While there may be limitless approaches to songwriting, there are some constants in just about every song churned out. Here are some things you will need to nail down if you want to write a song:

• Genre- is it gonna be Rock, Jazz, Country, Contemporary Worship, or what? Knowing your genre is key to plotting out what instruments will be used, and what kind of emotion will be portrayed.
• Subject matter- so many times I've heard lyrics thrown together and after hearing them I have no idea what the author is trying to convey. Okay maybe it worked in Miss American Pie, but by and large the best songs come across with a very clear and universal message.
• Lyrics- whether they rhyme or not they should roll off the tongue and be easy to sing.
• Melody- it should be memorable and congruent with the style of music.
• Hooks- they grab people and get them singing along. But be careful not to be too repetitious.
• Form- Here's a sample of a song form layout: An Intro, a verse, a chorus, a verse, another chorus, a bridge, an instrumental, another chorus and an ending. It doesn't have to be that complex, but you get the idea.

Now, how does the songwriter come up with all these things? For me its a matter of taste, my abilities, my life experiences, and the music that influences me. I remember when I went through a Country music phase and I started to write songs that sounded Country without really trying to. For subject matter, as a Christian writer, I'm always keeping an eye out for that tidbit of wisdom that yearns to be screamed from the rooftops during my bible study. Whenever I come across a passage like that, I draw a square around the verse number and put a bookmark there. Later on when I'm feeling inspired I hunt through my bible for my markings. Word smithing is something that can take a lifetime to develop. Melody comes from the heart. If you truly yearn to be a songwriter then you most likely have melodies inside you.

Try not to get hung up on writing the "best song ever"! That is a very elusive goal and the harder you try, the further away you will find yourself. The best song you ever write will probably pour out of you in two minutes time with very little effort, but not always! Don't worry about your song sounding like somebody else's either. Most likely something very similar has been written. So what? Don't plagiarize, but loosen up and have fun with songwriting.

Using TENSION in  songs and music production: 

What I wanted to ramble on about today was the tension  created within songs and music. Tension is the critical component of the tension and release principle  that makes music work as an emotional medium.  Just as within the  paradox of good and evil where good cannot exist unless there is evil to substantiate it as such, so the climactic nature of music is nonexistent without  the tension leading up to it. Now there are many different types of tension-building  mechanisms within music as we know it. Here is a partial list of the more obvious  ones:
 
1.  Melodic tension 
2.  Structural tension 
3.  Volume  tension
    a.    Increased or building  up volume
    b.    Decreased volume  (similar to the effect of a whisper)
 4.  Dynamic  tension
 5.  Instrumental  tension
 6.  Speed or note  frequency tension
 
Melodic  tensionis the one I was really pondering today.  It  is a much more subtle instrument and may go completely unnoticed.   But its effect is powerful and sublime.  Many of us learned in our early musical  training that tension is created when chromatic intervals are strategically  placed within a major scale. Based  upon this foundation, the so-called Greek modes are constructed with ever  increasing numbers of chromatic intervals which in turn increases the tensile  nature of the scale. This phenomenon has also been described as changing the  color of the music from bright to darker and  darker.
 
But there is a more subtle way of creating melodic  tension which may go unnoticed most of the time. It is “absence”.   Let me demonstrate.  A  melodic pattern is set firmly in place. Then one of the prominent notes is left  out; just like that.  Most times  the previous note or following note will be held longer to fill in the space,  thus making its absence unnoticeable to the untrained ear.  The listener’s brain is following along with the melody and when that  note is missing, its presence is so obvious and necessary that the brain just  inserts the note in for you and in turn creates a bit of subtle tension.  And each time the melody is repeated  and the note is missing, that tension is increased to the point where the brain is faced with a dilemma; “maybe the note doesn’t belong at all?” at which point it thinks it made a mistake inserting it in the first place.   Pretty insidious if you think about it- the way music can tease the brain  into feeling a certain way.  
  
Certain chords may also use the principle of absence to elicit a desired “feel”. I was taught to play inverted chords on the guitar, which we also call “power chords”.  They are called inverted because instead of 1,3,5 for example, the chord will be played  5,3,1.  But the power chord I  learned was missing the 3 note altogether.  Gives it a real grungy feel and makes the chord work perfectly for major or minor since there is no 3rd to lower.  So the listener’s brain goes “this chord sounds correct but is it major
or minor?”  Voila: tension- it is both!  
 
The principle of melodic absence can also be used in a  strumming pattern or keyboard pattern. I’m thinking of the boom-chik, boom-chik rhythm in so many songs, and I  recently heard this song (I’m Not Who I Was by Brandon Heath) where the  boom was just left out so what you end up with is a (blank)-chik, (blank)-chik  feel (which should not be confused for a blond girl). Then the hammer-ons inserted in there provide some much-needed release;  very effective, I thought.

 Anybody  else have some instances of melodic tension you have noticed (or not noticed) in your listening and playing?