I feel like such a noob posting this...

[mutant!]

...but how do you write lyrics? Seriously, how the fcuk do you get started? I know I'm a good writer (in general), so I should be able to do lyrics as well. I just have no idea where to start, and I don't often have great ideas for songs - maybe that's because I try to force the subject to fit the music and not the other way 'round. Help me?

[slickathenyou]

Go and listen to the music you want your lyrics to sound like and try to write songs imitating that meldoy. You can always change it later, and it will help you develop different styles. Try keeping a notebook next to your bed and make sure to listen to music at night. I get my best ideas while trying to sleep, because my head swims and I have to get out of bed when something sounds good. Also check the lessons, they might have something. This counts for a crit? :) Good luck

[hedgefudge420]

just think of stuff totally insane........IDK....get really pissed, be really happy....idk....uh.....I started just by writing how I thought i was supposed to.....i look at that stuff now and it sucks...but just write and write and write........usually some lyrics will just come to you while you are standing around...you`ll make a mental note to remember it...but forget...so...i`d carry around some notepad or little recorder......heh...or hire somebody

[Vood]

start by rewriting nursery rhymes and lymericks hahah :D
or even well known catchy songs you like

that way you have a rhyme scheme and rhythm/melody set up and you can just drop in your own ideas ...

you can even write new verses for existing songs

i had this simple idea for Cool Blue Reason:

here's one of the original verses:

cool blue reason
comes into your world
there's two more dead in texas
and it's probably your girls

(or something)

and here's mine:

cool blue reason
empty's on the shelf
there's one more dead inside me
and it's probably myself :D

cake does a great version of that song


and then if it's good subject matter you can either put it to a different tune or rewrite it with an original structure


also you can start with a single line. i've been writing music since i was 8 (well only started lyrics around 14) and i still do that. for example with my my new song (found here (http://www.davidjmurphy.net/downloads/DavidJMurphy-AmongStones.mp3) ) .. i did that too ... I was in a graveyard and it came to me ... hmm... "standing where i'd be buried if I died today" .. and the song came out of that

good luck! :thumb:

[mutant!]

I've got no problem with melodies, accompaniment, rhyme schemes or structure. It's the actual words inside them that I struggle to get going with. But thanks for the advice guys.

[Vood]

think of somethig you feel strongly about (or think would make good song subject matter) and think of words to associate with it ... hate? love? branch into more specific ideas ... water? space? death? big cities? birds? picking up chicks at a bar?

write down some basic ideas you want to work with, and maybe little descriptions about your central idea. maybe something like "a girl i've been in love with who's too ****ing scared to show her feelings for me" ... or "take this country and shove it!" or "why did my father have to die before i could say goodbye?" etc ... whatever your idea is

then start coming up with ways to string those words together into lines of poetry.

MAKE YOUR POINT in the lyrics. some of the best lyrics i've read are by people who make a habit of illustrating ONE point as thoroughly and colorfully as possible, at least once. maybe do it once with each verse, so the chorus has new meaning each time it repeats ... or gradually over the verses, so that the chorus becomes more significant with each repetition ... or do a linear progression so that the final stanza is like BANG!!! and people are like OH! SNAP! :amaze:

sometimes i do melody first, then write the actual lines to that, sometimes vice versa ... sometimes both at the same time over a guitar riff, etc...

the choices are endless. hopefully that'll give you a good "anti-writers-block" starting point :thumb:

good luck man!
-david

[EDIT] and yea ^^ HedgeFudge's idea is right on. carry around a tiny notebook (or something else you can make notes with-- i type them out on my cellphone and email them to my computer :cool: ) EVERYWHERE you go. literally. everywhere. my cellphone is CONSTANTLY clipped to my belt, so even if i'm on the can and i think of something i can write it down :)

[mutant!]

Shot a billion man. Makes me feel like writing. :thumb:

[Vood]

awesome!!!! :D

[RNR]

You know, if it doesn't come naturally, don't force it. Screw copying other people's songs and re-writing nursery rhymes. Come up with a topic that you would like to write about and use words to illustrate it. Put your own take on it, tell a story, make it your own. If you can't do that, you can't be a writer. You think Shakespeare sat around trying to be inspired by others? Of course not, they all sucked and he knew it.

[Vood]

i agree.

but on the other hand, "Good artists borrow, Great artists steal." -Picasso

:lol:

but yeah. whatever works for you. just don't plagiarize :)

[RNR]

but on the other hand, "Good artists borrow, Great artists steal." -Picasso




:lol:. That's funny because it's the truth.

[metaliq]

I just write about stuff and then it turns into a song thing.

[mutant!]

^ Yeah, I'm glad it comes that naturally for you.

Meh, I've been writing riffs and stuff for ages, but only got a band (and a reason to write) together now. I'm fronting it, so now I feel is a good time to start writing lyrics, but I have no experience so it's still a sticky process.

