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The course is open now by the way. (Just noticed the email notification this morning, lol.)
I use folders in the Ulysses app to categorize/collect words and phrases I like. When I am ready to work on something I go through my previous notes and combine things I like.
My process is organic. I hear a beat which translates to a seed in my brain. The emotion it inspires is the soil or ground that I use as foundation to build the rest of the environment that my lyrics will occupy and it grows from there.
As far as Hip Hop, I can finish a song without much thought. If the beat is great I can write a complex story, introspective piece or a mindless catchy hook easier and quicker than I typed this comment. If I can’t the beat/music isn’t right so just move on.
For RnB, Pop, Inspirational projects...I may need to sit with artists/producers for awhile to know them and what they are trying to express.
As with anything, you can learn and improve upon proven techniques. Writing classes online or in person help but the rest is intuition, feel or talent. In my opinion that is.
Living a life full of experiences, memories and people worth describing is the best Write-Aid you can have.
Save overheard phrases from television, surroundings, etc...and phrases I read. Print them out. Cut up into phrases (not words), pick, choose, lather, rinse, repeat...
Talking of Bowie,
https://flic.kr/p/22eikyf
>
It’s all about telling stories, for me. Sometimes those stories preceded the music, other times the music triggers off moods and images. There are always far more words than tune, which get pared down as the process unfolds.
The stories fall into two categories. Those that are based on something true, and those that are fictional. On the first RTM album, Artificial Music For Artificial Times, we have a song called ‘Life’s Hand Grenade’ which was a real story about losing a parent to terminal illness and emerging from that situation to find lasting love. Whereas, on the third album, now in production, there’s a song called ‘Valerian’ which is about a fictional singer in a novel by Andrew Cartmel.
The other kind of songs we do are those with a political or social point to make. Most are observational, and do not support any particular ideology. Rather, they ask questions and seek to promote thought.
That’s quite interesting. The dichotomy between ‘the truth’ and ‘the fictional’ (you can’t Handel, Ruth). With me it is a split between explaining what is (or was), and explaining what should be / want to be. The polarisation for me is across time - I’m either going over something that has already been set in stone and lamenting or celebrating it, or I’m proposing that this should be or that should change or we should do xyz instead.
Oh, and…
This is fucking important:
https://www.ted.com/talks/david_byrne_how_architecture_helped_music_evolve
Determine the topic first. Then write down any words you can imagine when listening to the tune. Also, go to search for some similar tracks and take the lyrics as a reference. I used to download my favorite tracks from Spotify via my Spotify music converter and extract the lyrics from it. Then listen to them over and over to get a new inspiration.
I think a really key thing is to have some ambiguity about meanings. Listen to tons of great songs, David Bowie for example, or even some early stuff by The Strokes. Things never make total sense, so when you listen, there is a possible fresh meaning each time. Also not stating things too directly. Using imagery etc to suggest meanings instead of saying directly what you want to say. As for inspiration, I’ve often got that from a poem or something I read. Take an image or line from the poem and use that as a starting point to develop your own themes. I also never usually had much success writing lyrics before I had an idea for a melody etc. Usually the melody and the rhythm helps to suggest the words, because they put constraints there in terms of syllables and word stress etc
I usually have music already made and then line by line sort of free write lyrics as I go along to the end. Once I do that, I refine things and tweak words here and there, look for themes and maybe find the story and make further adjustments until everything flows and I’m satisfied with how it sounds. My lyrics tend to be more rhythmic than melodic though
I was always very impressed with lyrics of The Fall, and luckily we have the Mark E Smith guide to writing guide that explains his approach:
(There is one thing that he apparently did, which was to write something relatively clear and straightforward with a story maybe, wordplay and so forth; and then rewrite this repeatedly, mixing up verses, adding digressions, remixing those, until the result didn't really make sense anymore, but sounded like it ought to make some kind of sense, if one just were to figure out the allusions and metaphors, so you have to listen and think about it. So an early version of "your heart out" starts with
with each verse leading in to a chorus where "your heart out" matches the verse The final version however starts with
and no verse leads directly to a "your heart out" response in the chorus.
