Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-ebook bundle, and discover the secrets of a good lyric! Song lyrics usually do two things: they describe situations, and they describe emotional responses. It’s typical for verse lyrics to be where you tell a story, explain what’s going on, and basically set the stage, pulling the listener into […]
Stop struggling… START WRITING GREAT SONGS! Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” e-book bundle ________________ You just can’t over-estimate the importance of a good lyric. If we ever think that a song is corny, or bad, or just plain missing the mark, more often than not we’re talking about a bad lyric. It’s important that […]
Ultimately, what causes the connection between a song and a listener is the emotional response of the listener. The listener needs to hear something that makes them go, “I’ve been there before..”, or “I can imagine that happening to me..” That kind of empathy is important; if the audience isn’t putting themselves in the shoes […]
Taking a look at the lyrics of the current top hits in North America, it’s easy to conclude that lyrical quality just isn’t that important. “You think I’m pretty/ Without any make-up on/ You think I’m funny/ When I tell the punch line wrong…” are the opening lines of “Teenage Dream.” Or how about this rumination? “You know […]
Most song lyrics fall into one of two categories: 1) poetry, or 2) common narrative. My experience is that songwriters often worry too much about trying to create something poetic, when it’s not really necessary. You don’t need to be a T. S. Eliot or a Longfellow to write a lyric that gets the job […]
The melody-chord relationship is one we talk about all the time. You can enhance a melody, and in particular its sense of direction and energy, by ensuring that you’re using chords that are functionally clear. The relationship we don’t talk about so much is the connection between lyrics and chords. How listeners react to chords […]
