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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