Picasso was right though, some chord progression in JS Bach - Bourret = Beatles - Blackbird. I mean, I hate the Beatles and yet that song still kicks.

[RNR]

Then logic implies that you should like the Beatles. That's a damn good song, afterall.

[BladePaladin]

easiest way to write lyrics is to write 'em down when they come to you, don't try and force yourself to write 'em, normally they end up sucking when you try that. but yeah, write 'em down or make a mental note when you get an idea, then set 'em aside for later revising and additions, it's how i do it and i've heard many professional song writers use the same type of method.

[Guitar Slayer]

just write about how u feel,or sumtin that happened to you in life i just finished my 2nd song so yah just when ur doing it just try not to make it sound emo if u cant do that just write about how america sux now

[RNR]

just write about how u feel,or sumtin that happened to you in life i just finished my 2nd song so yah just when ur doing it just try not to make it sound emo if u cant do that just write about how america sux now

It's not emo unless it involves whining about trivial, teenage things. You wouldn't call blues emo but it's how black people FELT when they were enslaved and oppressed. (and then afterwards, still oppressed).

[termination.mirage]

Here's my best advice: Let it come to you. Get a few song down on guitar, and let the 'inspirado' come to you. Inspirado, the main ingrediants for a song, comes from a stillness of quietude in the heart. You can just 'manufacture' inspirado, it must come.

[A_Perfect_Sonnet]

It's not emo unless it involves whining about trivial, teenage things.

Ignorant.

[hedgefudge420]

how come if a teenager rights about his/her problems it becomes emo.....emo is more a style of MUSIC than it is....words and such......I have been called emo so many times just because I sang one thing about how much stuff sucked...it`s retarded.......

[mutant!]

just write about how u feel,or sumtin that happened to you in life i just finished my 2nd song so yah just when ur doing it just try not to make it sound emo if u cant do that just write about how america sux now
I am not American. I live in South Africa. That would imply I would have to write about taxi violence and affirmative action. Meh.

[Vood]

:lol:

man the mods were right, any mention of emo DOES turn into a fight

[mutant!]

Haha, yeah, shame. Poor Rites Of Spring. They really had something going there...

Anyway, so: I wrote this in my devART journal the other day, just trying to pen my feelings, and I thought it would make a cool song. People I've spoken to (mostly musicians themselves) all seem to think I should leave it as is and not try to edit it to fit a rhyme scheme or whatever. Czech it out:

Day by day, I'm living a life of repetition, ordered routines governed not by myself. Day by day, small intrusions appear in my way like thorns on the ground, grinning at me, waiting to shred my trudging feet to shreds. I impale my foot on a splinter, and when I bend over to pick it out, I look to my right in time to see the logo on the front of the red truck before it flattens me.

I wake up hours, days, weeks later in a hospital I didn't know existed; the nurses are friendly but firm. I try to get up but they push me back down again, knowing that my feet won't carry me before they heal.

Luckily for my feet, when I get back on that dusty road, I realise how much sturdier, hardier they have become - and when I see that thorn again I'm gonna grin at him and crush him under my sole.

***

My band plays kinda funky stuff and I can see this getting a Jamiroquai-style accompaniment.

[MidnightHysteria]

That's not terrible. Insert some clever line breaks and the real work can begin.

[Kirain]

Go and listen to the music you want your lyrics to sound like and try to write songs imitating that meldoy. You can always change it later, and it will help you develop different styles. Try keeping a notebook next to your bed and make sure to listen to music at night. I get my best ideas while trying to sleep, because my head swims and I have to get out of bed when something sounds good. Also check the lessons, they might have something. This counts for a crit? :) Good luck
I never wanted to admit it, but that's how I write my songs. Hehe.

[mutant!]

That's not terrible. Insert some clever line breaks and the real work can begin.
Yeah, I know, I'm not going to sing each paragraph as a line, but that's where it's gonna stay for now, until I can jam it out some with my bassist and guitarist.

[deathscreamingsheep]

There's two schools of thought for line breaks. The first is that line breaks should be where you naturally break in which case look at jamming the words and you'll find the natural flow. Also there's the poetic style that is talked about in the stickied thread which involves breaking where it is poetically useful.

I suggest you at least try to fit in some breaks anyway even before you jam by the way, it just makes it easier for us to read. You can always edit them.

At first glance the content seems good though, I'll give it a proper look later.

[metaliq]

Well, I wasnt trying to sound conceited or unhelpful when I wrote that reply...

Simply put, one of the best things I have ever learned would be how to free write. They started teaching it to you in middle school/high school and it is an amazing concept and skill to completely grasp.

It goes along with psychology... psychopsychology I think. Just free write. I type because I am a faster typer...

And once you master that, you can eventually morph your writing to have a poetical feeling which will encompass your literary work and make sense.

Thus, a song.