I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about what to do if all of your songs sound the same. Since there are a ton of ways to answer this question, we’re going to look at the songwriting process piece by piece and look at some ways to make your chords, melody, lyrics, and song structure more unique and interesting. If your songs all sound the same or you want to write something a little different from what you've been hearing on the radio lately, this one's for you.

Chord Progressions

The most common issue is that you’re using the same chords in every song. This isn’t necessarily a problem, but can definitely add to the fact that all of your songs sound the same. There are a ton of ways to change this, but it can often depend on the instrument. We’re going to start with guitar, but I promise I’ll circle around to the piano after!

On the Guitar

On the guitar, it tends to be a technical issue: you are stuck to the first few frets. This is really normal because this feels like the “shallow end” of the neck. Even if you know a ton of theory, some guitar chords are just harder to play, especially if you haven’t gotten a grasp of your barre chords yet. But that doesn’t mean you are limited to that one section. One of my favorite methods is the “CAGED” system, which allows you to move shapes you already know around the neck. You don’t have to know any theory to use it and it helps you to find chords and inversions that you may never have thought to use.

For instance, in my song “Somewhere in the Fog”, I used a Cadd9 chord, one of those first-three-fret chords, and all I did was slide it to other places on the neck, creating an unexpected and interesting sound. You can do the same thing with C A G E and D chords (thus, CAGED). Once you’ve familiarized yourself with these shapes, mix them up and play around!

If you want to explore this idea even further, try using a different tuning (my favorite is DADGAD). This will change the theory of the instrument. All of the notes are now in different places, which means you’ll have to think outside of the box, making up new shapes and playing around with the different sounds you can make. The biggest thing I want you to keep in mind is that the first three frets are great, but you can leave the shallow end!

On the Piano

The technical aspect of playing a chord on the piano is much easier, so you’re able to use theory to your advantage much more. An easy place to start is with bass notes. If you’re playing a C chord with your right hand, play around with different notes in your left. You can also try borrowing chords from other key and using different chord shapes - try suspended chords, try adding or subtracting notes to form extensions or power chords, or simply try new keys or inversions.

Lyrics

Lyric Content

If your song are all about the same things, you need to practice coming up with new ideas. Now, I’ve written lots of songs about the same topics or situations, but the trick is to look at those things from a different perspective. Tell a different story about the same thing. If you start thinking of lyric writing as story telling, rather than writing a diary entry, you are going to explore so many themes and ideas that never would have come up before.

Practice coming up with three part stories - beginning, middle, and end - and use your senses to describe the scene. Once you start coming up with characters and settings, whether they are from your experience or not, you’ll have a much easier time coming up with new ideas and keeping your lyrics fresh and unique.

Lyric Structure

If all of your lyrics have the same rhythm or feel to them, or if you find yourself using the same words over and over, even if your songs are about new topics, you need to practice your lyric structure.

Try switching to a different tense and/or perspective. If you tend to write in past tense and 3rd person, “she ran”, try writing in present tense and 1st person, “I run”. Side note - try to avoid “ing” endings because they can add unnecessary space between the listener and the story. “He is dancing” is a lot clunkier than “he dances”. Also avoid words like “really” and “such”; they’re not doing much for your song and can get repetitive fast. You can also try altering your rhyme schemes or syllable counts.

Melody

If you tend to fall back on the same melodies, be mindful. Notice what those melodies are: what intervals are you using? What is the rhythm? Practice changing one note or one aspect of the rhythm. Then do it again.

One of my favorite exercises is to record five different options for a melody into your voice memos, one after the next. Listen back to each option and pick your favorite. Then do the same thing for the next line until you have a unique melody that you likely wouldn't have come up with on your first go.

Little by little, you’ll start altering those melodies and finding different options, which will give you a better sense of what you need to do next time you start a song. Once you’ve done this exercise a few times, you’ll be so used to coming up with options that you’ll stop falling back on the first thing you came up with.

Structure

Chorus? Refrain? Pre-chorus? Bridge? Structure doesn’t have to change significantly for a song to sound unique. Many artists use the same structure in every song, but there are lots of ways to subtly change structural elements to make your song more interesting.

Practice playing in different time signatures, styles, with different instruments, add a bar, subtract a bar. If you usually start with the verse, try starting with the chorus. If you can find ways to subvert your own expectations, you will be much more able to play around with your listener’s expectations, which will make your song stand out!

🎵 Time Stamps

0:32 - Chord Progressions (guitar at 1:01 & piano at 3:25)

4:38 - Lyrics (content at 4:58 and form at 6:11)

7:50 - Melody

9:13 - Structure

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