LA Music Review | Art, stories and advice
by Carley Varley
As a musician it can be easy to fall into over thinking and writer’s block.
Learning to write from the heart takes practice and the absence of caring what people think, I always try to tell myself I am writing for myself and no one else.
Writing from the heart is important in music, often an artist’s best songs are the unexpected ones where they wrote about a personal experience, but they weren’t sure if they should release it. I had many moments where I had written about a situation I was in, the song focus was very much from the heart but I was always worried that people wouldn’t relate. An important thing to remember in any art form, is if it matters to you that will convey and speak to other people.
One great tip to ensure you can fully write from the heart is to have a dictionary handy, looking up different words for feelings can be very helpful when writing from the heart. Sometimes it’s hard to explain how you’re feeling, so looking up words to help portray that feeling in a song will really help with your writing.
You can also write from the heart if you write about situations around you or if you relate to a situation. I remember I was watching Vampire Diaries, and the main characters storyline was really toxic and complicated, and I thought I want to write about something like that.
I also wrote a song called ‘Homesick’ about my friend who can’t believe she ever dated someone who she once trusted. I thought it was funny how once she had been so in love and now, she can’t even believe she dated the person. It’s always good to write about what you know but sometimes it’s fun to write from another perspective.
It can be easy to overthink when writing from the heart, you often ask yourself, ‘is this how I’m really feeling?’ but what’s important is that the lyrics make sense to you.
Writing a song that you connect with is the most important as then people will see that it comes from your heart and how you’ve been feeling.
Processing your thoughts can be made easier if you journal, I often go back and take snippets from my journal and use it as lyrics. In the moment I am just writing for myself, so it’s the raw that it can be, and it was how I was feeling at the time. Write down your thoughts and feelings and this will help you write from the heart when it comes to songwriting.
I hope my advice has helped you today, remember to keep writing and not be afraid to express yourself!
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