Jammydude44
08-29-2007, 01:44 PM
A Different Approach to Lyrics - Grow Some Balls
Intro
We've all written lyrics like it, especially when we started out songwriting. Wishy-washy, standard lyrics, no flair or originality- cliche and dull. So, what can you do to stand out from the crowd?
Grow some balls, man.
That's right. To be a good, strong and more powerful songwriter you need to develop an attitude. You need to use your own words, your own ideas, rhymes and flow. You have to believe in every single word you're writing down. Any doubts about a phrase? It goes out the window. If you're going to be original, you're going to have to start showing everyone who's boss.
Give 'em the v
The first time you right a song that you would fight to the death to defend from any criticism, you know you've cracked the secret to songwriting. Even if there are a thousand people out there telling you one word is out of place, but you believe in it, and can actually say **** them, I'm right, then you've manage to acquire the confidence and the cockiness to be a decent, original songwriter.
There's more to life than rhyme schemes, choruses and standard lyrical structures. If you do want to rhyme, use internal rhyme. If you want to have a scheme, why not crank it up a notch? Use a rhyme at the end of one line to match on in the middle of the next. Triple internal rhyme. ABCDDCAB. whatever. AABB is perfectly acceptable, as is ABAB and I use them a lot still, but also with internal rhymes. Something else that is cool to do to make your song more unique is a technique I don't really no the word for, so I'll call it the half-word rhyme:
Example: Day - Staying, Allowed - Louder, Talk - Stalker, Lie - Gliding.
There just some examples, but you get the idea. think outside the box with your rhyming. Remember, if you have the balls to try it then you know your writing is going to get better.
Lyrical Structure
I use the phrase lyrical structure rather than song structure because I'm talking solely about the lyrics, rather than the music as well.
In lyrics you have the standard components - Verse, Chorus, Bridge. Many people just mix them up to get the layout of a song. Well, why don't you try something new - drop one of them. Or two. Write songs without a chorus. Write them with just a repeating verse or chorus, with a short bridge somewhere to break it up. Randomly repeat just the one sentence throughout a song (it would have to be n awesome line, obviously).
But do you see what I'm getting at? Throw all that stuff you thought you new about songwriting out of your mind - the rules and regulations, things you should do and things you shouldn't - and concentrate on that feeling and inspiration from you, and write whatever you want to down.
Summary
I hope I've helped some people realise the importance of having an attitude when it comes to songwriting. Your words are addressing possibly the world, so make sure you're saying exactly what you want to say, the way you want to say it, with every word chosen by you.
Intro
We've all written lyrics like it, especially when we started out songwriting. Wishy-washy, standard lyrics, no flair or originality- cliche and dull. So, what can you do to stand out from the crowd?
Grow some balls, man.
That's right. To be a good, strong and more powerful songwriter you need to develop an attitude. You need to use your own words, your own ideas, rhymes and flow. You have to believe in every single word you're writing down. Any doubts about a phrase? It goes out the window. If you're going to be original, you're going to have to start showing everyone who's boss.
Give 'em the v
The first time you right a song that you would fight to the death to defend from any criticism, you know you've cracked the secret to songwriting. Even if there are a thousand people out there telling you one word is out of place, but you believe in it, and can actually say **** them, I'm right, then you've manage to acquire the confidence and the cockiness to be a decent, original songwriter.
There's more to life than rhyme schemes, choruses and standard lyrical structures. If you do want to rhyme, use internal rhyme. If you want to have a scheme, why not crank it up a notch? Use a rhyme at the end of one line to match on in the middle of the next. Triple internal rhyme. ABCDDCAB. whatever. AABB is perfectly acceptable, as is ABAB and I use them a lot still, but also with internal rhymes. Something else that is cool to do to make your song more unique is a technique I don't really no the word for, so I'll call it the half-word rhyme:
Example: Day - Staying, Allowed - Louder, Talk - Stalker, Lie - Gliding.
There just some examples, but you get the idea. think outside the box with your rhyming. Remember, if you have the balls to try it then you know your writing is going to get better.
Lyrical Structure
I use the phrase lyrical structure rather than song structure because I'm talking solely about the lyrics, rather than the music as well.
In lyrics you have the standard components - Verse, Chorus, Bridge. Many people just mix them up to get the layout of a song. Well, why don't you try something new - drop one of them. Or two. Write songs without a chorus. Write them with just a repeating verse or chorus, with a short bridge somewhere to break it up. Randomly repeat just the one sentence throughout a song (it would have to be n awesome line, obviously).
But do you see what I'm getting at? Throw all that stuff you thought you new about songwriting out of your mind - the rules and regulations, things you should do and things you shouldn't - and concentrate on that feeling and inspiration from you, and write whatever you want to down.
Summary
I hope I've helped some people realise the importance of having an attitude when it comes to songwriting. Your words are addressing possibly the world, so make sure you're saying exactly what you want to say, the way you want to say it, with every word chosen by you.