when you write Lyrics ?

L

lanac

New member
When you are writing lyrics for a song... Do they come naturally to you, or do you have to force them sometimes ??

Do you write a song to finish when you sit down, or does it take you a few times to get it right ???

While you are writing do you already have a melody in your head, or does that come later ??

Just something I wondered about from others ...


Lana www.mp3.com/thecrowleys
 
Can't force myself to write lyrics; if I do their shit. I usually write alone, I have to get the bulk of what I'm saying down in one go then I can add or praisy them later. I have no formula and wait for them to come. It usually works in cycles, I write for a few months quite intensly then don't write anything for another few months-spend more time on recording, playing guitar etc. I except that's the way it works; the first few times I had writers block in a big way I was really scared but then I worked out that it does in fact work in cycles for me.

Once I have written lyrics I don't usually alter them and make them something there not intended to be. Don't intend ever to write but always prepared with notepad or dictaphone.
 
yeah

that is pretty much how it is for me as well ..

usually they come to me at the oddest times ..like when I am driving ...

but out os fear I may lose them, I stop and write them down ...


for me .. I dont get a melody until I start writing them ...

and another kind of weird thing for me is after I have my lyrics and melody finished .. I can sit and hear the finished song .. like all instruments and everything ...

do you do that too ??

Lana
 
Its the same for me as it is for you...I have a hard time trying to force lyrics.I get mine in the car alot also.Lately its been lyrics before music...I'm in constant edit LOL.I think that alot of writers see/hear the finished song.I've got to get one of those dam "micro" recorders!!


Don
 
They usually come naturally to an extent.....I usually get 1/2 to 3/4 of the lyrics in about 10 minutes or less....then when I get stuck I put it away....Ill come back to it later, play the song a few times thru and see if something comes of it...if not I put it down again...like the others, my forced lyrics suck...Im sometimes completed lyrics a year after I started the darn song.....I usually get melodies as I write lyrics.....
 
I usually have a good chord structure (subjective) in mind before I write lyrics. I usually work on the lyrics at the same time as banging out the verses/bridges etc. Lyrics are tough for me, most of it ends up very meaningless. The odd time I'll hit something that is still meaningless, but, could mean something to someone else.

Suffice to say, I hate writing lyrics.

Krystof01, I gave up on those dictaphones.. . :) (j/k)
 

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most of my best songwriting happens when I give my mind free reign to just relax, and drift.........

Sometimes this is when I am playing my guitar, sometimes it's just as I am drifting off to sleep( which led to keeping a pencil, and pad close to the bed), sometimes when I am driving home late at night..... I think when I drive, it's the rythm of the road that gets my mind working..... But each of these times, I am allowing the feeling of the moment just happen, and try to find words to describe the feel of that moment....

Sometimes, it works really well, others it becomes a struggle, when this happens, I just stop for a second, and go in a different direction... that usually works....

A real good example of the spur of the moment song, is one that I wrote for my daughter, and is still how I feel about what children represent to their parents.....

Here are the words, which with very minor revisions came at almost the same rate as they are read......very fast.....so had to write them down right away......

the song is called 'Childs Eyes'

I long to see your face again,

it keeps comin back in my dreams...

I close my eyes, and there we are when,

I could carry you on my shoulders..

now that you've grown older,

I can see myself when I look into your eyes


There are many more verses, but you get the idea........ It is a feeling of parenthood that looks at the chance to grow up all over again thru a childs viewpoint, and what the world looks like from a childs perspective, the wonder of it all..... etc etc.. I just kinda got carried away with the idea......

Hope this sheds a little bit of lite on a different view...

Upstate
:)
 
Formula ??

So it looks like there is a formula afterall, so I'll probably stop writing now; I don't do formulas.


I don't really think there is a formula at all .... I think we all come to our creative flows in many different ways ...


for some of us lyrics are work, for others they just flow ...

What I do think is the awesome part about all of this, is the fac that we can write ...

creativity is a gift ... not everyone is given this gift ... I dont know about the rest of you, but, I am very thankful for my gift .. :)



and I agree with you upstate, I have to have a clear mind to really work on lyrics or melody, if I have things muddling around up there, I dont get anywhere . ..
So walking away and coming back is , I think, the best answer !!

Thanks again Yall !! Lana/ www.mp3.com/thecrowleys
 
What I meant by formula was with regard to the fact that we all seem to write in the same way/frame of mind to a degree it seems.

