Out of every art, music may be the most universal. Unlike most art forms, which are restricted to humans (such as writing) or require deliberate practice (like painting), music is an art practiced not just by humans, not just by the animal kingdom, not even just practiced by living things, but potentially everything in the universe.
Though it is important to clarify that sound and by extension music are the result of our ears receiving acoustic waves and our brains perceiving it, so though all things produce music, not all things (not even all animals) necessarily consume music. But that all things are artists, to me, remains an interesting feat.
Songwriting
One of my main hobbies these days is songwriting: crafting lyrics and tunes and combining them to create full songs. I have always played guitar and piano and enjoyed making small tunes, but I only started songwriting perhaps one year ago.
Nervousness about my voice, about my lyrics, and about the difficulty of making music always made me avoid it; but once I sat down, strummed some chords and wrote a few lyrics to go with them, I realized my fear was unfounded and it wasn't as scary as I had thought.
Nowadays, I try to write all the time: in the morning, when I get back from work, and especially on the weekends. I've probably written over 50 songs, a few of which I've actually managed to record and mix.
For the record, I am not a gear junkie: I use GarageBand as my DAW, a Blue Yeti for vocals and acoustic guitar, a small, unromantic $50 audio interface for electric guitar.
Influences
Although I listen to a great deal of music, my songwriting is inspired by a few artists in particular.
The structure of my songs owes a great deal to the Beatles. Their verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus framework just works so well and I find myself using it a lot.
The chords I often use depend on the instrument: on guitar, I tend to follow Neil Young songs and use G, C, Am, D, Em, etc. sometimes in 12-bar blues but also just following his general sound; on piano I find myself playing like Laura Nyro, Carole King, and Todd Rundgren, which means I use a lot of major 7 chords and slash chords.
Finally, for the actual lyrics I once again look towards Neil. His economical use of words and simplicity have always had a draw for me and I try my best to put my thoughts plainly and memorably, just as he does.