This exercise is also a great example of a powerful technique called brainstorming.

Brainstorming is being ability to spontaneously come up with ideas on a given topic or a problem at hand, but in this case we want to fill a page full of possible song titles. The task is not to write a song but to come up with possible titles for a song (I try to do this at least twice a week. I have pages and pages of possible titles for me to look back on).

Write the first thing that pops into your head and then using that phrase start writing song titles making sure that the next phrase is derived from the first phrase.

Heres a short example:

Cry Baby
Baby Dont Cry
Dont Cry For Me Baby
Dont Cry
Why So Sad?
Im So Sad
Im Leaving Today (I think you get my drift)

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

Incidently your inner voice hates this kind of exercise as it has no control over what you are doing. In fact, when you are doing this dont even think about what you are writing. Just be automatic and spontaneous. Have fun with it.

Set yourself a target of doing this for 30 minutes, two to three a week and build up a body of song titles. After a couple of weeks have a look at what you have written and pay close attention to the rhythm of the words and I'm sure that something will jump out at you and BINGO.....You have the beginnings of a new song.

Looking back on what you have written can be a very interesting experience in itself. Its amazing what you write down 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
Songwriter/Musician

P.S. Lee Kernaghan is a well known country singer/songwriter/guitarist in Australia. This article was started by me finding his quote.

Keywords: song writing, songwriting, songwriting idea, songwriting and the guitar, songwriting technique, songwriting basics, corey stewart