Andrea Stolpe, of the Berklee College of Music, writes a blog post, giving songwriters some tips for breaking out of familiar ruts or patterns of songwriting - focusing particularly on harmony or musical elements.

One I’ll add is simply taking something I am currently writing - where I have an established melody - perhaps a hook or chorus - and completely re-write the melody line (key, tempo, structure) - just to see what happens.  There have been times this has completely altered a song forever - although I might go back and reuse the original melody later.

One thing she is dead on about is phases in your songwriting.  I have a group of songs that when I play them I refer to them as from my “7th chord years”.  Don’t get me wrong - I love them - still play them - but if they were strong together, song after song, you would see these familiar chord phrasings.  I kept from even considering such phrasings for many years.

Recently, however, I have taken to another method for taking my songwriting in new directions.  I guess, for lack of a phrase, I call it “Thematic Songwriting”.  I’ve always been an organic songwriter - a melody line catches my mind and I take it naturally into a phrase or hook or song idea - based on the melody.  ie: What does this sound like?

Thematic Songwriting is where I don’t wait for any special inspiration.  I sit down and write a series of themes - using books I’m reading, current events, or other songs.   It could be as simply as writing a list like the following:

• A Mexico Song
• A hopeful song about a woman leaving an abusive relationship
• A song about greed and the destruction it causes
• A song with a strong parable message
• A song about the fleeting nature of time

The goal is simply a list of ideas where inspiration did not really strike first - and then force yourself to write a hook, chorus, or even jot down notes of a story idea.

Then pick up your guitar (my songwriting instrument - use your own here) and write at least one verse.

I found that this alone has opened up creative channels - literally forcing creativity to occur on cue.

If you are struggling with new ideas, grab a newspaper, a book of poems, or just peruse the local library.  Ideas abound.