Advanced Lyric Writing Tips, Fantastic Article! Need some tips to help improve your lyric writing? Here you will find an abundance of ideas and techniques that you can use to take your lyrics to the next level. Let’s get creative! When it comes to songwriting, you’re not just writing words, you’re painting pictures with them. In order to connect with your listener emotionally, you must make your lyrics as visual as possible. Check out some of these examples. Having trouble coming up with 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 >>
Writing Lyrics In Stages Thanks to Robin Frederick for this article! www.RobinFrederick.com When NASA blasted a rocket into orbit, they did it in stages: The big lift-off, a second stage to get the payload into orbit and a third to fine tune the direction. So, what’s this got to do with writing lyrics? You can think of the lyric writing process in three stages: 1. Getting started. (Lift off) 2. Developing your idea. (Getting into orbit) 3. Rewriting (Fine tune it) => Continue
Epic Chord Progressions by Daniel Ran http://www.danielran.com/ In this post, I’ll be going through some chord progressions commonly associated with a grand feeling, or “epicness,” with some examples of how they’ve been used in popular media. Expression isn’t strongly intrinsic to a chord progression. On their own, chords don’t do much and are reliant on the arrangement for their expressive power. Even if it is a simple Continue
AN INTRODUCTION TO COPYRIGHT FOR SONGWRITERS AND LYRICISTS (by Chris Connor) This month we are delighted to welcome Songbay Artist Chris Connor to our Blog. Chris is a professional lyricist/songwriter based in UK. His work is in frequent demand on Songbay. Thanks to Chris for this useful article on the mystery of copyright! For more details of Chris’s work please see his artist page on Songbay- http://www.songbay.co/artists/1396/ What is Copyright? The Paperback English Dictionary (Second Edition) defines copyright as: “the Continue
We are delighted to welcome Songbay Artist Justine Perry to the Songbay Blog. Justine is a professional songwriter and lyricist based in UK. For more information see http://www.jpmusicandlyrics.com/ Sense Orientated Lyric Writing, Metaphorand Imagery By Justine Perry (@justine_perry11) To introduce myself briefly, I graduated from Falmouth University in July 2013 after studying BA (Hons) Music Composition. I now work as a professional lyricist and music tutor. During my final year at university, I specialised in lyric writing. It was fascinating to Continue
INTERNATIONAL SONGWRITING COMPETITION FINALISTS ANNOUNCED JUDGES INCLUDE TOM WAITS, AVICII, FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE, IMAGINE DRAGONS, DURAN DURAN, JOSHUA REDMAN, SELENA GOMEZ, AND MANY MORE March 6, 2014…Finalists for the 2013 International Songwriting Competition (ISC) have now been announced. Recognized as the most prestigious international songwriting competition in the world, ISC awards excellence in the field of songwriting. Representing a broad variety of musical genres, finalists were selected from 124 countries worldwide. To view the list, go to http://www.songwritingcompetition.com/winners Continue
Six Ways To See If Your Song Is Ready POSTED by CLIFF Introduction One of the big decisions that we, as songwriters, have to make is whether or not one of our songs is ready for a professional demo. In other words, is our song good enough to warrant spending the money and time necessary to make a high-quality recording? While our instinct may be to love all of our songs equally, the reality is that some of our songs are simply Continue
There is one unfortunate event that is all but certain to happen to any songwriter: the dreaded writer’s block. The nuisance of writer’s block, a helpless frustration that can last days or even weeks on end, will leave you staring at your blank notebook or computer screen wanting to pull your hair out. So what causes writer’s block? Well, this inability to tap into your creative drive isn’t likely due to one specific thing, but rather a culmination of number Continue
