When writing songs, melody and the music bed usually come first. Most songs, however have a message to convey--something to say. That is where lyrics come in. These are words that you put in the song to make it stand out above the other songs on the market. These words help you write hooks and catch phrases to keep the listeners listening. The goal of this article is to teach you how to come up with those phrases that are oh so infectious to listeners. So, here we go.
The first step to writing good lyrics is to think of a subject that highly interests you. Pick a subject that you can derive a lot of hooks from. What are hooks? They are simply repetitions of catchy phrases. Take for example the samples below:
Dreaming of you,
Sipping that ocean view,
In my cup.
Thinking of you,
Seeing you
In the sun.
There ain't no good lesson
You can't teach,
It's like a true confession,
I need to breech,
Whoa! ho! Ho!
What's that you're doing,
You know what you're doing,
Girl, you drive me wild.
You love like a red rose gun [HOOK]
Shooting my heart with your puns,
Praying at church,
For you love like a red rose gun.
This is just a tiny example of how you can take a subject (in this case, "red rose gun") and turn it into a hook. The hook can, as it is in this case, act as the subject of an entire chorus:
You love like a red rose gun [HOOK]
Shooting my heart with your puns,
There is another type of hook that is used more commonly in pop music today. It is just a simple, provocative bunch of words that get people's attention. The artist uses that knowledge to bang the listener over the head by repeating that one phrase over and over. Another example is below:
Shooting blanks,
Shooting blanks,
No giving thanks,
Shooting blanks.
Notice how often the phrase "shooting blanks" is mentioned within the chorus. It is meant to be there to keep the listeners listening--to keep them dancing. As you keep practicing writing lyrics, over time, you will be able to create better hooks that would make instant hits on the radio.
Next, let's go over how to distinguish between genuine lyrics and pure poetry. Yes, they are two different things. I used to think that any poetic writing could be twisted and turned into lyrics but the book The Art of Writing Lyrics proved me wrong. It is best to avoid having language that is very flowery or have a distorted cadence. It is best to have short, sweet, sloganeering phrases. You want to have phrases with shorter words and a simple cadence that will give itself to rhymes almost automatically. For example, take the following lyrics into consideration:
I need a lover,
Not no money grubber,
I need a lover,
To sooth my mind,
She's gotta have her own car,
To drive me wild,
Let your hair down,
Kiss my smile.
Poetry would read something different. Take something like this for example:
The Elegy of the Broken Rose
By: Cody Weinmannn
This, yes, you may call it a song
The mere spirit of thee
Though thou isith no more
Than a sad elegy
The strength for music
Envelops the strength for prose
For this is the story
Of the broken rose
It once had shown so beautiful
And thou prayeth thee to keep me alive
And it did keeping honest truth
And abolishing lies
That could clutter,
Clutter the limitless, blue skies
The rose, the hypnotic goddess of love
Hath thou lavished thee
With a dear prayer from up above
To block away enshrined secrecy
One day, a gray sky
Showers down upon my precious rose and I
Rain as it were swept the rose away
And soon did my days decay
Under the black- and- white- trimmed skies of gray
Not even could Heaven seem aplay
And so the story goes on
Down by the bay,
That the heart of big hopes
Began to crack and spray,
All in a sea of red
Of deepest masquerade
Did he drown and fade,
His memories no longer were
All that was left was the shattered splotches of rose
Yes, it had come back, though shattered,
Amidst the sea of red masquerade
And next to it lay the bones, weary,
The heart cracked and eerie.
So eerie and exploded in the ruckus of emotion ,
And ruptured bits of its premises,
Are ever constituent to all of the love he had,
For sheer, true, obsessive memories.
© 2006, Cody Weinmann
Disqualification: Poetry vs. Lyrics
As you look at this piece of work, there are elements that immediately disqualify the work as a lyric or set of lyrics. One of those elements is the cadence or rhythm. If you read the poem, the cadence isn't that singable. It's not a uniform cadence all around. The cadence of a lyric is formed by things called syllables. In this piece, one line may have 5 syllables while another one will have 11. It is very oblong. Song lyrics have equal numbers of syllables per line or a typical pattern that is present throughout.
Another disqualifying thing about this piece is there is not an apparent title on this poem. There is a mention of the title of the poem one time throughout the whole poem. Songs and song lyrics mention the title multiple times, preferably at the end of choruses and in between the bridges of the songs. This piece doesn't emulate that.
Another disqualifying element is the fact there is no established verse-chorus format. It reads like a rambling, free-verse poem. There are no breaks for choruses or verses. There is no uniformity the length of each chunk of poetry going on. Some of them have 5 lines; others have ten or more. It is free verse in its classic form.
The text is also not conversational and quick. Song lyrics require a conversational flow in order for the average listener to stay in tune with the performer. An example of a conversational lyric is this:
Your love is like a rose,
That fills with sweet perfume,
As it grows,
I thought you'd really like to know.
The multiple rhymes alone would give away that this is a lyric, but just read it. Hear how it bounces from line to line. Take a few glances at the cadence. For example, the first line is six syllables. The second line is seven syllables. The third line is only 3 syllables. The final line is eight syllables. Essentially, you have a 6-10-8 or 6-8-10 syllable configuration that makes for a bouncy cadence and gives you a great range of rhythmic possibilities. This is an essential figure of music lyrics. You have to make sure the lyric lines you write influence a rhythm almost right off the bat. Another good format is a 3-6-9 verse pattern. There are many differences between poems and lyrics. If you'd like to read up more on this, read the book "The Art of Writing Lyrics" by Pamela Phillips Oland. It provides writers a distinct formula for writing lyrics so that you could make hits over time.
Process of Writing Lyrics
The process of writing lyrics starts with a music bed. Once you have the basic music bed written, pick a topic that you think is relevant for people today. Love songs usually work for this. Suggestions for topics include:
Love,
Being lost with no opportunity,
money,
God,
Personal stories… The list goes on.
If you are in need of song subjects, you can reference the book 1000 Songwriting Ideas by Lisa Aschmann. There are tons of ideas in this book along with how to execute those ideas.
Once you come up with your idea or subject, form parts of a melody that could give way to sounds. An easy way to do this is go to an instrument (i.e. piano) and play a few notes that are also in the chords in your recorded music bed. Start humming those pitches after playing them a few times. Then experiment with vowels (A,E,I, O U). Sing each syllable on each note to tell which vowels would be a strain for you at certain pitches and which ones are perfect for you. Establish a set of vowels to repeat over and over. Soon, those vowels will turn into words. Take the first words that come to mind and form them into a line. Sing the line over and over until you feel that the lyrics you've written fit your music. After this first line, do subsequent lines that are somewhat related to your song subject and the details of the first line. For example:
Days are bright
The sky tonight,
Feels so right,
uh huh, it feels so right,
Can't get enough,
Just get enough of you babe.
© 2013. Cody Weinmann.
This is obviously a song about the last days of life and dying, but the rhyme scheme is right. It doesn't have the 3-6-9 or 6-8-10 verse form but the rhyme scheme can make up for that. After the first initial lines, the rest pretty much speaks for itself. Writing a chorus is a similar process but the differences can be making a hook that repeats often throughout the chorus, the mentioning of the title toward the end of the chorus. The reason that there isn't a set format for this is because each song has a different construction depending on the ideas the composer comes up with.
In another article, I can show you how to construct a chorus and what the different types of choruses are. This article is just the beginning portion of how to write a song. It is meant to get you started writing lyrics in no time.
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