How Do You Break This Musical Barrier?

[Tone Junkie]

Songwriting is a skill that most guitar players never focus on.
I have seen smoking killer shredders that can play almost anything with ease but can’t put a half assed song together.
It’s all about the rhythm. 99.8% of music is just that. Chord progression. The groove. Name almost any band you can think of and it’s about the song. Not the lead guitar. Unless you’re talking the extreme end if things.
Even guitar virtuoso players like Satriani have a song structure.
From death metal to country to top 10 pop.

Practice to a drum rhythm and work on writing a song without leads. The leads are the icing on the cake.

 

[Uzi Nein Millimetah]

My songwriting skills jumped bigly when I started playing bass and especially the drum kit (not a drum machine, although ok to start out by triggering the drum machine keys live). Sometimes I'll record only a 1/3 sketch of a song just so I don't forget it, than it's available to Frankenstein with something else later.

Learn multiple great songs by others. You don't have to learn all of them, just pick out two for starters and learn every major part, enough that you could play them on stage, guitar, bass, and drums.

That will keep you busy for a while, and with a sense of purpose.

People who write great songs base them on interesting experiences or perspectives or ideas. Go have some experiences (i.e., live life, don't just exist) and contemplate those you've already had or that others have had. Were any lessons learned, was any perspective gained?