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Tips On Writing Lyrics
If I’m going to be 100% honest, lyric
writing isn’t something I’ve had to do very much as with all the bands
I’ve been in, this was the vocalist’s job. HOWEVER, I do know enough
about it to give you a few tips and pointers.
There are obviously many ways to get
inspiration for lyrics. Some people write poetry, some tell stories,
some just talk absolute nonsense, and they all have their places, and
their fans.
A few pointers:
- Do you have a specific audience? If you do, you need
to tailor it towards them. If your audience are teenagers, you’re going
to need different lyrical content than if you’re writing for the over
50’s.
- Is there a theme you’re trying to get across? If so,
obviously you need to stick to it.
- If you’re going for the story telling option, you
need to have a start, middle, and an end to the story.
- Do you want it to rhyme? If so, get your thesaurus
out.
- Is there a hidden message in your song? If so,
define it, and think about how you’re going to convey it to your
audience.
Some lyricists write their lyrics first,
and the music second.
Others prefer to write the music first so
that they have a feel for what they’re going to be putting into the
song.
There is no specific, set way of doing
this.
Other things to consider:
- Do you want the chorus’s to all be the same, or do
you want to change them to keep it more interesting?
- Is it going to be a serious song, or do you want
some humour in there?
- Does it sound too much like somebody else?
Another technique used by a lot of clever
lyricists, is to slightly change the words during the various sections
of the song, yet keep the meaning the same. A good example of this is
“Trouble” by Coldplay. If you listen throughout, he keeps the theme
going, yet changes the words. Very clever.
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