I'm only joking; I couldn't stop writing if I wanted; afterall I didn't descide to write in the first place.
 
There are many roads to the same fields of learning, and a form of expression such as music, and lyric writing are but a small part of the human experience.

Some of us, as with all things, are much more adept at it than others.

Personally, I think that some of the songwriting that I hear on the radio sucks....

Especially the rap songs that just cuss... I witnessed a live show of rap,/ hip-hop, I don't even remember who exactly now, but the 'artist' (ha) that was on the stage came out bouncin, to a fairly good rythm, and just used one word for the entire three to four minutes of the 'song' (ha)..

He just said 'MF**K' every second or two for the duration of the music.....

That was it..... The crowd cheered at the conclusion, it just left me shakin my head, and wondering why all those kids had paid to have their intelligence raped by some asshole who called himself a 'star' (ha again).... I grew up with the idea that a star, represented the best of what our society has to offer, and they, being heros to many many people, were held to a slightly higher standard than the average.....

I guess that in this age of digital communication and all, the standards have more or less been thrown out alltogether...

This is a poor commentary on where we, as a society, have allowed ourselves to degenerate to....

I always felt, that a 'song' was meant to express some of the intense feelings that human beings can experience, not that there aren't negative emotions at times, but in general, this form of expression down thru history, has been a wonderous, and beautiful thing that would make anyone proud to be of a species that could create something like that......


Now, I am ashamed of being related to people, by being even on the same planet, when I hear some of the TRASH that is being written, and being called 'songs', or the totally bogus crap that is passing for 'music'....

I may be an old fart, but my interpretation of this type of creativity means something more than just noise that irritates the eardrums......

I don't even mind it loud, ....... just be a little more creative with it all......

Use a little finesse in plucking those strings, so we can hear what key you are in, at least, and most of all, plllleeeeeaase say more about the human condition than just Muthaf**k........

Upstate
:cool:
 
When I'm stuck, I fall back on the Elvis Costello method.

Whenever a clever phrase, line or image pops into my head I write it down in a book. When I'm writing and something is coming out forced or predictable, I go back to the book and look for pertinent lines or ideas.

Most of it never gets used, but it's nice to have a few books of disjointed thoughts around, many are good ideas that you'd just forget anyways. Some can even unfold into a whole song themselves.

Jeff
 
"Kick facts in the raps, and curse with clarity,

What's a curse when language is immersed in vulgarity ?"

--Talib Kweli

UpstateNY...just to show you that not all hiphop sucks, some is actually quite inspiring lyrically.

Check out a compilation called Lyricists Lounge I, theres a track on it called 'The Manisfesto' by Talib Kweli and Reflection Eternal.

If you can't get hold of it heres the lyrics anyway.

http://www.ohhla.com/anonymous/rap_comp/llounge1/manifest.ll1.txt

Dig a little deeper than then the 'representation' of a genre by the radio and you will often find gold.

pAp.
 
Lyrics and music

I don't even think of them as lyrics as much as I do just thoughts coming out of my soul. If ya see my website you'll know what I mean. 90% of my songs come from a recent experience that I'm trying to work through and I'm putting my feelings to a recorder in bits and pieces with tunes included because just like the scary music at the movies gets you primed for the scary part, the music must appeal to your inner fear or gut sometimes to make the words hurt you like I'm hurting, or make you smile. I just got through another song called "Bad Dream" that's gonna rock this country especially from the female's perpective, and it's all because a boyfriend of two months decided to go back to his old girlfriend. Had this relationship not happened, I would not have such a fabulous song!
Bottom line, write when you have the feelings escaping; record the melody on a small digital recorder even if it's in bits and pieces, because once you get out of that car, your mind is on another misson and you will have forgotten all about the song. Go to my web site and catch a Tazism. ;) Vicki Lynne
 
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I find it easier to write when im high. If i dont finish what i start i usualy never will. And I dont force nothing it comes out repetitous then
 
Some do, some don't. I haven't written any for ages. Mainly because the ones I have already written suck.
 
Lyrics usually come naturaly to me in the morning ,I then write them down , go to school think about how they could be better in school, come home change them .Lyrics i write usualy fit in with a music ive already written . If i write music to go with lyrics the musics usually ends up being rubbish.
 
i finally got a songwriter dictionary & find it can be useful when I'm stuck. It can suggest new rhyming words that can complete my thread in a way that is more authentic in strad of forcing an idea that didn't work.
 
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