How I Write a Song, From Drum Beat to Master

I've written my songwriting process down as a checklist, eleven phases long. It runs on three tools: GarageBand for the demo, a Google Doc for notes, and Dropbox for the rough mixes. Here it is, the way I'd explain it if you asked.

The charts in the songbook come out of the middle of this process, where a song gets written up properly. I wrote up what's in the songbook separately, including the five songs from Analog.

Start with the feel

Phase one is the backbone. I put on a song that has the vibe I'm after, pick a rough tempo, and build a standard drum beat that matches the feel. Then I lock the exact tempo. Nothing clever. The point is to have a pulse to write against before anything else exists.

Phase two is the primary instrument, usually guitar or piano. I map out a basic verse and chorus in GarageBand and start a Google Doc alongside it with the chorus structure and whatever notes I have. I set the key here. If the song might want a bridge or a middle eightmiddle eightA contrasting section, traditionally eight bars long, that usually turns up once after the second chorus., I drop placeholder sections in for those too, and I keep the doc updated whenever the structure changes.

Lyrics come third

That's the order I work in. By the time I'm writing words, I already know what the song feels like and how it moves.

First I decide what the song is about, the theme or the story, and put that in the doc. Then I hum a melody over the demo in GarageBand, write a first draft of the lyrics, and sing it. Singing it is the test for flow and melody. Then I rewrite, sing it again, and keep at it until the melody and phrasing are solid.

Filling it out

Phase four is secondary instruments. I try to keep that to three or fewer at first, decide where each one plays, and work through the song in pieces: verse parts first, then chorus parts, then the bridge, middle eight, pre-chorus, intro and outro as needed. Once everything's in, I go back and adjust the drums so they fit the fuller arrangement.

Phase five is a pre-mix. I reorganize the tracks, set rough levels and panning, and think about structural moves: stops and starts, maybe a solo, an "all in" moment where everything builds. Then the structure gets locked.

Then I bounce an MP3 to Dropbox and listen to it for a week or two on different systems: the car, headphones, regular speakers. I take notes the whole time on what to change, what sounds off in the mix, and any arrangement ideas.

Tip

Changing where you listen is the whole point. A mix that sounds fine on headphones can sound very different in the car.

Write it up

Phase six is paperwork. I copy everything into a standard song template in Google Docs: lyrics, chords, structure. I settle on the final name and fill in the details, like tempo, key and author, with placeholders for the album, track number and recording dates. That template is where the shape of the charts in the songbook comes from.

Phase seven is ear candy. I go through sample libraries, filtered by the song's key, and place extra sounds where they help. I lay down background vocals, even rough ones, and think about stretching sections or adding a break or a change in dynamics. Once the effects and set pieces are placed, I check how the main vocal sits in the denser arrangement, record the final lead vocal, and draw up a full song chart for the doc.

Before anyone hits record

Phase eight is the battle plan. Three sanity checks: the song map, the arrangement, and the lyrics. Then copyright. I register the composition, music and lyrics, and there's a real difference between registering the song itself and registering a particular recording of it. After that I listen critically to figure out which parts need other musicians, and I contact the recording engineer to book time.

Recording, mixing, mastering

Phase nine is the real recording, in a fixed order with a pre-mix after almost every step:

1. Drums and bass, if the song needs them.
2. The primary instrument.
3. Secondary instruments.
4. The final lead vocal.
5. Background vocals.
6. Ear candy that didn't get done earlier.

Along the way I archive unused takes to keep the session clean. At the end I listen back to the original GarageBand demo and add anything essential that got lost, archive again, and normalize the tracks.

Phase ten is the final mix. Rhythm section and primary instrument first, then the vocals, then the secondary instruments, then the ear candy, each one tightened up for levels, EQ, compression and panning. After that it's normalizing the whole mix, finishing the automation for fades and effects, and bouncing out stemsstemsSubmixes of a song, like all the drums or all the vocals, bounced out as separate audio files so someone else can mix or master them..

Phase eleven is masteringmasteringThe last step before release: evening out the finished mix so it sounds right on every speaker and sits at the same loudness as everything else. the final mix, or handing the stems to a mastering engineer, so it holds up for streaming, CD or vinyl.

Note

One line in the checklist still has a question mark on it: keeping secondary instruments to three or fewer at first. It's still marked as a maybe.