Song Writing Lessons for Beginners

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SONGWRITING TIP – A Three-Stage Rocket to Lyric Writing
When NASA wants to blast a rocket into orbit, they do it in stages: There’s the big lift-off, then one or two smaller stages to get the payload into orbit and then fine tune it. 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 to fine tune your lyric.
Just like a successful launch, you need to go through each stage. Don't expect a song in the "getting started" phase to be at the final stage! Too often songwriters confuse the very first idea with the final goal. I do it. We all do. Next time you sit down to write a lyric try this three-stage writing process.
 
=> STAGE ONE: GETTING STARTED
Beginning the lyric writing process with a TITLE can give you a central beacon that will keep your song lyric focused - very important if you want to keep listeners involved!
 
OR…you can start with the first line of your song. Let’s say a terrific line occurs to you that launches a whole string of ideas. Write them all down, then go back and look them over. Do you know what this song is about? Can you put the lines in some kind of order that develops an overall idea? By the time you write the second line of your first verse, you should have a good idea where your song is headed!
 
OR…find any short phrase that’s emotionally intriguing for you. Something you WANT to write about. Then, make a list of questions the phrase suggests. These are the questions you're going to answer in your song. Try questions like: What does this mean? Why do I need to say it? How does it feel? How did it happen?  What do I think the consequences will be? Every phrase suggests different questions. And every songwriter will find different ones to ask.
 
=> STAGE TWO: DEVELOP YOUR IDEA
Decide on your song structure. For most songs, it’s a good idea to write in a form that has a chorus section, such as…
VERSE/CHORUS/ VERSE /CHORUS/BRIDGE/ CHORUS.
 
Feature your title prominently in your chorus section. It will provide an anchor to which you and your listeners will return again and again. Surround your title with lines that support it. For example, you might choose to answer the question you feel is the most important. Or describe the emotions that are going on. Remember, the chorus sums up the heart and soul of your song. Be sure to keep it focused on a peak emotional moment. Don’t try to explain too many specific ideas in the chorus—save that for the verses—you’ve got to make your listeners FEEL what you feel! (See Stage Three.)
 
Lay out your verses around the chorus. Try answering one of your questions in each verse and the bridge. If you run out of questions, think about going deeper into one of them. By laying out your song instead of just writing whatever comes to you, you’ll stay focused on a single idea in each verse and you won’t wonder what you’re going to write about when you get to the bridge!
 
If you’re writing songs for the film & TV market, keep the focus solely on a peak emotional moment and try to avoid a specific storyline. The script will take care of the story details. For film & TV, the VRS / VRS / BRIDGE / VRS form can work well. Try using your title in the last line of each verse. If you repeat that last line each time the verse comes around, it will add weight and create a chorus-like feel.
 
=> STAGE THREE: REWRITE AND POLISH
Fill in more lines around the ones you've written. Use images, comparisons, and physical expressions of emotion to make your listeners really feel it! Don’t just tell them what you experienced; make them experience it, too. Replace a cliché with a fresh idea. Punch up your language. If you wrote "I NEED..." try "I HUNGER..." or “I CRAVE...”
 
Go through your lyric and make certain you’ve answered the important questions about the emotional situation. Did you say something in your lyric that raised more questions or hinted at something else? You’ve got to deal with that—either answer the question or change that line. You don’t want to leave the listener feeling frustrated.
 
Now is the time to "encourage" some rhymes. Don't force them; never change the natural word order of speech to accommodate a rhyme – you’re likely to lose the authentic, believability of the lyric. Look for a rhyme that feels easy and natural. if you use "vowel rhymes" you have a huge selection to choose from. Like the name implies "vowel rhymes" merely rhyme the vowel sound.  Fine/time, now/house, love/stuff are all vowel rhymes. Check out WikiRhymer.com and B-Rhymes.com for lists of near rhymes.
 
ONE LAST THOUGHT...
At times during this process, there’s likely to be a strong line that “just occurs to you,” a line you reeeeally want to use. If you laid out your song as a rough sketch first, take a look to see where the line might belong and put it there. If it doesn’t seem to belong to any section, then it might provide the germ of a new song. Write it on a separate sheet of paper and put it to one side. You can come back to it later to see where it leads. In songwriting, no good line is wasted – you just have to find the right place for it.
 
