Every time you write a song, you’re communicating something to your audience. When we think of that word communicating, we automatically think of lyrics, because communication and words go hand in hand.
But in good songwriting, everything you write plays a role in communicating. For example, if you want to write a nostalgic song, you need nostalgic lyrics, but you also need for the instruments to be playing in a “nostalgic” way, and you need to sing it with a tone of voice that similarly sounds nostalgic. Even characteristics such as key choice, tempo and backing vocals can effect the character of the music you’re writing.
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In that sense, everything you do in the production of a song, from the songwriting stage through to the performing or recording stage, needs to partner up and support everything else.
When it comes to lyrics, no matter what kind of song you’re writing, and regardless of genre, there’s a way most lyrics progress as a song moves along, and you can use this as a guide to make sure your lyrics are working the way they’re supposed to:
Verse Lyrics
The purpose of a good verse lyric is to describe what’s going on to the listener. In so-called “story songs”, this might be the actual story, but in any case, by the end of the verse, listeners should have a pretty clear idea of what the song’s subject matter is.
Because the story is so important in a verse lyric, words and phrases that elicit an emotional response should be kept somewhat to a minimum. Your main job is to describe people and circumstances by using simple, everyday words. The tone should be conversational.
Chorus Lyrics
A good chorus lyric is, in effect, a response to what the verse has just described. It’s not so much that the words and phrases you choose should show you being overly emotional; it’s more a case where the words and phrases should stimulate an emotional response in your listeners.
It’s usually why chorus melodies are higher in pitch than verse melodies, because a higher vocal line sounds more emotionally intense.
As with the verse, your chorus lyrics should be conversational, and you need to use words that are the kind that would typically sound emotional.
Bridge Lyrics
Keeping in mind that the bridge (which usually happens after the second chorus) is the last chance to finish up the story you’re creating, but also closer to the end of the song than the beginning, it’s normal for a bridge lyric to be a combination of verse-like descriptions, followed quickly by a chorus-like emotional reaction, al meant to increase musical energy.
I’ve often thought that one of Taylor Swift’s earlier hits, “You Belong With Me” is a perfect example of this. Check out the lyrical lines in the bridge, and you’ll see that it’s a great model for this important up-and-down of emotional content.
So really, all you have to do when you’ve written a complete lyric is to look section by section through your song and see that you’ve moved from descriptive to emotive as you go from verse to chorus, and then that your bridge lyric (if your song is using a bridge), fluctuates quickly between those two characteristics.
And if you’ve done that, you’ve created a lyric that has the best chance possible of enticing your listeners to stick with your song to it’s very end.
Written by Gary Ewer. Follow Gary on Twitter.
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