5 Steps to Writing Hit Songs That Stand Out, Win Awards + Gain Placements 

5 Steps to Writing Hit Songs That Stand Out, Win Awards + Gain Placements

Songwriting is a fine craft composed of many finely tuned muscles alongside a high level of skill and craft. When songwriters really want to turn professional, they start writing, every day. Sometimes, multiple songs in a day. They know that the only way to close the gap between where they are skillwise and where they want, is to produce a large volume of work. 

If you want to get good at songwriting, the solution is to write— a lot.

And while I think we could agree that it’s relatively easy to write a good song, it’s not so easy to write a great one.

In today’s article, I wanted to speak to ways that you can elevate your songwriting skills, and to examine the elements are in songs that make that connection, and go on to win awards and gain placements.

Let’s start with the components of a good song, then a great song, and finally the cherry on top that produces a hit song. Let’s see as we move through the three layers, if we can make some dots connect for you with your own writing. And this is a good way to look at the bones of the song and then the additional layers that sweeten it up.

1. The key components of a good song. 

• Has a clear message.
• Is well written:
  • Syllables match
  • Good established rhyme scheme
  • Good melody that lifts through the song
  • Good emotional dynamics and storytelling 
  • Repetition in the chorus
  • Good solid chord progressions.
  • Chords that change in each section.

2. The key components of a great song

The important thing here to note is the difference between writing and editing. 

Writing is when the fountain is flowing and you are inspired to write. 

Editing is for those days when the fountain isn’t flowing and you can go to work editing the song. Working on tweaking the lyrics, the rhyme scheme, or the rhythmic or melodic dynamic element of the melody.

When you see writing and editing a two different parts of your brain and the writing process it helps to know which one to utlize when you sit down to write—making your sessions more productive.

• The key components of a good song above in number one, plus: 
  Authenticity. A real story inspired the heart of the song.  
• Emotion. The lyric and melody move together to pull at the heart strings.
• A hook and more crafted melody.
  • Great songs have great melody that hooks you in. 
  • In addition, the crafting and tweaking of melody to help use moments in the song to create suspense or more dynamic. For example avoiding the tendency to over-resolve the melody to the tonic. There is a tendency to resolve the melody, but melodies that lead to the next section often land on a 2 or 4 note leading to the 3 or 5 per se. This sets up a more dynamic entrance to the chorus. 

3. The key components of a hit song

The key components of a great song, but more crafted, as well as tried and tested. 

It’s one thing to write a song that you like and even your fans like—but a song that resonates with millions of people has more components of craft and skill, but also has a higher emotional quotient. 

This goes back to authentic songwriting —which is one way to write from real stories that naturally have more emotional impact in them. Always pointing to what an experience feels like and creating deeper feeling, using tools in lyric and melody writing. 

The best way to know if your song is resonating is first to be brutally honest with yourself about what you like and don’t like – yet. Think of the areas you don’t like as opportunities to level up your song. They are just puzzles to solve. The more attention and honestly you bring, the greater the result. Then once you have it how you want it, show it to your Inner Circle of 5-6 trusted folks. Include 1 professional songwriter/mentor in that Circle. You want a large variety of people to draw from. Friends, family, fans and industry. 

And before I lay out the process it’s important to say that you want to demo the song very well before showing. I like to demo songs with just guitar or piano and voice. It’s the best way to hear the song and solve the songwriting issues without using production elements to cover them over. 

Here’s the process: 

• Tweaked until every cringe or unsettled moment is beautifully resolved. 
• The art of editing. 
• Songs are not written, they are rewritten. 
• Inner circle feedback.
• Tweak. 
• Test again.
• Repeat until you are there. 

4. Writing songs that bond with listeners

Writing authentic songs based on real-life stories and experiences is the way to truly bond with listeners. 

As Amy Winehouse so wisely said, “there is no point in writing about anything but the truth.” 

When you look at the big songs that have become anthems for our lives, they all share one thing in common besides great craft—authenticity. 

The writer was not making up a story but writing from real-life experience. Art mirrors life. The task here is: Can you be brutally honest to dig deep enough to get to the heart of the matter?

Think of songs like I Will Always Love You or I Can’t Make You Love Me. 

I Will Always Love You, written by Dolly Parton, is clearly a story about realizing that while she will always love this person, it didn’t work out. The heartbreak of that, intertwined with the sentimentality, creates a rich, emotional song. Then, add that gorgeous soaring melody that builds as it moves through the song to take us to its epoch. You can just feel that Dolly experienced this personally as a writer—her heart is encoded into the fabric of the song that the listener can instantly feel. 

5. Writing songs that get picked for sync placements 

It used to be that sync agents would tell songwriters to write “general” lyrics and not “personal”. That is still somewhat correct in that you don’t want to specifics of your story to distract the listener, which is just good songwriting acumen. 

However, the direction of writing “general” lyrics is not exactly what spawns great songs. Writing too generally sits our emotions up on the surface and can dilute the song’s emotional impact. 

The guidance here is to go deep into the personal experience and not censor your writing first. Then you can go back and edit, taking out any references that are too personal. This process helps to achieve a deeper emotional connection. 

The more personal you can get, the more universal your song can be. 

A great example of this is Love Song by Sara Bareilles. The song at first listen sounds like she wrote a song talking to a beau and telling him “I’m not going to write you a love song, cause you need one, cause you asked for it….”. But the real backstory behind the song is that Sara wrote it after realizing that her label might drop her. They had just asked her to write a love song. 

What’s brilliant about Sara’s songwriting is that she wrote the song to work in either case. But there is no mention of a “record label” or the real story behind it.