger sample size, there’s bound to be more chances of outliers and higher quality ideas that are outside the average
A focus on quantity means we’re practicing more, which means we’re getting better and more skilled
So (to echo #3 above) stop trying to create the perfect song, and instead create songs at scale – even if you think they suck.
Because, according to the math of it all, you’ll end up eventually creating more unique, higher quality gems in the process.
5. Use the Do Something Principle
The do something principle is courtesy of Mark Manson, and it’s something I do myself (and I can say with confidence that it does work).
Essentially, it’s the idea that by just focusing on doing something – anything – you’ll end up getting more done and creating motivation in the process (rather than waiting for it).
I love this fact, that mood comes after action.
It can be hard to be creative when there’s no inspiration, but practicing on creating motivation (by just simply taking action) is a great way to boost our control on things and to finish music quicker.
So if all else fails, just try to gather the minimum amount of energy needed to simply just get started, and then do something.
See where it goes.
6. Reverse Engineer Songs Into Bite-Sized Pieces
I love the idea of reverse engineering complex ideas or problems into more manageable parts.
So breaking down your songs into their smaller component pieces is a great strategy to get more done (and to not be overwhelmed by the larger, macro goal).
This strategy is similar to reverse engineering your goals, and involves identifying the core requirements to completing a song, and breaking those further down into daily tasks.
For example, I could reverse engineer a song to something like this:
Main structure and arrangement
Main melodies and vocal top line
Instruments and sound design/selection
Processing and effects
Mixing and mastering
From here, I can more easily isolate different tasks and focus on them one at a time.
This speeds up my workflow and helps my focus better, without getting overwhelmed with the dreaded “what do now?” feeling.
But if you’re struggling with visualizing how your music and songwriting process can be broken into smaller pieces, you can also try mind mapping for musicians.
It’s similar to reverse engineering, but more visual.
7. Stack the Cards In Your Favor
I love this hack. It’s simple, obvious but incredibly powerful.
Stacking the deck in your favor means creating an environment for yourself where you’re most likely to succeed and get music done faster.
Because if I’m trying to write songs faster in a space and energy that’s disrupting, distracting and stressful – well, I won’t get much done.
So here are three key areas I like to pay attention to when stacking the cards in my favor:
Your inner circle
Who do you spend your time with? Do they motivate or inspire you to make music or take more action?
Your outer circle
What content do you consume? Do the videos, podcasts, blogs and content you consume support your songwriting focus?
Your surroundings
What does your environment look and feel like? Pay attention to your design aesthetics, the smells, the sounds and the energy of your music-making space.
8. Play to Your Strengths
Last but not least, a great way to write songs faster to simply play to your strengths.
It’s important to improve our weaknesses, but if we’re trying to finish more music quicker, then leaning in on our core strengths will get us to the finish line more efficiently.
For example, I want to get better at certain advanced aspects of electronic music production, but I shouldn’t stress about trying to master these techniques before I ever finish any of my songs.
I should remember that you don’t need to be “perfect” or in the top 0.01% of virtuoso musicians to make absolutely great, inspiring, impactful music.
So work on improving your weak points, every day – for sure.
But when you’re trying to write more music faster, remember your strengths (and use them).
Chances are, you’re better than you realize and your unique skills and style will get you to where you need to go.
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