YOU MAY GET a kick out of playing someone else's material. You may think your cover version of 'Kiss' is better than anything by Prince, Age of Chance, or Tom Jones and the Art of Noise. Sooner or later, however, you'll want to have a go at writing your own songs. I can remember wanting to (and trying to) even in the earliest days of playing the guitar. When I knew only two chord shapes, I wrote two-chord songs, just by singing along with the changes. As my knowledge of chords grew, so did my songwriting.

I hope that'll be the spirit of this series - to approach songwriting from a practical point of view, slowly helping you to add to your store of musical knowledge without demolishing your creative instincts.

One or two things should be obvious. For example, you ought to be able to play chords on a keyboard or a guitar, so that you can accompany your ideas. This is really the only way to start songwriting for a "live" playing situation, and it is also the cheapest way in terms of the equipment you need.

These days, bearing in mind the advent of new music technology that puts less emphasis on playing ability, a serious songwriter needs to be no more than an efficient keyboard player or guitarist; you really don't need to be a genius on either, just able to produce ideas tolerably well. Sequencers, drum machines and computer programs, combined with a four-track tape recorder, offer all kinds of possibilities for someone with creative ideas, even if your live playing skills are not too brilliant. The problem with technology is the expense of it all, but if you get hooked, chances are you'll find the means to satisfy your craving for new bits of gear.

One word of warning, though - don't let the fantastic creative potential of new technology stop you developing your playing skills on an instrument. The combination of traditional instrumental and musical skills with the new technology can be a very powerful mix. All you need is your own ideas, and off you go.

You can do a lot to understand songwriting without spending much money at all. This month, for example, all you have to do is think about the effect that lyrics have on how a song is put together musically. Sing this through to yourselves, or listen to the record if you or that brat of a kid sister has it:

"Everybody's doing a brand new dance now
(Come on baby, do the locomotion)
I know you'll get to like it if you give it a chance now
(Come on baby, do the locomotion)
My little baby says 'It's what you do with the beat'
It's easier than learning your ABC
So come on, come on, do the Locomotion with me."

As you've probably guessed, the bracketed lines represent the backing vocals. Sing it through again and tap your hand in the pulse that feels most comfortable to you. Almost certainly, you'll find you tapped a pulse which relates to Diagram I, where the pulses are shown as slashes (/).

Note that sometimes the lyrics coincide with the steady pulse, other times not. What's most important is the steady pulse which supports the vocal line. You'll notice I've labelled the pulse in groups of 4s, which should be counted steadily and evenly: 1,2,3,4; 1,2,3,4; 1,2,3,4; and so on. In musical terms, I've created bars with four beats in each of them. All this means is that the pulse has been organised into a recognisable group of beats.

If you relate the first beat of each bar to the lyrics of 'The Locomotion', you should feel that, in the first line, the first syllable of "everybody's" and the word "brand" are stressed more than any of the others. This should prove that bars are organised chunks of material, the beginning of which usually has a stressed pulse.

Rhythm is the most important element in music, and this is particularly true of pop music The fact that we all tap our feet when we listen to or sing a song should prove the power of the basic pulse, because that's exactly what we are tapping. If you now sing 'The Locomotion' through again, you'll see that sometimes lyrics coincide with the stress of the pulses, and sometimes not. Tap it through, and see what happens in the last line of the verse (Diagram J).

The strongest accent in the lyric falls on "do", but this does not appear on the first beat of a bar as we expect it to, it comes on the 4th beat of the first bar, and is held across the first beat of the next. More than that, the fact that the stress comes unexpectedly early has its own attraction. Why? Simply because we are hooked on the "1,2,3,4; 1,2,3,4" pulse groupings explained above.

Try and sing the verse and tap the pulse until you can feel the strong first-beat accents, and understand the twist in the last line which makes this rhythmic melody line so effective. Remember, whether you play an instrument or not, one of the basic elements you need to develop is your feel for playing with and against a pulse. So pick any song you like, work out the pulse - the number of beats to a bar if you can - and see what the rhythm of the melody line does relative to the pulse.