What is a lyric? In order to write a perfect lyric, It’s important to realise what a lyric is , or rather what it is not. A lyric is NOT a song. Often people use the word ‘lyric’ and ‘song’ interchangeably and this is not accurate. This confusion can result in the creation of poor lyrics. A lyric is NOT a song, in the same way a poem is neither a lyric nor a song, (just to cloud the issue further, Continue Reading…
The Songbay Lyric Writing Competition: How We Chose The Winners The winners of the 2020 Songbay Lyric Writing Competition were announced at the end of last year. The standard was incredibly high and the process of choosing the winners, from a short list of over a hundred and fifty, was a challenge! In this blog post, we reveal some of the thought processess of the judges. We’ll also be sharing the winning and commended entries throughout this article in case you Continue Reading…
Feautured Songbay Artist: Mandy Vinson This week we take a look at the work of the winner of the 2020 Songbay Lyric Writing Competition – Mandy Vinson. “How did you get in to songwriting?” I started writing at a young age, my first song I ever wrote is called “Roses”. I remember asking my brother to give me a topic, any topic to write about. He gave me the title Roses. I remember sitting up in my room that night, Continue Reading…
Featured Songbay Artist: Martin Hampton This week we take a look at the work of the runner up of the 2020 Songbay Lyric Writing Competition – Martin Hampton. “How did you get in to songwriting?” I was given my first acoustic guitar and a John Pearce learn to play guitar book when I was eleven. I drove everyone mad by trying to learn ‘She’ll be coming ’round the mountain’. My fingers were red raw afterwards! Around the early 1970’s I was introduced Continue Reading…
Feautured Songbay Artist: Sheena Hope This week we take a look at the work of Songbay lyricist – Sheena Hope. For the second year in a row, Sheena has been a prize winner in the Songbay Lyric Writing Competition. “How did you get in to songwriting?” I love singing and have been involved in choirs since I was eight years old. I started in a Gaelic choir and one of my first jobs was as a singing waitress at a Jacobean Continue Reading…