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SongwritersHelper > Song Writing Lyrics&Music

Song Writing, Lyrics and Music

OK, let's get right to the main topic! Song writing tips and information on writing song lyrics and music songwriting help. Here's a summary of the basics.

Songwriting Theme, Idea, Structure, Impact:

• The idea should be fairly unique or a unique way of addressing a more common theme (a new or unique way of saying some of the same old things).

I once read somewhere that "there are no new emotions", there are just new ways of describing or expressing them...

• The song should generate an emotion or feeling. Make them want to laugh, cry, make love, etc...

• The song should have a structure with a logical beginning, middle and end. The Verse-Chorus, Verse-Chorus-Bridge and Verse-Verse-Bridge-Verse (or AABA) are the most common and a good starting point.

• The idea should be one that a lot of people can understand and relate to.

Song writing Lyrics:

• Have a strong opening line. One technique is to start with a place or opening scene "Busted flat in Baton Rouge...", "Sittin in the mornin sun...", "This aint no disco... This is LA...", etc.

• Make every word count.

• Use conversational lyrics, not poetical. This is a pretty well accepted convention but then again there can be exceptions, of course.

• Have a memorable (identifiable) hook (usually the title).

• Be sure that your lyrics are contemporary (not old fashioned).

Getting Started / Restarted (writers block):

Sometimes, the hardest thing to do is to generate that initial idea. Like many other songwriters, I keep a list of "titles" available. I just keep adding to this list as the ideas come (more of a uncensored brainstorming kind of thing). Then, when the time is right I review this list and usually come up with at least something to start with.

My favorite book related to using different methods to generate song ideas as well as some other good songwriting concepts is The Songwriter's Idea Book by Sheila Davis

Some other books that I have found to be helpful (primarily related to lyrics) are:

The Craft of Lyric Writing by Sheila Davis - This one has all the necessary basics required for lyric writing and beyond. There are also some nice, easy to read and understand structure charts along with many familiar, popular song examples.

The Complete Rhyming Dictionary - by Clement Wood - A good songwriting dictionary really does come in handy...

One trick that I have come across when I have a great start on a song (a good theme, great opening line. a fantastic chorus...) and run into that "second verse brain lock" is to rearrange the structure a little. Either make the first verse the second and go back in time to create a new first verse, or even start out with the chorus and work into the next verse.

I have also had some success with creating a new "thread" or second story line within the song when I'm stuck on a partially written song. This can work out if you can tie it all together, but you need to stay focused on your main theme to really make this work.

Songwriting, Music:

Remember, the music includes: The melody, the rhythm (groove), the harmonies, the background chords, the melodic rhythm, the musical hook, and maybe a few more elements that I've missed. But it is not just the melody (although this is one of the most important ingredients).

• Keep the melody interesting (a balance of variety and repetition, range, intervals and scales/modes as needed and melodic rhythm).

• Keep the rhythm interesting. (I don't even know how to explain this in words (briefly).

• The background harmony is totally up to what fits the song and melody. Standard major and/or minor chords, 7'ths, inversions, fifths alone, octaves alone.

• Prosody - Have music that fits the lyrics. You know sad lyrics - sad (slow, minor maybe) music, happy lyrics - happy (fast or upbeat) music...

Writing Music for Hit Songs: Including... by Jai Josefs - Is one of the few books that I have found to address the music side of song writing in a comprehensive format. It also has a real nice approach to music theory concepts applied specifically to to song writing.

See Song Writing Books for a more complete listing of a lot of the better songwriting books (with photos). You can really pick up a lot of songwriting tips and useful information a lot faster by learning from song writing books from the professionals (and other songwriters) than by so much of your own trial and error.

Here is a nice collection of Music, Electronics & Audio Magazines from Amazon.