REALLY... ONE LAST THOUGHT...
If you write melody and lyrics together, try letting the natural melody of speech suggest a melody as your write. Record it onto whatever's handy - a handheld recorder, or even your phone. Just as a lyric goes through three stages, so a melody gets started, develops, then goes through a rewriting stage. Use what comes to you initially and rewrite it later by changing phrase lengths, playing with the rhythm patterns, and altering note pitches.
 
 
Copyright 2012 Robin Frederick.

1) SONGWRITING TIP – You & the Listener: It’s a Relationship

There are two important people involved in every song: YOU and your LISTENER. You may be strangers or best friends. You may be staring across a concert stage or a living room rug. Or you may be a disembodied voice on a speaker and the listener only an ear you’re not even sure is out there. Wherever you are, the two of you are linked together by the experience of your song.
 
Writing with the listener in mind can be tricky. You need to be true to your own emotional expression, but the listener needs to feel included. There’s nothing worse than standing on the outside trying to look into a room through a shuttered window. If you want listeners, you need to let them inside.
 
Bedroom songwriting – the first draft
Many songs (probably most) are written because the songwriter needed to get those feelings out. In fact, a good song should start with honest emotion or it will never be compelling and truthful. At this early stage, the listener is an intruder. The song is all about YOU for now. Stay focused on that during the first draft of your song. Say what you need to say for yourself. Get it all out. It’s just you alone in your bedroom.
 
The second draft
Once you have that first draft together, record a rough version. Maybe it’s just a vocal and a few chords. Put it aside and keep it. Don’t record over it. This is yours and you can always come back to it.
 
Now, decide whether you want to take this song out into the world and introduce it to listeners. If you do, then get to work on a second draft with the listener in mind. Here’s a checklist of questions that will help you reach out to your listeners and get them involved:
 
Lyrics
1. Imagine yourself talking to a stranger, telling him or her about your feelings. What questions would they have? Did you answer them in the song?
 
2. Did you make listeners FEEL what you felt? Or did you just tell them about it? Paint a vivid picture of the emotion using images and sensations. Use action words that add energy. Describe the emotion in physical terms—what did it do to your body, how did it feel? Listeners will respond by seeing pictures in their minds and feeling a physical reaction. That’s what you want! Get them involved!
 
3. Did you raise any unanswered questions in your song? Get sidetracked? Start singing about something else? Be sure you keep your lyric focused on a single idea so listeners can stick with you. If you wander off, they’ll lose interest and you’ll have to get them back again. If you’re trying to say two things in one song, you’ll end up with a weak song. Choose one and save the other for another song.
 
4. What is the strongest line in your song? If it’s not the title, why isn’t it? Does every line in the song support and lead back to your strongest line? Listeners like to feel that the song has a point and you need to let them know what it is. Don’t make them have to work at figuring it out.
 
It’s not just the lyrics
We use structure to help listeners feel "grounded" in a song—they want to feel something solid under their feet. If there are too many sections each with a different melody and lyric, listeners may feel the song is too chaotic; they won't want to get involved. On the other hand, if a song has too much repetition of the same section, they'll get bored. For many of today's listeners, the right balance of repetition and variation in a song structure seems to be: VRS / CHO / VRS / CHO / BRIDGE / CHO. (For film & TV songwriting, VRS / VRS / BRIDGE / VRS also works well. Just be sure you have a strong, emphasized line at the end of each verse.)
 
Give listeners a clear song structure by creating contrast between sections. Move the melody to a different note range, change the length of your phrases, change the chord palette, or change the pace of the notes and words. Listeners feel more comfortable when they know where they are, so don’t be afraid to let your melody say, “Hey, this is the chorus!”
 
In melody, as in song structure, listeners respond to a mix of repetition and variation. If a melody is wandering here and there with little form or purpose, the listener will tune out. There are examples of melody patterns that appeal to listeners in both of my books and you can hear them in every hit song on the radio! Notice the number of times a melodic phrase is repeated, how it is varied to keep it interesting, and when there’s is a change to a different pattern (often at a new song section).
 
YOU are a listener
Notice your own reactions when you listen to songs that are not your own. How did the song keep you involved? How did it make you feel? Could you tell when you were listening to the chorus and when you were in the verse? How did the song let you know? Where did you find yourself getting interested or losing interest? Use that experience when you write!
 