Much discussion in room C-H-1-O-2-H-11:
http://annotatedfall.doomby.com/pages/the-annotated-lyrics/your-heart-out.html )
Yes, The Fall had some great tracks. Bill is Dead would be a standout for me both lyrically and melodically.
I was gonna try to follow this thread through and provide input, but this post right here is the reality and truth of the matter, even if not the original intent of the thread. Being a professional in something means you can repeat a task required of your field on demand with very low variance in quality.
Sorry to diss the poster directly below that, but that art crap is for the birds. I truly believe that anybody who wants to maximize their skill at writing songs (note I didn't say 'make money', though it does apply as well) should develop their own way to be able to do it in a professional manner as described above. There is no such thing as writer's block; there's only a lack of discipline or a lack of whiskey (and I don't mean the latter in a positive way as in you should go buy a fifth to help you when you're stumped...I mean don't blame your dependency on 'writer's block').
Just look at the 2 people I consider the biggest and best songwriters of our time, Bob Dylan and Prince, and consider their immense volume of output. The odds are much less you're gonna get a 'Little Red Corvette' if you can't crank out an 'After Hi School' on the regular.
Avoid filtering. Write down the first thing that comes to your mind, don't reject anything as being not good enough. Revise later.
Think about big booty hoes and talk about jewellery, fast cars and haters. Guaranteed top quality lyrics
Sometimes I think that very few people take their lyrics seriously at all and often a good groove allows them to sing just about anything. And there's a inverse that labors over lyrics and has very little to contribute musically.
Sometimes you can take ideas from other media and cultures and use the a conversion it into song
taking great liberties with the source material... change dozens of specific facts. You could even just want the evening news and get something to trigger telling a story, making a point or using some vocabulary
used for the weather report. I used to flip open a book of well rated short stories and read until something struck me as useful. Anything to trigger the mind into gear for invention or even just an idea that allows for a good rhythm alliteration. How does a word sound: Kicked, soothed, savage...
Kick the Savage Brute
Sooth the Ailing Victim
Stash the Pirates Loot
Craft the Victor's Dictum
Sentences that are fun to say outloud (hard consonants or soft caresses) are also great to sing and inspire a musical mood.
I have just started writing lyrics again after a forty year hiatus. You may have heard my collab with @JanKun and @Daveypoo, The Sweetest Sound. I used to write structured lyrics and often struggled when the muse wasn’t there. Now I am writing lyrics to improvised tracks that lack traditional song structure (thank goodness). Will and faith are the most important ingredients for me. The will to attempt to bring something out of nothing and the faith it will get there in the end.
As befits a linear guy I write straight ahead, one phrase at a time. Something I didn’t have in 1980 was Cubasis. It is invaluable with my new strategy. I write the lyrics in the notepad and adjust the left locator as I advance thru the song, so I don’t have to repeat from the beginning every time. I have a general idea, but always search for a twist. Some surprise ending, some unusual word, description or wordplay. What I have written before fuels what is to come. Rhyming lines comes and goes. It adds something, but not rhyming adds something, too.
I was a playwright once upon a time. Creating dramatic tension and a compelling narrative are what I strive for, tho I am just doing These days, not striving. I have no thoughts of any tangible result, like more than a handful listening. No mainstreaming here. Art music, I guess. I doubt my method will help anybody, but maybe that’s the point. Be yourself. Exert your will. Have faith it will work our in surprising and satisfying ways. The actual method is secondary, IMO.
Someone reccomended 2 books which had a lot of value. I'm still halfway on one but it already helped my writing skills immensely. Seriously, do the exercise.
From Dory Previn, Bog-Trotter (1980):
Wotja includes a cut-up editor specifically designed for lyric generation, fully functional in the free version, though it's better for title generation than full lyrics. I ignored it for years till I fed it a Christmas menu and it spat out Roast Holly, Mulled Reindeer, and (for the ultra-discerning palate) Gingerbread Gingerbread.
For those wishing to study significant successful lyrics from the past, I can only highly recommend this twitter thread. I recommend it. All of it. All.
@u0421793 top quality, thanks 🤣