by Molly-Ann Leikin, Songwriting Consultant:
I’ve written poems and I’ve written lyrics. I’ve learned if you can do one, you can usually do the other. As a poet, I’ve enjoyed the pure creative process, and the occasional publication of my work.
But I’ve never made a dime writing a poem. Ever.
On the other hand, I live very comfortably on my lyric royalties. And it beats working.
In my practice as a songwriting consultant in California, I hear almost every other new client tell me he or she can’t write lyrics. To help them, I’ve developed a seven-step system, and it works.
If you’re a poet who’s tired of being broke, and would like to occasionally use your gifts to write more commercially, this article can help you make that transition. It can also help lyricists who are stuck, composers who claim they write music only, plus the entire world of left-brain computer types who ache to create something romantic—like a song.
When writing one, be aware that melodies are open to interpretation – so when you write a tune, what you feel or intend is still safe in your heart.You don’t have to reveal yourself or stand completely naked in front of the world. But once you put words to a tune, your feelings are totally out in the open and everyone knows what’s in your heart. Therefore, it can be very inhibiting to write lyrics, which is often why writers get stuck.
But here is the process I use with my clients to make lyric writing simple. I suggest you use all seven steps. Cutting corners is usually why a lyric doesn’t work.
Most poets and beginning songwriters make the mistake of writing acres of lines of iambic pentameter and then set out to look for someone who can turn that dreary rhythm into an exciting melody. Almost nobody can, no matter what the words are saying. So don’t write your lyrics first. ]Get the tune, then write the words. So let’s assume, for this exercise, that you have a melody but no idea of what to say in your lyric. Don’t worry if you don’t have a tune. I’ll give you one.
STEP 1. Sing or play the tune of a nursery rhyme. Any of them will do: Baa Baa Black Sheep, Humpty Dumpty, Ring Around the Rosie – it doesn’t matter which you choose. Use this melody for practice. As you listen to it, scribble down some non-rhyming prose. Ignore the exact notes, but listen to the feelings. Let your words be a stream-of-conscious exercise to warm up your imagination. Don’t use rhymes or logic. Try to be visual, silly, playful and have fun with it.
Here’s an example of some lines I scribbled down after listening to “Itsy Bitsy Spider”:
A former tooth farmer from Fluffy, South Apricot, dug through Exxon’s banana shoe hairbrush section for kangaroo lingerie, after the De La Hoya/Pope Potato wrist rake from Western Tire Cough Drops slid unnoticed into burping toenails.
STEP 2. Now please write a silly, visual non-rhyming lyric to your tune. Match each note with one syllable. Fill your non-rhyming lyric with ridiculous pictures. Again, don’t be logical, don’t make it make sense. Every line can be about something different. The first might concern shoe repair, the second, airport parking. In this draft, try to keep all the rhymes OUT. Here’s an example of a nonsense lyric I wrote, to the tune of “Jack and Jill”.
Lizards frying Jaguars
All hum Hawaiin shoe trees
Disneyland will hiccup in
The mayor’s purple phone soup.
STEP 3. Now write an uncensored list of silly titles that will fit with the stresses of the first line of your nursery rhyme. No matter how many notes in that line, keep your title to seven syllables or less. Shoot for twenty or thirty possible titles. Don’t write anything you’ve heard before. Let your imagination roll. Don’t say, “Oh, that’s dumb.” Write it all down. You might find one of these nonsense titles could actually turn into a real one later. “I Love You” is fine, but Jewel’s “Swallow The Moon” gets you in the gut. A good title will write the whole song for you. A mediocre one will leave you stranded in line two.
Here are some nonsense titles I wrote to the tune of
“Jack and Jill”:
Santa knit a Hershey Bar
Orange dancing astronauts
Drinking bricks can make you skate
STEP 4. Write a few real titles with the same number of syllables as your silly ones. Here are some I wrote to
“Jack and Jill”:
Sundays with the London Times
Do you ever think of me
Moonlight over Lake O’Hare
STEP 5. Choose one of your real titles. Write the story it tells in prose. Just a couple of sentences will do fine. Writing the story as a letter might be easier for you. If any lines come out rhyming, change them so they don’t. That way, you’ll be able to express yourself with complete freedom, and without the constraints of rhyme or meter.
When you finish this step, you’ll know the beginning, middle and end of your story before you start to write the lyric. Most songs have two verses, a chorus and a bridge, so allow space for them in your story. By writing it first, you’ll be able to see if you have enough information to fill a whole song, so you won’t get stuck half-way through with nowhere to go. You can always cut out words and lines later.
STEP 6. Using the information from your story, write a non-rhyming lyric to the nursery rhyme melody you’ve chosen. Should rhymes mysteriously appear, delete them.
STEP 7. Now write the “real” lyric, with the story and the rhymes.
I suggest you do all seven steps. Not four, not two. Seven. My clients who don’t are still claiming they can’t write lyrics. But many of my songwriters who do are climbing the charts.
The more lyrics you write, the easier it gets. So please do this exercise five times, each with a different nursery rhyme. Once you learn how to map out a lyric, and write it to a melody, you’re 90% there.
© 2010 Molly-Ann Leikin
www.songmd.com
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