How to Compose Your First Guitar Song

Most, if not, all of us guitar players start off by playing cover songs from our favorite bands and musicians. But if you feel ready to write and compose your own songs from scratch and don’t have any friends who play other instruments or don’t have the money for fancy equipment, then I have good news for you! However, here's a good thing to keep in mind. The more you know about how music theory works on your guitar’s fretboard, the less likely you are to encounter writer’s block. So take plenty of time to get to know your instrument well. You'll have more fun with your guitar and less limitations that you may potentially set for yourself. So if you still stuck around, then let's get started!

1. Choose a Tempo

The first thing that should be on your mind is choosing the right tempo. This means getting the feeling of your guitar and maintaining the best groove possible without making too many mistakes. If you’re a fast player and can shred 1000 notes per minute, then obviously you’d want to showcase your skills by picking a fast tempo. But if you just want to jam to a slow, groovy beat, then pick a slower tempo. But of course this all depends on what type of genre you want to play and where your skill level is.

• Use a Metronome

  

Download a metronome app for your phone and start with something that you’re comfortable with. Let’s say 120bpm. Play some chord progressions that you already know and take notice of your feel for it. Then, slowly increase the tempo until you can no longer play cleanly. Let’s say we stopped at 150bpm. This is now the bpm that you want to avoid. Choose anything that’s reasonably under that limit and stick with it. 

2. Find a Backing Track

If you don’t play the drums or have a buddy who does, there’s no need to worry. Nowadays, it is not that difficult to find a backing track. The YouTube community has so many to offer, and some of them are even free to use as long as you give credit. For starters, just type in your desired bpm and style of music on the search bar. There should be plenty out there for everyone’s taste. Remember, since this is presumably your first time making your own song, I strongly suggest to only focus on your guitar playing. Do not put too much emphasis on the rest of the “band” for now. You can learn how to create your own backing track at a different time.

3. Get Creative

Now that you have chosen your backing track, it’s time to start getting into the creative process of guitar playing. With the knowledge that you possess, use that to your advantage to tell a story with your guitar. For instance, the minor keys are often associated with sad and emotional feelings. On the other hand, the major keys are often associated with upbeat and happy feelings. This is where you come along and get creative with the desired notes you want to play and in what pattern you want to play them in.

• Record Yourself Often

  

Most of your amazing ideas for cool sounding riffs, licks, and solos will come out naturally as you jam with your chosen backing track. So it’s a really good idea to hit that ‘record’ button so that you can go back and make any adjustments. You could even write down your ideas in a format of tabs if you wish to keep it for your final take.

4. Apply Proper Structure

So now there’s chunks of your favorite riffs and licks saved everywhere on your hard drive. How are you going to piece them together? This is where a proper structure comes along. In my opinion, this is the most important step and therefore must have the most time being put into. The following are the essential parts to a song.

• Intro

How are you going to introduce your song? This is where you decide how you’re going to leave the first impression to your audience. A good introduction to a song will compel someone to keep listening. Think about your favorite bands and musicians and how they introduced their most popular song. What makes it so memorable? What did you feel during those opening chords? How did the melody set the tone for the rest of the song? A slow build up to the main riff is often used for an introduction. Sometimes the absence of an intro is what draws people in. It all depends on the overall feeling of the song and what kind of mood you want to establish.

• Main Riff

The main riff is what’s going to accompany the verses. Even if you don’t sing, or don’t have anyone who sings with you, picture that someone will. So there must be some sort of repetition to your chosen notes and chords. Go back and listen to your recorded riffs and keep the ones that are catchy and have plenty of rhythm to it. This is the part that sticks to your audience and keeps them humming your song all day. It’s very important that you’re comfortable playing this riff cleanly because you’ll be coming back to this one a couple times throughout the song.

• Pre-Chorus

This is where you’ll be connecting your main riff to your chorus. A good pre-chorus makes a smooth transition between the overall story and the main point of your song. Melodically, it should be very similar to the chorus. However, you have to think about how your chorus will sound compared to your pre-chorus. Typically, you want your chorus to sound louder and more energetic than your pre-chorus. Therefore, you can slowly build up on the noise level, adding suspense before the actual chorus comes in. This can include a second guitar playing similar notes and chords under the lead guitar.

• Chorus

The chorus is where you’ll want the most noise possible without taking anything away from the rest of the song. You’ll definitely want at least 2 guitars playing at the same time here. For instance, one of the guitars could be playing some catchy rhythmic chords, and the other guitar could be playing a harmony that is an octave higher than the rhythm guitar but still within the same key. Experiment and find out what sounds good together.

• Bridge

Use this as an opportunity to take a break before the solo since you’re about to transition into a section where you’ll be spending most of your energy and concentration. Give yourself some time to ease the tension in your fingers and compose yourself mentally. Interestingly, the bridge can be a transition that advances towards the solo, or it could even come after it. The main thing here is to not overload yourself in this section. Play some really basic chords or scales that are like second nature to you.

• Solo

There’s not much to say here. Go all out. Don’t hold back. This is your time to shine. Show the world who you are and put as much feeling as you can. I can recall many solos that have made me start crying because of how emotional it was. And I can also recall solos that have made me want to bang my head against the wall and lose my mind because of how awesome it was. Don’t underestimate the power you possess with your guitar. Make every note count!

• Outro

After several minutes of rocking out, you want to bring everything to a closing. Usually, the outro is a variation of the main riff or the chorus. So you don’t have to come up with something completely new. This ties in the whole song together and concludes the story. It depends on the mood and feeling of the overall song if you wish to make the outro an abrupt end, or a subtle and slow progression towards the ending chords. Try removing the backing track or the second guitar to give the impression that it’s now the end of the song.

    Conclusion

There are many ways that you can structure your song. Below is just an example on how to get started. Think of it as any story you've read that has a beginning, middle, and an end. We can agree that there is always so much going on in the middle. That should definitely be the main focus, but don't underestimate the importance of a good overall structure so that your song is consistent from the beginning until your last note.