What makes a Good Lyric? In advance of our lyric trading functionality arriving next month at Songbay, we thought we would share with you our top tip for writing good lyrics-know the elements! In the same way that a composer must understand the fundamentals of song construction, i.e., melody, harmony, rhythm and arrangement, a lyricist needs to know what makes a strong and catchy lyric. Over the past twelve months we have received and reviewed hundreds of lyrics, some good, Continue
Songwriting thought of the Day
Uneven Lyric Length
Have you thought about your lyric phrase lengths? The Golden rule- Keep things EVEN. Ninety percent of mainstream commercial pop music is written with four beats to each bar (4/4) time, meaning the music is divisible by 4. This needs to be considered when writing commercial pop lyrics. If you write consistent song sections-verses, chorus, bridges, etc, that are grouped into 4 or 8 lines, you are on the right track. If you write lyrics with sections containing odd phrase lengths, e.g., 3 lines, 5 lines, 7 lines, or phrases with notable uneven syllable lengths, etc, they will not work well rhythmically, and will almost always be overlooked by composers looking for lyrics. Here is a great article on this very subject >>
