One of my biggest struggles as a musician has been writing meaningful lyrics. My lyrics tend to be forced, cliche and trite. The song I’ve written that has gotten the most enthusiastic response has been Christmas Rap by my alias, the Soul Cowboy. It’s just a non-sensical silly song. When it comes to the lyric, I’ve usually left it up to another.
Typically what happens is that I wake up with some line going through my head – both the lyric and the melody. When I come to and realize I’ve got a line going through my head, I analyze it a bit to see if it’s something I’ve heard before, or if this is something unique. If it’s unique, I’ll grab my hand-held recorder and record the line and then try to go back to sleep. For a while, I’ve looked at these as gifts. However, I’m beginning to realize that nothing has ever really come from them ultimately, and, if they really were gifts, it would be an entire song, and not just a phrase that doesn’t make any sense all by itself.
Well, I may be wrong about all that, but one thing I have come to the realization of is that I need help writing lyrics! I’m probably not the only one. I haven’t really dedicated much time to honing the craft of writing lyrics. So, I went to my local library and checked out a couple of books on the topic of lyric writing. I made sure they were on lyric writing as opposed to song writing. There is a HUGE difference. I picked up a copy of Writing Better Lyrics by Pat Pattison and The Craft of Lyric Writing by Sheila Davis.
After having read just a couple of chapters in each book, I’ve been tremendously enlightened. What I really liked about Writing Better Lyrics is that it gets you writing right off the bat with some really interesting and fun exercises. It challenges you to dig deep into your senses and to pick an object and write about it for 10 minutes. Each morning you should set a timer and write for 10 minutes. When the 10 minutes is up, stop. Don’t burn out. Don’t try to do it all in one day. Make it enjoyable, and you’ll want to keep on doing it. When you write early in the day, it puts you in the mindset to be more aware of your surroundings all throughout the day. And, you don’t have to write lyrics. Just write out your thoughts.
The first couple chapters of The Craft of Lyric Writing has really shed some light on things. It talks about how songs speak for us, the necessity of the listener being able to identify with the singer and the difference between a poem and a lyric and the fact that they are not the same. Chapter 3 talks about the features of a winning lyric, some sources for lyric ideas, titles and source ideas for titles…and I’m only half way through that chapter!
Of course, probably the best piece of advice I’ve every received when it comes to writing any kind of music was from a text book I read in college which said, “That which does not come from the heart does not easily reach the heart.”
The bottom line is that, I knew I had no idea what I was doing. Now, I have a little better understanding as to why I had no idea. I think it’s a good idea for anyone who wants to write a meaningful lyric to spend some time learning how to better their craft. There are a lot of sources out there to help. If you haven’t written a grammy-winner lately, maybe you should take some time and invest in this time well spent.
