How to To Write Songs with Groove

Some genres of music are driven largely by groove. If we’re not accustomed to writing with groove in mind, it can be difficult to push our songwriting into this space. A great first step to writing more groove-oriented songs is to listen to songs driven by a sense of groove. Trying to emulate those grooves on our instrument is an excellent way to start defining what groove is and how it functions in a song. Just adding those two or three new strumming patterns on guitar or rhythmic patterns on piano to our vocabulary can bring forth many many more songs and expand our writing style.  

One way we can begin writing with groove in mind is by choosing a one-bar or two-bar chord progression. Instead of placing the emphasis on what chords to play, consider more the groove with which you play the single chord or simple two-chord pattern.  Then, repeat the chord progression and groove over and over again to serve as the musical backbone of the song. Pay attention to the emotion in the groove you write and ask yourself what it seems to be saying. What does the groove make you feel? Let that inspire lyrical images, phrases, and words.

Another neat exercise is to play around with the tempo of the groove. Speed it up, slow it down. What does the message of the groove seem to be with each new tempo?

Finally, consider that when you start with the groove, the song you write will evolve differently from songs you write when you start with the melody or the lyric. Go ahead and use the grooves of songs past to inspire new songs of your own. Don't worry if at first you feel like you're merely rewriting groove songs you know and love.  After those grooves internalize, and your fingers know them by heart, you will become more versed in combining them with your natural tendencies as an original writer lyrically, harmonically, and melodically.

Happy writing,