Writing
Interesting Songs
After writing about 260 some songs since 2012, that was six years
ago, I'm continually looking at what makes an interesting songs. I look at other good and great songs to see
what made them tick. I mainly write lyrics which is only 50% of a good song as
the music and melody more so has to be good. A good melody can support not so
great lyrics, but rarely the other way around.
Although, people have mentioned rap where there is just a back beat and
the lyrics are key. A lot of what people
consider an interesting song is subjective as people have different preferences,
whether they like instrumental only music and what song genres they like.
I believe a good song does the following
1. Makes someone feel the
emotion of the song happy, sad, angry, etc.
2. Makes someone want to
dance or tap their toes.
3. Makes someone say I
can relate to that, I understand.
4. Makes someone hear the
lyrics and say I love that saying
5. Makes someone say
that's my story, my life or that’s what's happening right now.
The listener identifies with
the song in some way and it touches their heart, their emotions and their
psyche. It draws the listener in.
I used to just write songs
mostly mediocre and sometimes even bad, just to write and that is necessary in
the beginning. Now, I try to ask myself why would someone be interested
in this song and/or topic.
In folk and country music,
maybe even pop, the lyrics are very important. In folk or country music
they usually tell a story or bring a concept to life in a logical way.
The
Song Title
Strong and interesting titles are very
important. The title has to immediately
grab your eye and make you want to check it out. In the world of advertising it’s that slogan
or interesting label you see first that makes you want to take a second or a
longer look. I’ve been doing FAWM
(February Album Writing Month) for several years. Everyone posts songs from all over the world they
have written and we all comment on them.
I usually scan the song titles daily to see if one grabs my attention
and then I will listen to the song. If
the title doesn’t stand out I usually pass over the song. Finding good titles is key to your writing a
good song. I look for them all the time
and keep an alphabetical listing of good titles I find to have available when I
want to write. Song titles come from everywhere in daily life. Title of books, movies, poems, ads, a spin on
an old cliché (Time Wounds all Heals), a play on opposites (In the Out Door), etc. Although, titles are not copyrighted and you
will find many songs with the same title, try to make them your own. When writing your song many times the title
becomes your chorus, what they call your hook, the simple summary of what your
song is about. The title usually is
repeated in the chorus a couple of times.
The
Song Lyrics
Now that’s you’ve got an eye catching title, the
next step is to write interesting lyrics. Some things to keep in mind
1. Verses tend to be more detailed, versus the
chorus which is general, usually a simple sing a long section. The first two phrases of Verse 1 needs to
grab attention and draw the listener in
quickly. Remember, there are so many songs out there
and people’s attention span is short, so they’ll just say next and move on if
you writing is dull or rambling.
2. The
first verse should immediately define the characters, the scene, the time and place. The who, what, when and where. So you have four to eight phrases to do just
that. The listener should know what’s
happening in that first verse.
3. So
you learn to say a lot in each line and the lines need to be interesting and
maybe even clever. The lines need to show and not just
tell about feelings or your thoughts. It’s
the difference in saying “he was so in love with her” or saying “she woke to a
dozen red roses sitting by her coffee”.
The first phrase just tells something, whereas the second line paints a
picture. The difference is using
adjectives (dozen, red), action verbs (woke), nouns (coffee, roses). Think of each line as painting a pictures or
a scene in a video you are recording of the song. Similes and metaphors are interesting ways to
show information in your song phrases.
4. The
second verse for many people is much more difficult, I’ve heard it called “stuck
in second verse Hell”. But maybe it’s
just because the song is not well planned out.
In the beginning maybe I just started writing, but now I am much more
methodical about planning my song in an outline sort of style, so I already
know what I’m going to write in the second verse and possibly the following
bridge. The second verse adds more
information and develops your story more.
It should progress logically and sequentially in some order from the
first verse. Again you need what
Nashville calls some furniture, using words
that show and dress up lines and not just talk about feelings or what is
happening. A little telling is okay and
don’t worry it’s what tends to happen normally without even thinking, we
automatically go to telling. So focus of
trying to show and paint pictures in your lines.
Another interesting way
of showing is conversations between your characters or having a conversation
with the listener. Think of George Jones
singing “He said I’ll love you ‘till I die” or starting the song with “Good
morning, darling”. The singer is having
a conversation and that’s interesting to the listener.
5. You don’t always need a bridge, but if you
have one it should not look like another verse.
The bridge should be shorter and show a different perspective or a moral
to the song, or a positive, hopeful insight to wrap up the song.
If you want to progress as a songwriter you need develop
daily habits of writing. That doesn’t
mean you have to write a song every day, but you should collect some
interesting titles and keep a list, you should write a few interesting phrases,
maybe as a start on a song. Pat Pattison’s
objectwriting.com is a great place to develop your skill of showing and not
telling. Every day a word is posted and
people write about the word using the senses of seeing, hearing, smell, touch,
taste, internal senses (my heart was racing, etc) and movement (kinesthetic). This practice helps you write in a show me
way. In addition, on the site is an area
to practice metaphor and simile writing, which is a good daily thing to do,
learn how to develop interesting metaphors.
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