How to Write Lyrics for Songs

Writing lyrics to a song requires creativity and patience.

Writing song lyrics is an intense process requiring absolute concentration and a lack of distractions.. Avoid the tendency to write from the top of your head; this will help to add substance, creativity and logic to your lyrics. Good songwriters know that the initial idea forms the beginning of the song. For this reason, when writing a song, certain steps may be taken to improve the song and present it in an appealing way to the audience.

Difficulty:

Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Determine your audience. You will need to know your audience to determine the type of content, subject matter and permissible language. If you plan to write a children's song, you will need to avoid any harsh language. If you write a country song, it doesn't make sense to write about a business venture. Think about the style of music that the audience listens to.

2. Find a theme for the song to create a title. Come up with a central over-arching theme that will determine the overall content of the song. Let your mind wander and brainstorm for one minute, jotting down your ideas. Then, look over the ideas to determine if any good ideas for songs were created.

3. Form questions based on the title you have created. Decide on a storyline for your title and ask questions that the listener would want answered. If your title was "Sunset Rain" then you would want to answer the following questions in your lyrics: what is sunset rain, where did it come from, and what purpose does it serve in the song? Think up questions to answer before writing your lyrics. This will make the process easier.

4. Write the lyrics using the information gleamed from your brainstorming and question session. Lyrics don't have to rhyme, but they should be easily singable. Avoid complex words, and words with several vowels. Remember that consonants tend to come through more clearly in a song.

Tips & Warnings

• Come up with single words that pertain to the title of your song. Intersperse these words throughout the song as appropriate.

References

• Robin Frederick: Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish