Share a songwriting tip/trick/technique.

My two cents

For writing lyrics...

I think of the words of lyrics as the notes in a guitar riff. You just know what you want. So pick them out, think of the words that describe the feeling you have. You then start with a phrase and use a choice word in it. Keep going until you get stuck, and when you do, you can start backwards from the rhyme with another choice word. Sometimes the phrases you create need to be re-ordered for the sake of flow, so do it. The choice words are there for expression, the phrases are for explanation of the choice word or feeling and for the flow of the song. It becomes a puzzle... orchestrate. Master your own puzzle.
 
I tend to write and record the music first and then work out what I am feeling. I write the first line then the rest comes from there. I do use a rhyming dictionary as rhymes do add a lot of emphasis to what you are saying...
 
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I have received alot of help from members on this site about studio setup, so I feel it is my duty to help some aspiring songwriters/artists on what I know.

1. Take everyone's advice, the more you learn the better you'll be.
2. Re-Write, Re-Write, Re-Write and Re-Write a hundred times more if you have to.
3. Do not focus on just words, let the music take over. If you get good enough, the music can take over the entire song. (Express yourself to the fullest)
4. Use similar and/or also opposite wordplay. (ex. If your chorus is BLACK, start your verse off with WHITE) THIS IS NOT ALWAYS THE CASE HOWEVER.
5. If you get stuck somewhere come back to it another time. Take a breather, clear your mind, maybe write a different song, then come back to this one when some more ideas come to you.
6. Don't settle to just being average, no one wants to listen/buy music from someone that's just decent. You must tattoo every word into your listeners ear. Be the best that you can be.

I could probably go on, but it's the extra little things that you learn over time that makes you good. This can't come overnight.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot the most important thing.....Live dammit!! Live!!

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wilko said:
I tend to write and record the music first and then work out what I am feeling. I write the first line then the rest comes from there. I do use a rhyming dictionary as rhymes do add a lot of emphasis to what you are saying...
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About the rhyming dictionary. I would maybe use it at first, but after you or whoever gets good, my recommendation would be to ditch the book. The best and most complex rhymes usually just come with experience. Could be different with different genres though.
 
Nicole_Rose said:
another one from me:


write what you know. don't try to write about things you've never done/felt/experienced. instead write about what you have done/felt/experienced. it will add a whole level of realisim to your writing.
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This is a good one - the songs I found easiest to write were about things I had experienced myself.
 
A note on rhyming software...

Sometimes, when I'm writing (I write advertising as well), it helps to see a list of rhymes. If I'm thinking of one specific way to say something, I can go to rhyming software (there are a few free ones) and it may open up a whole different direction than what I was originally thinking.

Another pretty good tool is the Visual Thesaurus. www.visualthesaurus.com

Its similar to a mind map, and will help in being more ambiguous in your writing. I think you get a couple searches free until it asks you to buy.

Scogini
 
Read as many books as you can find time for. Love language.

Learn to present ideas in images and metaphor so you aren't bound so much by syntax.

Pick dominant and repeating themes; contrast differences and highlight dualities.
 
for getting the right "feel" of a song down, practice it at half speed. you'll find opportunities for new rhythms and styles and chord progressions as you slowly work through incorporating your lyrics with your new tune. by the end, speed that puppy up - unless you actually like it as is, then what do you know, you have a ballad!
 
Arrowhen said:
I can't imagine a songwriting situation in which I'd ever need to know all 360 words that rhyme with "see". Ambergris, kimchi, and muscular dystrophy aren't really themes that appear much in my work; possibly because I write lyrics instead of "rhymes".
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Can't you see,
I need my kimchi
Red and Spicy
Like your love for me!

But don't be fickle
and let it pickle
'till it gets soggy
Like a wet box of Pocky

Yeah, what would I be
Without my kimchi
Slightly stinky?
That's fine with me!
 
Referring to my post 'songs can't be writtin in 1 sitting'
J.C. Scott said:
But they can be.
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If you think your song is at its best after writing it in one sitting, then all the best.

Personally, am not that arrogant, ... and feel it takes a long time to come up with the perfect melody to serve the music, or vice versa.

Good songs have 'dips and valleys', and evoke emotion, even its most simplistic form (ie. guitar/vox, piano, vox, acapella).

Hard to do in one sitting.

MHO.

-LIMiT
 
when writing try to be guided by one or two basic emotions. trying to put too many different emotions into one song can mix things up so none of the emotions is well noticed.
 
i try to go some where different where i can think differently...think outside the box not inside the square...get it ? lol ummmi try to watch somethin i havent seen in a while, or look at old photos or call ppl up somethin to get me thinkin a little differently
 
You can try taking a quote completely out of context and basing lyrics off it. It usually ends up as nonsense but in a good way, if you ask me. :)
Example songs written this way: Ben Folds Five- "Cigarette" The New Pornographers- "Sing Me Spanish Techno" Soul Coughing- "Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago".
 
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I like being sneaky with my song writing. I'm working on one now that sounds like someone witnessing a nuclear explosion or some such thing, but it's about a bug on a piece of metal being cut with a plasma cutter. Another one, I wrote the word VIOLENCE down the side of a page and called the song "Solution." As in violence is the solution to whatever. Then I started each line of the song with V, I, and so on. The lyrics wound up being totally different from the "hidden message."
 
I just kinda let it all go.... :D

Words
sounds
drive a beating pulse
flowing through
not around
as a rooted tree of hope
as a thunderstorm's sound.
Heart is beating
this final meeting
I must go, I must go
 
I just ordered the MasterWriter demo by mail for $9.95. I don't expect it to automate my songwriting. If it would, I wouldn't have ordered it. It does look like a valuable tool for organizing projects and maybe getting some stim out of it.
I have used rhyming dictionaries in the past, from time to time, but like MasterWriter, they are only tools. The best writing tool of all is the wetwear between your ears. If you ain't got it there, you will never be able to even string together an interesting sentence. There is a thread that asks "How can you tell if someone has writing talent? " or words to that effect. The answer is "Read something that they have written!" You can tell pretty quickly.
 
I would like to add and say:

Never stop until you are ABSOLUTELY HAPPY with the song or songs you are working on. I find no matter how much time I take when writing a song the results can be fascinating or fucking deathly frustrating. It may open new doors for a new songs....Then again your hearing words from a perfectionist. Its a good and bad thing. If im 80% happy with one of my songs it will bother me down the road ...so i try to make sure I'm totally happy with the finished song/product.
 
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