Song Writing Tips

[TNElite16]

Anyone wanna tell me what and how they come up with their lyrics? any help would be appreciated. thanks

[the_cure]

this might not work for you, but i hit myself in the head with a can of soup until i think of something.

[felch182]

this might not work for you, but i hit myself in the head with a can of soup until i think of something.
:lol: :lol: :lol:

[mpdrummer16]

I know for me that I cannot sit down and just decide that I want to write something, because if I do it usually ends up being fake and meaningless and usually crappy. If I were you i'd carry a small notebook type thing and just write down things that you think of in school/work/chilling or whatever your doing, and then just compile them, and then when something happens to you that compels you to write you have a small foundation to work from, and thats how I normally do it-- good luck with your writing

[bisnotch]

Personally, I have a different approach. I masturbate with a spoon to naked pictures of Kathy Bates. Then whatever I think of after that I usually write about. It might not work for you but give it a "whack".

[kevbud187]

Personally, I have a different approach. I masturbate with a spoon to naked pictures of Kathy Bates. Then whatever I think of after that I usually write about. It might not work for you but give it a "whack".Spoon.....i hope u r a girl if not how would u attempt that :lol:

[knockwurst_myband]

usually when ur in an emotional state you can feed off of something, thus helping you write lyrics. in my experience you have to "feed" off of something when you write lyrics or else like MP said they will turn out stupid crap thats completely meaning less and has no feeling at all.

[bard2dbone]

Something else to consider. I once ended up sitting between two ridiculously talented and prolific songwriters, Sara Hickman and Bill Nash. They were discussing songwriting techniques, so I was trying to absorb everything I heard. Mostly they do the same things all of us do. They are just better at it. But one thing they both talked about liking was something Sara called 'found lyrics.'

They both said that regular people speak in lyrics all the time if you just pay attention. They both thought that some of their best inspirations came from overhearing someone else's conversations.

I thought that that was a crock, until that weekend. My wife and I were having dinner in a restaurant, when the couple at the next table got into a huge argument and broke up, right next to us. (Cool! Dinner...and theater!)

The woman threw the remains of her dinner at the guys chest and announced loudly "You've been waiting to say goodbye since the first time you said hello."

Now how could ya NOT use a line like that?




So, the short answer? Listen.

[Electric Riley]

So, I just wrote a poem.

Baby, you leave me
Broken, but not surprised
You've been waiting
Waiting to say goodbye
Since the first time
The first time you said hello.

Who-ah!



By me. I'm kidding, settle down. It IS pretty good though, don't you think?

[RunAmokRampant]

I just go for a walk. Or sometimes I think up lines when I'm trying to get to sleep. There are many ways but when I walk home from school, that's where I create my best work for some weird reason. Or you could get high or practice meditation? Some musicians/lyricists do that too

[Nightvision]

Tips and questions thread... :wave:

[soundcheck101]

Like wut everybody else is sayin u gotta go off of experiences usually to get a good sounding song that people will get hooked on and like, people might not always like it, but if there in the same mood that u were in when u wrote it and there really listening not just listening but payin attention to everyword and every beat in the song then they'll usually end up feeling u , in a sense, lol i mean they'll feel wut u were feeling when u wrote it and chances are they'll be able to relate and so they'll be hooked, it doesn't always work to write about yer experiences, u might end up having a totally unique experience and that's when u end up expressing it through different words that people might be able to understand or they could completely get the feeling wrong but if it was written well then they'll still like it because even if they don't think that they can relate, sumthin still triggers in there mind and makes them think about there experiences.. i dunno sortta new to writing to but that's wut i understand from my experiences so far.. hope i helped a little

[the_cure]

:lol: :lol: :lol:
I was serious.

[BassManXtreme]

A good tip, I think it was on this forum, is that once you have a line down, DON'T LET YOUR PEN/PENCIL/WHATEVER STOP MOVING! If you can't keep writing lines, just draw an endless circle or something until you have your next line. Once the creative surge of energy is gone, its so hard to get it back, so this helps you hang on to it longer.

Then, when you have a whole song, leave, don't even think about the song for awhile. A couple hours,even, but probably a day is best. Then sit down, look it over, and fix up any problems.

