Brainstorming Possible Song Titles

A song title is a songwriters best friend. It can encapsulate the whole song in a few well chosen words.

For me, nothing gets my songwriting process off to a flying start more than a good song title to work with. The more possible song titles at my disposal, the more songs I write.

How do I find these possible song titles? I brainstorm them.

Brainstorming is a technique in which you automatically write down ideas on a given topic or a problem at hand.

In this case we want to fill an A4 page full of possible song titles.

The task is not to write a song but to come up with possible titles for a song. Writing the song comes later. It’s important to make that distinction before you start this exercise.

I personally do this at least twice a week.

From doing this I have pages and pages of possible song titles for me to look back on. Here’s how I do it

On a piece of A4 paper I write the first thing that pops into my head. From there, I use that phrase to start writing other phrases that are related to the one before it.

A short example is below:

Cry baby
Baby don’t cry
Don’t cry for me
Don’t cry
Why so sad
I’m so sad
I’m leaving today

(I think you get my drift)

I set myself a weekly target of at least one A4 page divided into two columns, two to three a week. Once I complete my target I stop and go onto the next thing.I prefer to look at what I’ve brainstormed with fresh eyes.

After a couple of weeks I look at what I’ve written and pay close attention to the rhythm of the words. Something will almost always jump out at me.

When this happens it’s like fishing. I have snared the muse. It’s time to reel in the songwriting idea and write the song.

To make this technique work effectively you need to be able to let go of any outcomes or expectations. Don’t even think about what you are writing. Just be automatic and spontaneous.

Most importantly, have fun with it.

Remember, with brainstorming you can write anything down, go off on any tangent you like and not worry about whether you are going to use what you write it in the future.

I find looking back on what I’ve written to be a very interesting experience in itself. Its amazing what you can achieve when you stop judging what you write.

In the meantime, give it a go and see what happens.

Until next time, happy writing,

Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Musician

Keywords: song writing, songwriting, songwriter, songwriting tip, songwriting idea, songwriting technique, songwriting help, corey stewart

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Tags: brainstorming, Corey Stewart, Creativity, song, songwriters, Songwriting, Songwriting Zen, writing, zen

Sunday, March 9th, 2008 Songwriting Tips

4 Comments to Brainstorming Possible Song Titles

Mindmapping Your Songwriting Ideas « Songwriting Zen says:

March 14, 2008 at 7:04 am

[...] very similar to brainstorming but in a very visual [...]

Building A Songwriting Ideas Archive « Songwriting Zen says:

March 15, 2008 at 9:03 am

[...] think, with your ever growing list of possible song titles at your disposal and your musical and lyrical noodlings on tape, imagine how many more songs you are [...]

Songwriting Zen » Blog Archive » Expanding On Your Possible Song Titles says:

April 21, 2008 at 1:18 pm

[...] mentioned in an earlier article “brainstorming possible song titles” I brainstorm words and phrases for 30 minutes at a time, making sure that for every list I do I put [...]

Songwriting Zen» Blog Archive » Songwriting Tool - Oblique Strategies says:

June 14, 2008 at 12:09 pm

[...] Songwriting Tool – Oblique Strategies [...]