Be your own listener
When you’re working on your own songs, there are no listeners around. You can’t ask them what they think. So, you have to pretend to be the listener, that person who will eventually hear your song for the first time, in one smooth sweep, in real time. But how can you do that when you’ve just been sweating over a single line for half a day? Listeners NEVER do that! (They shouldn’t even suspect that YOU do it!)
 
You can’t be a listener when you’re too close to your song. Make yourself take a break. Record whatever you’ve been working on just as it is, then walk away. Come back in an hour or two... or the next day. Listen to something else.
Give yourself enough time to get the song out of your head. Then come back with fresh ears and experience the song as your listener would. Did it move you? Did it feel too complicated? Where did your energy drop out? Where did it intensify? Make notes while you listen, then go in and make changes. Record it and take another break. Do this a few times while you work and you'll tune up your song for the listener’s ears.
 
Write for BOTH of you
Cynthia Weil defines a successful songwriter as someone who “is able to say what other people have felt but are unable to say.” It doesn’t matter if you have ten listeners or ten million. Each listener is just one person, one who is intimately experiencing your song, listening to you say something that they have felt. The two of you are more alike than you might think. You’ve both felt happiness, loneliness, wanted to be in love, ached when love was lost. Your listener can’t put it into a song... but you can.
 
Copyright 2011 Robin Frederick. For more on writing for your listener, check out Shortcut #66 in my book “Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting” available at Amazon.com.

2) SONGWRITING TIP – ADD EMOTION TO YOUR LYRICS
Let’s say you’re in love with someone and you want to let that person know how you feel. You could simply walk up to them and say, “I love you.” That might work. Or you could make an effort to create the right surroundings: a walk along the beach, holding hands on a summer evening under a twilight sky, and as the moon rises and hangs like a giant disco ball in the sky, you whisper, “I love you.”
 
Without a doubt, the second option seems more likely to convey your I-love-you message convincingly (except for the disco ball). And while it’s not guaranteed to make the other person love you in return, as a songwriter it’s definitely going to give your audience a better chance to feel what you’re feeling and believe you really are in love! And that’s what songs are all about.
 
When you give your listeners the details of an experience in a way they can see, feel, and touch, you draw them into the experience: they picture the beach at sunset, feel the warm air, and hear the words that are spoken. They’re involved in your situation without even thinking about it. Using the physical senses—sight, sound, smell, touch, taste—to convey emotions is much, MUCH more effective than simply telling your audience what you feel. Here’s how you do it.
 
=> Use the physical experience of emotions
Emotions are physical things—that’s probably why they’re called “feelings.” We actually feel them in our bodies. Let’s use the emotion of “falling in love.” What does it physically feel like? Think back to a time when you were crazy in love and try to describe the physical sensation in words and phrases. Here are a few ideas that I think of: Dizzy. Floating. Flying. Dreaming. Can’t stop smiling. Feel like singing. The world looks brighter, like there’s more sunshine! Make a list of words that describe how you feel when you're in love. They may be similar to ones I just mentioned. Go ahead and use them and add some more. If you can't think of any right away, take your time. Add to your list throughout the rest of the day.
 
=> Use a family of associated words and images
Once you have a list of words and phrases that physically describe the feeling, make another list of images, ideas, and objects you associate with these. Most words come with a family of associated ideas. So, “flying” might suggest kite, balloon, bird. “Dizzy” could suggest carnival ride, which could then suggest cotton candy, etc. Don’t leave a word off just because you think it doesn’t make sense. If it occurs to you in connection with another word, go ahead and write it down.
 
=> Turn your word lists into a lyric
Choose one or more of the words/phrases in your list and use it in the opening line of a verse or chorus. For instance I could start with “Flying like a big red balloon” because “flying” was in my description of how love makes me physically feel and “balloon” was an associated word. I had “sunshine” on my list, so next I might try... “Shining like the sun on the end of a string.
 
Now I’m picturing this balloon/sun tied to someone’s heart. I like that image so I’ll use that. “Tied to your heart, whenever you’re around. Rising light as air, off of the ground.”
 
The “around/ground” rhyme was a little gift, so I’ll keep it for now but don’t worry too much about rhyming. Just keep building your images and sensations. As you think of more, add them to your lists and use them as needed. You don’t want to put an image or physical sensation in every line. But be sure to use enough that your listeners know what the emotion feels like so they can experience it themselves!
 
