“You have to only write for you. You can’t write for anybody else.” Lisa Witt goes in-depth into her songwriting process in this interview about and performance of “Four Walls.”
Writing a song for someone you love can be an incredible gift and a heartfelt expression of your feelings! If you’re new to songwriting but have a muse to woo, you’ve come to the right place. This post is all about how to write a love song on the piano.
If you want a more general overview of songwriting, be sure to check out our lesson How To Write a Song On Piano in 6 Easy Steps.
Table of Contents:
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Any creative endeavour starts with inspiration. If you’re deeply in love with your muse, you’re probably inspired already!
But you don’t need a love interest to write a romantic love song. You can get inspiration from other songs, movies, television, or works of art. And imagination goes a long way!
If you’re new to songwriting, look to the masters for inspiration. Listen to a diversity of artists from all genres, backgrounds, and time periods: from Bob Dylan and Chopin to Ed Sheeran and Yiruma.
Next, pick a key. It doesn’t matter what key you pick, but if you plan on singing, pick a key that you’re comfortable singing in.
Some people associate specific keys with specific emotions. For example, Christian Schubart’s Ideen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst (1806) describes E-flat major as “the key of love, of devotion, of intimate conversation with God” (translated by Rita Steblin).
Schubart may be onto something. Erroll Garner’s “Misty” and Frédéric Chopin’s “Nocturne in E-Flat Major” are very romantic piano pieces in E-flat major! But of course, key sentiments are subjective. So pick a key you’re comfortable writing, playing, and singing in—ideally one where you’re familiar with the diatonic chords.
Some songwriters pick their melody first (see next step) but if you’re still brainstorming yours, starting with a chord progression can be a good catalyst for melodic ideas.
Chord progressions set the mood and narrative direction of a song. You can make up your own progression or choose a popular progression. Remember: just because many people have used the same progression doesn’t necessarily mean a song is unoriginal or uncreative.
Still stuck? The I-V-vi-IV progression and its sibling the vi-IV-I-V progression are great places to start. These progressions have carried the love songs of legendary songwriters for decades, from the Beatles to Taylor Swift!
Perhaps you already have a melody living rent-free in your head and you just need chords to harmonize it. In which case, check out our lesson on how to match chords to melodies.
Have a progression but no melody? Try improvising over the progression with notes from the same scale. Melodies don’t have to be complicated. In fact, simplicity often wins because simple tunes are catchy and get stuck in your head!
If you need more inspiration, try one of these lessons:
How to Write A Melody on the Piano
How to Improvise a Beautiful Melody: 9 Tips From Jesús Molina
Create Emotion With Only 4 Notes
We hope this post helped you write your love song. Good luck!
I know it’s not much, but it’s the best I can do;
Bernie Taupin, “Your Song” (Performed by Elton John)
My gift is my song and this one’s for you.
Ladies and gentlemen, will you please stand?
Taylor Swift, “Lover”
With every guitar string scar on my hand—
I take this magnetic force of a man to be my lover.
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Charmaine Li is a Vancouver writer who has played piano for over 20 years. She holds an Associate diploma (ARCT) from the Royal Conservatory of Music and loves writing about the ways in which music—and music learning—affects the human experience. Charmaine manages The Note. Learn more about Charmaine here.
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