EDIT: Also, after its written, don't look at the song like its yours. Don't ever think 'well, its good for me' or 'good for a first try' and stop there. Also, with songs, taking a break and quitting are much different. I've left behind songs like, a year ago, and then suddenly picked them up, got inspired, dissected and messed with them, and came out with something great.

[mindofpoison]

just get stoned and start humming any random tune. pick up a guitar and try playing the same tune, work out the notes, then play the corresponding chords.
then obtain a melody from that and start singing some bollox lyrics over the top.

works for me tho usually sounds better when im stoned and i tend to forget some of the best parts about 5minutes later.
my lyrcial imagination increases in direct proportion with my stonedness....unfortunately my guitar playing abilities decrease.

[mikethecoug]

usually when ur in an emotional state you can feed off of something, thus helping you write lyrics. in my experience you have to "feed" off of something when you write lyrics or else like MP said they will turn out stupid crap thats completely meaning less and has no feeling at all.

i write lyrics when something really happens to me, and i only write them when
i really am emotional, that's why most of mine are about my ex gf.. meh, but some of mine are about her but, like in metaphors so its different, whatever floats your boat guys.

[Nightvision]

anyone who tells you that you have to experience something to write about it is talking from a part of their body not usually exposed to daylight. (Although for some of the idiots that have been around here, that could be all of their bodies...)

I have only ever written two songs that were emotionally influenced. One of which I haven't posted and will never post, and the other is my most recent one, 1200cc Romance. (plugged++) That means that (excluding those two) every song I've posted on here (approximately 15-20) has been based on an entirely fictitious situation, as far as I'm concerned.

Whether those songs are any good is down to you - you're more than welcome to look through them and make your own opinions (in fact, I encourage it... :p) but I can certainly say that you don't need to experience something to write about it.

[Corupt2057]

'found lyrics.'

They both said that regular people speak in lyrics all the time if you just pay attention. They both thought that some of their best inspirations came from overhearing someone else's conversations.


I noticed this by myself about 2 months ago

[TNElite16]

thanks for the ideas guys, i'll try as much as them as i can. and if anyone writes punk/rock lyrics that doesn't mind sharing their ideas would be of help too. thanks again!!

[hotcod32]

People do talk in lyrics all the time, and you'll find the more you write lyrics the more you'll find lines in things other people have said or writen... what i find most freeky is when you find your self doing it :) i've come up with some fantastic line when i've just been writeing e-mails in fact i've writen pargraths half of which just by spliting up in to lines i used as half a vers...

Also trust the one lines you come up with, i some times find that something i've seen or said or felt has the right thing to become a line and you work on it and build some other lines around it and then you write it down, rewrite it untill its become something very diffrent and you can't even rember what the first line was and then either write a radom song off it, or more likely becuse the way you've rewrite will (or at lest should have) been done in a context of feeling of somthing your going throw and it can be the start of the song

I find often that its just those few lines and ones you have that base to work off the rest of it can just flow out with out you thinking about it, as long as you have a good soild base

oh ya and i just want to mirrow what some one up there said, when you do find your self flowing with a song do NOT stop... i type my self since i'm dyslixic and handwriteings not all that good for me and pluse i can touch type a hell of a lot faster than i can write and some times than i can think... i find its often very hard to add somthing big and extra to a song when you come back to it (rewriteing diffrent) and it often will end up feeling disjointed and even if you think say one of your vers aint that good write it anway and you can alway come back and work at somthing that was layed down with in the feeling of the pice

Also just don't think, most of my ryhmeing isn't do throw thought which i think is lucky becuse i HATE geting boged down, in fact i've often found my self rereading what i've writen and realised i've come up to the answer to the problem that made me write the osng in the first place with out realiseing it :D

Oh and one last thing... and this gose for anything creative ever, drawing writeing painting music anything... if your in a slump don't sleep for 3 or 4 days and fill your self full of caffine the first few days are a git but you get a strange rush after and i'm telling you its better for being creative than any drug ever becuse the normale way you think and say the world is starting to brake down and your on the verge of starting to hulsnaite and see things your just able to put a spin on or come up with ideas that you would never have thought of befor... its a very cool change of perspective some times, totly leagle and like i said a hell of a lot better than drugs... not that i've ever done many drugs but even my freinds who have agree that not sleeping can be better :D