In the previous part in the How To Write A Song-series we talked about turning inspiration into a song, letting your emotion guide you, being authentic and we got into song structures and what meaning each part has.
Types of Lyrics
We can categorize lyrics into four types: feeling, thinking, experiencing and contemplating lyrics.
- Feeling lyrics express emotions, moods and atmosphere.
- Thinking lyrics express ideas, insights, realizations, truth and falsity.
- Experiencing lyrics express a story, a sequence of events and may be time-dependent.
- Contemplating lyrics observe and describe, and philosophize.
Inspiration
In whatever phase we are in songwriting, but especially when writing lyrics, it is always key to being able to find inspiration. Here are some tips that may come in helpful. Just remember, as always, to keep a notebook and pen with you at all times.
- Do things that you love. This is a great way as you easily will find inspiration in things that move you. This is probably also where you’ll find the topics that you want to write about.
- Just write what comes to you, turn off your logic and critical thinking and just let it flow through. You'll be surprised at what comes at first, but in the middle of all those words there are some striking lines that you will want to keep. Lock away the perfectionist inside of you as well, there is nothing good coming from there at this stage. So don't be afraid or embarrassed of what comes, that's a definite showstopper. If you need you can go into a private room where no one will hear you. Point is, don't censor yourself, be open.
- Listen to people talking in a cafe, on the subway, at work, in the park, wherever you go. Hear what they have to say and try to understand their story. Even pick a random person and make up a story around him or her based on the clothes, expressions or what's being said.
- Listen to music, not just hear it, but listen to it. Hear the connection between the lyrics and what's being played. Is the music enhancing the lyrics? Listen to the lyrics specifically and try to really understand what the songwriter meant.
- Read books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, comics etc. Here you will find a variety of topics, stories, ways to write and already created material to get inspired by.
- Travel! I find that each time I travel my creativity starts to flow quicker. I don't know if it's about me coming outside my everyday life, the new experiences or just the change of scenery but this always gets me inspired to write. By travel I don’t just mean that you go on a trip to France. You can walk down a new path in the woods or bike where you haven’t been before. It can even be an internal journey where you’re dealing with emotions or spirituality.
- Write a diary. If you have a hard time getting the flow to start giving you ideas then it may be a good idea to start writing down what you experience in your everyday life. This can make things come easier to you as you're thinking in a contemplative way and trying to remember things for your diary. In this diary you can also write down your dreams, there is a gold mine in the dream world just waiting to be tapped into.
- Instead of trying to come up with a first verse or the chorus, try to create a punch line or a catchy title and build a story from there.
- Try co-writing with a good friend or total stranger. Two minds often has more than double the creative dynamic than if you were sitting by yourself. Throw ideas at each other, create a story where you each come up with sentence or just have a buddy to bounce your lyrics off of.
How to write great lyrics
When writing lyrics you're using a facet of different approaches; repetition, rhyming, painting pictures with words, story telling, intention, exposing inner feelings and thoughts, comedy, politics etc. There is not a rule to how you must write lyrics, it's free if you want it to be.
One great way to get ideas on how to rhyme for example is to read (or write) poetry. Say you've decided to have four lines in your first verse. You can then rhyme everyone of those lines with each other, you can rhyme the first two and then the second two, or you can rhyme every other line with two different syllables, or you can not rhyme any of them, or you can use some more interesting rhyme structures. Search the web and you'll find many examples of these.
Repeating parts of a phrase can be a powerful way to make things interesting or make a chorus easy to remember. You can also repeat a concept but with different words i.e. you can use the four elements earth, wind, water and fire and apply the same concept to them. Do the same with colors, objects, shapes, scents etc. In David Gray's song Babylon he uses weekdays as a repeating concept. First verse takes place on Friday, second verse on Saturday and the third verse is on Sunday. Another example is Sting's Shape Of My Heart where he uses the different suits of playing cards in each line;
"I know that the spades are the swords of a soldier
I know that the clubs are weapons of war
I know that diamonds mean money for this art
But that's not the shape of my heart"
If you're writing a story, are you narrating it? Is it a monologue? Is it in first or third person? How is the story told through the verses and choruses? There are many ways to tell a story. You could for example use the first two verses in past tense and the third in the now as a resolving verse. Are you displaying one or many points of view?
Intentions
This is a very important topic. It's very helpful to know what you want to do. Having intention will make it way more likely to get where you want than if you didn't. When you have intention around something it really directs you both consciously and subconsciously. Without it you're like a boat at sea with no real goal of direction, you don't know where you'll end up. So what kinds of intentions can you have? Well, here are a few questions you can use to determine them (you can come up with your own questions and answers):- Do you want people to understand you lyrics on first listen?
- Do you want people to listen for the 20th time and still find new meaning?
- Who is your audience and how do you reach them?
- Do you want it to have many meanings?
- Is it your own experience or is it fictional?
- Is it based in imagination or just everyday stuff?
- Is it serious or playful? Funny, outspoken, satirical, ironic, witty?
- Are you writing about us, the we, or me the I? Prophet?
- What kind of feelings do you want to convey through the song?
Align your feelings and thoughts with the song
This may sound strange but it kind of is linked to the intention topic. A great way to really get to the essence of the song (assuming you've decided/intended on how you want the song to end up) is to put your thoughts and feelings in that same place. What does this mean? If you want to write a song about love; think thoughts about love, think about how wonderful it feels, try to feel those feelings. With this you'll have an easier time finding other (and deeper) thoughts that have to do with love. By doing this you're getting to the essence and when people listen to your song they will connect to it if they are in love. Also, the more time you spend doing this the deeper you will get into those thoughts and feelings.
If you want to write a song about how it feels to cross the street; really get yourself into it, imagine yourself there at the edge of the sidewalk. How does it feel? Are you excited about this new experience, or are you dead tired of the same crossing? Are there many people around? Are they walking or running when they cross? Is it in a small town or in a city? What shoes are you wearing? How many lines does the crossing have on the road? Are the cars stopping for you? Are you cautious because of that police car waiting to drive? Is it hot or cold? Is there road work?
If you want to take this a step further then you do it in person and go down and experience it for yourself.
If you want to write a song about a really bad toe nail day then really get your thoughts and feelings into it. Use your imagination and really fantasize about it.
This is also a great way to empathize and write from the perspective of a made up character as well as any real person.
Summary
So what have we learned?
- The different types of lyrics
- The importance of inspiration and how to get it
- General tips and tricks
- The power of intention
- Aligning yourself with the song
Next part of the "How to write a song" series
While you wait for the next part in this series, be sure to check out previous posts on this blog and if you want to see and hear more, check out my facebook page, live videos on YouTube or the Vide Geiger website.
Stay tuned!
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