writing lyrics

the best way for me to get inspired to write lyrics is to actually listen to them . now i know you do all the time, but try focusing specifically on the lyrics of a song instead of the melody or the drums, if you know what i mean. it works best for me to listen to rap cds, since duh lyrics are the most important thing there. it always happens to me that when i go to a music store, listen to a couple cds ... on the way out 9 times outta 10 im freestyling. :)

plus i guess this has been said before...the most important thing is inspiration. and this prolly wont hit you when youre locked in your room, trying to write lyrics all night :) go somewhere, do lots of different stuff, talk to lots of different people...

oh yeah that reminds me : one thing that helps me when i cant figure out how to write lyrics for a certain song :

write it from a different perspective ! be an actor.

this morning i wrote a song about a totally desperate girl who would do anything for a guy if he'll only stay with her.

now ... i'm a guy (not THAT guy :))...but i wrote it all outta the girls perspective! ...sometimes this approach takes some courage like all actin ... but its fun...

oh yeah this also works if youre working on a speed metal epic ... if you normally portray the good guys, try writing about the evil dragons motives...know what i mean :)

okay gotta go

ike

Dewd get yourself one of those mini notebook, and just write down cool ideas as they come to you. Remember you don't have to write the complete song in one sitting. When anyone tries, a few good lines come out then it turns to crap. Once bad lines start pooping out: STOP, continue when you get another good idea. You also don't have to write one song at a time, categorize different ideas into different songs. As you complete them you'll notice you have 10 different songs in the time it took you (busting your butt) writting one. If your going to put it too music remember all you need is one good chorus, and one good verse. The rest you can work in as your working and finishing the music. This is a good idea cause alot of the time while your writting the music, lyrical ideas pop up. Don't fustrate yourself, work leisurely and have fun. If not you'll just learn to hate it. And oh yeah, write with feeling, man. :D

yeah writing a chorus and one verse first sounds like a good idea !

another thing which took me a while to figure out:

dont write too complicated lines ...
sometimes i wanna write verses that say everything perfectly ... only to find out that the lines get way to long to sing them...so when recording them i find myself truncating them all the time...sometimes leaving only half the words in there :) when listening to the song after a while i hardly even notice, because even those shorter lines usually carry the meaning well...

now im not saying "write generic ish" im just saying that sometimes simpler really is better...and especially when youre doing "real" singing as opposed to rap-style...i guess the melodies are sometimes more important than saying everything in just one line !

after i started writing seriously it happened a lot that i listened to old records which had really awesome lyrics to find out that they usually said a lot less than i remembered ! leave the listener something to add to your words...they prolly wanna fantasize a lil...i figure this is also true for writing music in general...sometimes its better to leave out a melody, since the listener will add it himself in his head while listening to the tune ... did that make sense ... i hope so

ike

I agree with alot you said there Slides. It's not bad though that you write long lines, if they don't become overly generic with adjectives and adverbs. A narrative song sometimes needs long lines to tell a story, when a more poetic one doesn't. The problem with having long lines and then trying to sing, and not have them work is the fact that verses are usually written in four lines. So when the verse (music) plays though 4 times, each line (lyrics) should be sung over each line as it repeats. Seems logically but there's nothing wrong with breaking each line in half so that you end up singing half the original line for each line of the verse. Then use the second half for the second verse. Problem solved. This even becomes a benefit because leaving lines (whether musical or lyrical) incomplete and then resolve them later creates suspense (interest), a powerful effect in music. I agree less should be said at times so that the listener can fill in some blanks, but it may be more important not to block yourself from what may seem natural for the song. After-all writers block is sometimes nothing more than blocking yourself from letting your own ideas out or trying to conform them.

Leaving the melody out. I'd watch here. The melody is the most memorable thing of a song. Sometimes it's not what you sing but how you sing it. Just think of any classic tune (from the Beatles to nirvana, Floyd to Zeppelin), the words may be simple but it's the melody that gives them a quality that makes them memorable. If it's not melodic it's monotonous/talking. In verses and bridges you can occasionally get away with not emphasising a melody, but during a chorus: a melody is hard (near impossible) not to use and make work.

oops thats not what i meant...

i wasnt talking bout not singin melodies ... thats certainly very important most of the time :)

i meant that sometimes its enough (in an instrumental part or lets say in the backing part of a verse or something) if you dont play a specific melody over a part, but just let the chord progression speak for itself.
a lot of times you can "hear" a melody over a chord progression even tho there is none, but you add it yourself in your head. (or sometimes there is still a "shadow" of the vocal melody in your head which you then think you can hear over the chord progression)

now i know this is a difficult concept to describe, but i think its true

ike

[Edited by supercoolslides on 01-08-2004 at 11:26 AM]

Yeah, that's true. I do that sometimes, "imagine a melody in my head when there is none". The reason I brought singing lyrics melodically is because the thread is about lyrics. I'm not saying the vocals have to assume the role of melody in a song either, it could be the harmony or the rhythm. Even though the lyrics can assume other roles, it doesn't have the memorable impact as if it was sung melodically. As a songwritter, a goal I believe is to write a song that is memorable. Your right in music, each element can stand alone. In developmental sections of a song, it's a common procedure to do so, introducing each element seperately/or gradually. A song could even exist without a melody, but for it to be memorable it better have a strong rhythm or harmonic characteristic to it. "We will Rock you" is a good example of one done with rhythm, although it hard not to say the lyric content doesn't also makes it pretty memorable itself.

i didnt bother to read whats already been said so i may be repeating

dont think about lyrics as lyrics if u see it as a final product ull rule out soo many possiblities of ways words can fall together...if u feel a tune start humming and blurt out the first words in ur head.

right stuff down bits and pieces so u become more comfortable with expressing urself u have to train urself to become a better medium for inspiration.

ive been trying to write for a long time..lyrics, but im always thinking of songs in a subconcious way and how they "should" be. u have this preconception of the way it should be verse/chorus/verse u dont wanan end up sounding boring...i mean well my personal taste is that i dont like verse/chorus/verse patterns.

But just write and dont be afraid of it turning out to be pathetic..i read som stuff i wrote at 16 man haha..but at the time it helped me write better things, i cant say i have perfected it and like hell i wish i could write the amazing somgs - but they are that cus theyre honest songs .

so relax and write. if that abstract help helped..

what i do some times is that i play the rythm or riff or whatever and i hum random things, but dont make them to complicated but keep trying one til u like it then fit a sentence into it. But still i always have a very hard time doin it, i havent written a song yet....