Hello,

My name is Beth & I am 14 years old, live in England and love singing.
I have recently been to a recording studio to have some songs put onto CD. Whilst there I got a lot of advice from them. He advised that I should stop singing to backing tracks & try to focus my attention on making my own songs.
I wouldn't know where to start & I'm here looking for advice really. Am I able to hire a song writer that can give me some guidance? Are there any good websites out there anyone can recommend? I just need some help to kick start me into this.
I'm doing singing lessons at school to help me improve with that but now I need to start looking at getting into the song writing myself.
Any advice at all is much appreciated.

Thanks,
Beth x

Hi Beth

Thanks for joining our forum - this is a good place to start   My advice to you honestly is to just start making your own songs. Your first attempts probably won't be that great, but that's ok - it's how we all started.

If you don't play an instrument, just make up a tune. Or some words. Or both.  If you don't feel confident or comfortable, then try to find a writing partner. Are there any other students at your school who are into music?  Maybe team up with one of them?  I was writing (awful) songs at your age.

Alternatively, you could go to an open mic night to meet other musicians, but as they're generally held in pubs, you may have to wait another few years before you can go.

If you play an instrument, learn how to play the songs you like and you'll develop a feel for how a song is put together. If you don't play, then learn the melodies, and then the harmony (backing singing) parts to the songs you like. This will help too.

But most important: have fun with it - and stick around to let us know how you're getting on

If a songwriter was to invest time in writing songs for you. Seeing as I doubt you could afford to pay them to write for you :p
You would have to be really, really good at what you do ( Singing, performing ).
The songwriter would have to be confident in your abilities to make his songs popular.
Might be another interesting project for someone.
You'll have to let us hear one of your recordings... Even though it's a cover

Hi Beth,

If you upload some of your stuff, we could get a better idea as to your options.
Can you write good lyrics? If so that's a start, a songwriter could use them as a basis for creating a song.
Do you play any instruments? If not, then get yourself a guitar and practice, practice, practice. I started teaching myself guitar when I was 16 and within a few months, I was starting to put together my own songs. You are young and learning an instrument will come very easy to you. Then listen to female guitarists, watch them on YouTube and see how they do it, learn some of their songs and then play around with those chords and melodies or make up your own melodies to go over your favourite songs. The more time you put in, the faster you will be able to write your own stuff. Don't worry about writing a masterpiece straight away, just play around with it.

If you don't want to play an instrument, If I am going to be honest, your future depends how good you are as a singer. If you have a brilliant and fairly unique voice as well as a good character and presence, you will find it a lot easier to find a songwriter who you could possibly collaborate with. I could be interested but like most others, I only want to write songs for someone who can get me a financial return in my invested time and efforts and someone who can really add something to my songs so together we can make hits. There are a lot of people out there who want to be professional singers but not many actualy have the talent or enthusiasm. Hopefully you do, and the fact you have already invested time in recording suggests that you are serious, even at a young age which is good.

What is your musical style? Which bands/performers do you enjoy?

Beth you are embarking on the most marvellous of creative journeys and i wish you the best of luck.
i know there are plenty of good musicians and teachers and record producers who are intrested in nurturing young talent so  keep looking and soon you'll find the right people for you
i take part in rock school sessions teachin and free recordings for young creatives and i love it
good luck for the future