Rick Rubin's 'Seeds' Method for Songwriters
Published · by Loopin
In The Creative Act (2023), Rick Rubin splits the work into four phases: seeds, experimentation, craft and completion. The book gives you the philosophy; this post adds the part it leaves out: quotas, a weekly pick and a finish line you can run starting today.
Collect three seeds a day and don't grade them
Rubin's seed is any small starting point: a phrase, a melodic fragment, a groove, a title, a shape. The rule of the seed phase is gathering without comparing. You're not looking for the best idea yet, only collecting. Most writers break this rule constantly, killing ideas the moment they arrive because they don't sound like a finished song.
Make it concrete: three seeds a day, each under a minute. One line of lyric. Eight bars hummed over a loop. A title from something overheard. Three a day is about 20 a week, which is enough to choose from and not so many that you stop listening back.
Keep every seed in one place with a name you'll search
A seed you can't find is a seed you didn't plant. Pick one home and put everything there. For seeds that come with a beat or a melody, that's what Loopin is for: import the beat, write the line while it plays, record the hum, and keep it with every later version. Text-only seeds can live in a notes file, but put the song title in both places.
Name each seed with the date, a type and one mood word: “10-22 hook restless”. The mood word costs two seconds and lets you see later which states give you seeds you keep. See also how to capture song ideas on the go.
Pick two seeds a week by the pull
Once a week, listen to everything you collected. Don't ask which is best; ask which one you want to hear again. That pull is the signal Rubin keeps returning to: attention, not judgement. Pick two. Everything else stays in the archive, not the bin; seeds that don't pull today often pull in six months.
Two is deliberate. One puts too much pressure on a single idea, and five spreads you so thin nothing grows. If nothing pulls, that's data too: collect differently next week, a new beat, a new time of day, a different instrument.
Experiment with three versions before you commit
In the experimentation phase you plant the seed and see what it does. Give each chosen seed three quick experiments, 20 minutes each: a different tempo (try 20 BPM faster and slower), a different key or register (up a fourth often changes the whole mood), and a different point of view (first person, second person, someone else's). Check the original's key and tempo in the free key and BPM finder so you know what you're moving from.
Record each experiment as its own version instead of overwriting. Most of the time one version clearly comes alive and the others don't. That's your answer, and you got it in an hour instead of a month of wondering.
Craft to a deadline, then call it done
The craft phase is the one people know: structure, rewriting, second verses. Rubin's advice is to keep momentum by skipping sticking points and coming back later. Use a placeholder line in brackets and keep moving; a finished song with one weak line beats a perfect first verse. Give each crafted song a deadline, say two weeks.
Completion, in Rubin's framing, isn't perfection; it's when releasing the work serves it better than holding it. A practical test: if your last three changes made it different but not better, it's done. Bounce it, then master it free and send it to someone. The next seed is waiting.
Frequently asked questions
What are the four phases in Rick Rubin's The Creative Act?
Seeds (collecting ideas without judging), experimentation (trying ideas out), craft (building the work) and completion (finishing and releasing it).
What is a seed in songwriting?
Any small starting point: a lyric line, a melody fragment, a groove, a chord change or a title. Aim for three a day, under a minute each.
How many song ideas should I develop at once?
Two a week works for most writers. One puts too much pressure on a single idea; five spreads your time too thin.
Does The Creative Act give a songwriting routine?
Not as a schedule. It's a book of principles, so you have to supply your own numbers, like three seeds a day, two picks a week and a two-week craft deadline.
How do I know when a song is finished?
When your last three changes made it different but not better. At that point, releasing it serves it more than more edits.