How do you put your thoughts into lyrics?

I straddle both the technical world and the chopped tree and ink one. I always have a dictaphone 1685991430676.pngto hand because when I get musical ideas, I need to get them down straight away, so I hum them into the tried and trusted. I'd not remember 98% of them otherwise.
And while I might speak some words into it if I happen to be in the bath and have nothing to write on, my usual way is to write it down. Not for any great reason other than that is the way I've always done it. I find it easier to put lyrics together if I'm writing them down rather than just dictating them.
 
LouThang said:
Thank you, for the advice. So I wrote a bunch of lyrics out in just random order and I've been trying to figure out what order they should go in. So, I guess I might need to start thinking about the melody and music in order to find my rhythm with my lyrics.
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So were you saying something with those lyrics, or are they totally meaningless? Go ahead and post them here and we'll tinker with them. We're not going to make fun because we've all gone through this.
 
I always use pen and paper to write lyrics whenever I'm inspired (hearing the music in my mind).
I'll write the first verse and in the middle of writing a second verse.....I often find myself editing the first verse, crossing out words, replacing words, or totally rewriting the first verse, and then the second verse.

A day or two later, I'll read what I had written, my #1 rule being that if I can't remember the music I heard in my mind, I tear the paper in half.
 
60's guy said:
I always use pen and paper to write lyrics whenever I'm inspired (hearing the music in my mind).
I'll write the first verse and in the middle of writing a second verse.....I often find myself editing the first verse, crossing out words, replacing words, or totally rewriting the first verse, and then the second verse.

A day or two later, I'll read what I had written, my #1 rule being that if I can't remember the music I heard in my mind, I tear the paper in half.
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I always save the paper and revisit it many times, or sometimes it might be a year until I look at it again. I've got a stack of those papers been sitting there on my desk forever looking back at me. One is a song 99.9% finished and I've got the music in my head where I can sing to them, but just can't get it right. It's got to be just right. Driving me nuts.
 
LouThang said:
I am having a hard time writing lyrics. I have a crap tone of ideas and i do not know how to put them in song form. Any advice?
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Yeah.
Have a listen to this song and check out two things, the lyric and more importantly than the lyric, the way that lyric is put over by Gladys. The actual lyric is quite affectionate, but it's not a great lyric.
What transforms it into a "great" lyric is the way it is put across. In a sense, the key to a great lyric is a convincing vocal. Not always, but much of the time.
If you can speak and you can write, then you can put out lyrics. If the music you surround and support them with is good, the lyric will shine, even if you're only writing about potatoes.
 
LouThang said:
I've tried recording myself recently and the sound of my voice over the music was so...smh yea, I have to just keep at it.
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John of the Beatles didn't like his singing voice. Jimi the Hendrix didn't like his singing voice. I wouldn't worry about it if other people like your voice.
The time to start worrying is when no one does ! 🤯
 
spantini said:
Tom's Diner by Suzanne Vega, and the lyrics just describe what's going on as she's sitting in a diner looking around. Nothing special or fancy rhyming, just describing the scene
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I don't think there's any rhyming on it. I think it's a great song, a brilliant way to kick off an LP. On the "Solitude Standing" album though, there's an instrumental version, which, to me, is even better. I love it to bits. It's calm dynamite.
 
Lyrics are like women and paintings, the closer you get the worse they look. Nine times out of ten I write some music I like, then see what
emotions, reactions, it brings me, then try to write lyrics that fit the mood of the music, not the time or tempo. I write in minor keys a lot, so, much of it could be construed as dark. Almost every song here had the chord progression written first, lyrics written after, then the music fleshed out later.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMgevEkujQUerxvNqYNJ8PQ
 
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LouThang said:
I am having a hard time writing lyrics. I have a crap tone of ideas and i do not know how to put them in song form. Any advice?
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I do not write anymore but sometimes, when I did, I would write about a beginning, middle and end or just some bullet points of what I wanted to say. Not in rhyme, just make notes of the pivotal ideas I definitely wanted to include. Then I would begin writing. Sometimes I would play the track in the background. Other times in silence.

Once I had something down, I would play the tracks and tighten things up. Then gradually memorise.
 
Hi, I think that the best way is actually not to think so much. For me i mostly try to get into the groove of the song chanting what ever. mostly it's like made up language. But it serves to pin down the flow of the song. Then you start to hear sounds in the armonics, then those sounds start to make words and thos words you hear will connect to all that stuff you have in your head. You have to let it fall where falls. At the end of the prccess you might need to fill in some gaps or apply some composition arragements to make a song out of it.
I don't beleave you can say, today i'm going to make this lyric for this song. That will probably en in a catarsis rather than a song.
 
unaufadox said:
I do not write anymore but sometimes, when I did,...
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Well dang, that's about the saddest tune I've heard as of late.

A little piece of advice that can be helpful to some, a tool,....write in third person. It can at times be easier or liberating to tell your story as though an experience of another. A fictional character. Rather than "I", say he, or possibly you. A less vulnerable approach can open doors to writing about a subject matter you are perhaps more familiar than anyone else on this entire planet. You. There's nothing new under the sun, people are subject to the human condition, be it the good, or the bad. Commonality. Speak to that human condition, it just might speak to someone, their story. In the process you might learn something about yourself. Or more to the point, you will have written some lyrics. You can be self congratulatory without coming off as pompous, or really give yourself whether deserved or not a proper walloping...we've all had it coming at one time or another.

On the other hand, or perhaps somewhat similar, take someone else's experience as your own, first person. How it must have felt in their shoes.

Have mixed feelings about something?....(who hasn't)....A bit schizo, I reckon, play that mixed feeling as two characters in a song. That can be an interesting one. The damned if you do vs the damned if you don't approach.

Embellish. Lie. Borrow. Steal. Just as long as you have something to say. Or say nothing, throw shit at the wall. With any luck and you garner attention, somebody else might be totally convinced they've figured it out, and it's brilliant!
 
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