This is great raw material to build a song on, and an important component of effective lyric writing. Go ahead and choose an emotion. Make your own word lists based on it and try to rough out a chorus or verse.

1) SONGWRITING TIP

 Songwriting Is Like Riding a Bicycle
Remember when you learned to ride a bike? It wasn’t easy! You fell down a lot, but you kept trying. At first you needed someone to hold on, keeping you steady. Then you used extra training wheels to help you stay upright as you pedaled. Then, finally, you were able to ride on your own. You had found that complicated thing called BALANCE. After that, it was a breeze!
 
The process of writing songs is a lot like riding a bike. It’s all about finding a balance!
 
=> Balance Melody, Chords, Lyrics - Writing a song that is satisfying to your listeners involves finding a good balance between melody, lyrics, and chords. If you have a busy lyric with a lot of words, images, and ideas, then a melody that’s easy for listeners to follow might be the best accompaniment.
 
An extreme example of balance between lyrics and melody can be heard in the Rap genre. Lyric content and lyric rhythm have taken over, while the melody notes have become almost a monotone. The Singer-Songwriter genre is often lyric heavy and you’ll notice that, while the melodies make use of interesting phrase lengths and phrase starts, there are plenty of repeated melody patterns — lines repeated in sets of two, three, or four lines, organizing the melody so listeners can take it in easily.
 
On the other hand, if you have a complicated melody with lots of rhythmic interest, interval jumps, and maybe a key change in the chords, try keeping your lyric straightforward and easy to follow, maybe use more repetition in your chorus lyric than you normally would.
 
A good rule of thumb: As the attention-grabbing quality of one of your song elements is raised, think about reducing the others. This doesn’t mean the other elements should become simple and predictable. Instead, try organizing them in patterns so listeners can quickly grasp what’s happening.
 
=> Study the balance in your genre – Each genre has a balance of melody, lyrics, and chords giving it a characteristic sound. For instance, the Pop genre tends to have plenty of melodic interest while keeping lyrics focused on an emotion – asking listeners to FEEL the lyrics rather than think about them. The Country genre, on the other hand, relies on lyric stories with plenty of physical detail. Listeners need to pay attention to the lyric in order to get the full impact. As a result, melodies tend to be a little less complex than in the Pop field. This doesn’t mean you can write a boring melody! You’ll still need to keep your listeners interested. But you might want to use fewer melodic twists than you would in the Pop genre.
 
=> Balance craft and inspiration – Balance is also an essential part of your approach to songwriting as a whole. Finding a balance between inspiration and song craft can help you express your deepest thoughts and feelings and in a way that listeners can understand and respond to.
 
Inspiration is the heart of your songwriting. It’s what guides you, tells you what’s important, and delivers that brilliant line out of the blue. But inspiration can be a very personal thing and it may not always be there when you need it. Sometimes, it can even deliver inspired lines for a different song! But, if you balance it with a good amount of song craft, you can get the most from your inspiration, communicating effectively and surrounding those inspired gems with lines that support them.
 
=> It takes time to find your balance – Just like riding a bicycle, it takes practice to learn what good songwriting balance feels like. When you learn a new melody or lyric writing technique, don’t expect to immediately fold it into your songs and smoothly ride off into the sunset. There’ll be some wobbles and falls. You might scrape your knees a few times. But, just like you did when you were a kid, get back up on your bike and try again. Once you get the feel, you’ll be flying down the sidewalk with the wind in your hair in no time!
 
=> Get some training wheels - The best songwriting “training wheels” are hit songs! These songs already have good balance, the kind that listeners are comfortable with. This week, learn how to play and sing one recent hit song that you like. (You can find the current radio charts at http://www.BDSradio.com.) Notice the balance between lyrics, melody, and chords. How is the melody organized? Which melody lines are repeated and how many times? When do the lyrics simply repeat and when do they demand attention? Try writing a song with a similar type of balance.
 
Best of all, like riding a bike, once you learn what balance feels like, you never forget!
 

Notes On Songwriting

This step-by-step guide will walk you through a simple, creative process for writing lyrics and melodies in all genres of music. You'll learn how to use hit songs as patterns to help you learn exciting new songwriting techniques and give you fresh choices when writing.