These days I find myself often starting a song with a few lines that feel like they really hit home. But then I’m not very sure what the whole song is about.

I’ve been reading Paul Simon’s biography. I clearly remember the shift in his writing when he went from Simon and Garfunkel to being a solo artist. It is illuminating to see the way his skill as a writer developed quite consciously.

It can make all the difference to a song’s feel what version or inversion of a chord you use. Getting the right mix of notes with additional notes (i.e. the numbers after the chord’s key) can strengthen the lyric or make its nuance come out very differently.

It’s not an either / or, but as they say in all studios ‘you can’t polish a turd’. If the song’s content hasn’t got enough interest no matter how many sounds, embellishments, vocal tricks you throw in it won’t have the longevity you want.

Are you familiar with the experience of taking half an hour to write 90% of a song and 3 months for the other 10%?