What Makes A Good Song?

A few observations as a songwriter

Recently I was feeling a bit ranty and decided to make a YouTube video about “What makes a good song?” Check it out:

Watch it here → https://youtu.be/hCYJpMMLveI

None of my ideas are particularly revolutionary. But the one that I’ve found most useful is this one…

A good song still works with just a singer and a guitar (or piano).

It’s not a perfect formula. There is no perfect formula. But if you ponder it for a bit of time, you might realize how many songs you like end up fitting that mold.

For me this is at the very least a good filter for my own songwriting. If I can play my guitar and sing a song and it works, then it’s a good song. Not necessarily a perfect song. And maybe more production or a better arrangement could make it better. But most of the songs that I’ve written that feel to me like at least decent songs seem to pass that test.

To that end, I’m taking that belief and using it to record and publish my backlog of songs. I have a ton of music I’ve never put out there. The only people that get to hear it are my family and some of the people at church on Sundays.

So I’m doing the simplest kind of recording I can. Me + acoustic guitar + mic + zoom recorder. I do minimal post processing (fixing levels, panning, eq, reverb). And that’s it.

It’s not perfect, but I put out my first song on YouTube today using this approach. Check it out:

Jesus, Worthy Of All Praise → https://youtu.be/OpNupEy6XOU

There is a whole backlog of about 50 songs. So it’s going to take a while to get them all recorded and published. Some songs are better than others. I couldn’t tell you which ones are the best.

But the ones you will get to see next will all follow this simple approach. The song has to work with just me and a guitar. It’s simple and it’s the only way I know how to make a “good” song.

-Brian

P.S. The strangest part of writing songs is that I don’t feel like I write the songs. That’s a topic for another email.