How to Write Good Song Lyrics

Your in a band, you have all the equipment, and you can play all your favorite band's songs. Now it's time to play your own, but you can't seem to write any good ones. They all sound terrible, and you need help. Well, here it is.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• a pencil
• paper
• an imagination
• the ability to STICK WITH IT!!

1. Lyrics can come to people in any way, shape, or form. If you get an idea, hear something cool, or just think something is catchy, WRITE IT DOWN!

2. If you're stuck for ideas, the number 1 way to get them is to live life. No one remembers the nights staying in watching TV, and (almost) no one writes songs about them either. Get out, do things with friends, go crazy, but the next day, think about what you did and write it down. it just may turn into a song.

3. Another way is to listen to your favorite bands. Listen, learn the lyrics, and sing along. Everyone gets a different feeling from what they might hear, so sing your lungs out, then sit down and write whatever you feel. Listen to bands your friends suggest and try them out too. You never know, they might become your next inspiration.

4. Try going to a lot of local shows and really try to get into every band that plays. They're all going to have their own style, and you might end up really loving one of the bands playing. It will also give you a feel of what is working for other bands like yours.

5. Have a place to keep all of the ideas you write down. Many of my own lyrics start out as just a few words or a line or two, so I have a few lyric notebooks and a cork board to tack up my scribbles in my own musical zone. Anything that keeps your lyrics in the same place will work, as long as it keeps them in view when you practice.

6. NEVER THROW YOUR "BAD LYRICS" AWAY!! What doesn't work one day might work the next. If you try it out and it sounds bad, take a break, then come back and change the style from pop to punk, switch your verse-chorus arrangement from ABA to ABCB, change the key from E standard to Drop D, lump the words together differently, or give it to someone else in your group to work with. What sounds terrible one way may be a smash hit after a few changes.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep trying new things!!
• Stick with it!! NEVER let anyone say "you can't do it," because you might just believe them.

[Thims]

on 9/17/2008 It's a great idea to always have a "swipe file" around you. I keep a little pocket journal. Neil Peart the lyrist and drummer for Rush, always talks about jotting down words and phrases he sees and hears.