Tips To Writing Lyrics

[Hopeless]

[Brendan on Hiatus]

[TD182]

pigionrat.....u can't sing but ur lyrics r pretty good

[richardlardner182]

Vanheel
your images at the bottom are awsome

[Hopeless]

Eh?

[iKenoclast]

Hmm, I don't know if anyne said this but heres another tip, if i get stuck on a line and I don't know what to put next I usually go and listen to music like AFI or thrice where they go so fast sometimes you don't know what the hell they're saying so whatver it sounds like to me and if it sounds good I just like write it down, then i go back and make sure they didn't actually say that in their songs. Yep, i confused you all.

[unsuspectedvictim182]

usually if i have a certain feeling ill write it in the back of this tacky diary i have and then at the end of the day or month heh, i put all my thoughts 2gether and make a song, they ent that gud really, but it gives me a way of giving out my emotions instead of holding them all in  (for all i know this topic may not even b what i jus spoke bout, but aww well i cud b known as a lil fuck who dont understand nothing bout message boards  heh)

[Hopeless]

[supervic]

Hmm, I forgot about this thread. Oh well, instead of typing up something new, I'll just quote myself from a related topic:

Quite frankly, most people will tell you that you need to take your stongest emotions that you feel, whatever is on your mind, if your going through hard times, etc. and make them the basis of your song.

That is one of the biggest loads of crap I have ever heard. Most of my songs don't carry lyrics, but some do. Lyrics are meant to do one thing and one thing alone, "Convey Emotion". At the end of the day, nobody is going to remember what you said, how you played, the melody of the song, or what the lyrics were, they're just going to remember the way you made them feel.

Writing lyrics before your song is one of the worst things you can do, usually that is the key step to creating a bad song. See, it's possible to write lyrics to a instrumental piece that makes you feel a certain way, but to write an emotional instrumental piece to accompany lyrics that are meant to make someone feel a certain way is damned near impossible, but a lot of people do it, but there songs lack because of it.

Write out an instrumental piece that conveys a certain emotion and makes you feel a certain way, then once you feel that way, write lyrics about how that song makes you feel, and what it makes you think about. If you do that, then your lyrics and your song with both be conveying the same emotion and therefor have a much much stronger affect on your listener. If your lyrics were about losing someone, but your song conveys the emotion of happiness, then it's not going to have a big impact on your listeners.

If you get a chance, listen to some work by Koji Kondo. He conveys strong emotions in some of his work without ever saying a word.

thats good advice u got there, and im happy, cuz thats what i usually work on with my songs, like music first and stuff

..but at the same time, your sounding awfully pessimistic, cuz i dont see how its impossible to write an instrumental part to accompany the feeling intended by the lyrics. its just the reverse method, and if thats your style of writing and it works fo ryou, then whats the harm?

[Slash182]

you can't always write songs that have a connection to yourself, sometimes i made up stories or relationships or break-ups that never actually happened. but this doesn't mean these songs are less worth, than my life-experience songs...

[Slash182]

i always write my lyrics AFTER writing the chords melodies and stuff....you know, like hyler said, it's way harder the other way round...lyrics are not the central part of the song....i focus on the music...

[juicedpork]

i dont have trouble writing verses or bridges....i just have trouble summing it up in the chorus.  it sucks

[Brenden]

I remeber when my girlfriend broke up with me, my friend was trying to start a band(even though I didn't play an instrument) and I wrote and amazing song about it.  I showed my friend and somehow everyone saw it in my grade(about 40, 50 ppl) and everyone was like, "these lyrics are great"  I never got it back.  I think my ex kept it.

[Bryan]

Well, unlike you guys, I don't play an instrument yet.. I plan on playing Bass, but I have money problems.. I'll fix that soon.. But anyway, I usually make up rhythms in my head, and write lyrics to it.. That's almost the same as writing the chords and such before the lyrics, except it's all in my head, cause I can't really do anything with it until I learn to play Bass.. Lol. But ppl say I write okay, so I hope my lyrics fit to the rhythms in my mind..


Lol, if you read ppl's short posts in different ways, you can sometimes get a good rhythm for a song.. I just noticed that, its so cool.

Like that..

"I just noticed that, its so cool."

That could start something, right there, of course, you could change the words.. In come cases, those words would work, but you should use your own motivation.. Not mine.. lol

[tmonty182]

i got a q: do songs nesesaraly sound better if they rime?

[thongrider]

YES

[Iron Maiden]

No they dont necessarily, plenty of bands that can actually write good lyrics dont have to rhyme every line. Another thing, never take songwriting tips from thongrider, he's about as bad as they come.

[tmonty182]

yes sir

[thongrider]

No they dont necessarily, plenty of bands that can actually write good lyrics dont have to rhyme every line. Another thing, never take songwriting tips from thongrider, he's about as bad as they come.

This is just my opinion: A song can be good without rhyming. But not a lyric.
Ans yes Im a bad songwrite. but i want to get better.

[pennywisekmk]

just  write whatever comes to you, whatever possesses you to write.  it could be anything, something you like or love, or something that pisses you off.  its also fun to write as if you were in someone else's shoes, like what theyre going through