| • Follow Gary on Twitter | |||||||||
LESSON 2: WRITING CREATIVE LYRICS
OVERVIEW What does it mean to write creatively? A good lyric needs to create images in the mind of the audience, and to do that concisely. By using common, everyday words, you want to be able to conjure up images and impressions, allowing your audience to experience emotions and reactions that keep pulling them back to your songs. One of the best ways to do that, as you will see, is to take a line of lyric and rewrite it in as many ways as you can.
| |||||||||
Get the whole picture! “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting,” updated for 2017, is part of a 10- eBook Bundle that will clear up the mystery behind chords, melodies, lyrics, hooks, motifs... everything to take your songwriting to a new level of excellence! 10 songwriting ebooks, and right now at a discount price.
Plus, get a FREE COPY of "Use Your Words! Developing a Lyrics-First Songwriting Process" (See below)
NOTE: For a limited time, Gary's newest eBook, "Use Your Words! Developing a Lyrics-First Songwriting Process", is being offered FREE OF CHARGE with your purchase of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 10-eBook Bundle.
"Use Your Words" helps you get a handle on lyrics. It's a partner text to “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting", showing you how to start songs by working out the lyric first. Songwriters that aspire to establishing a legacy need to place lyrics front and centre. "Use Your Words" suggests three easy ways to start with lyrics, and once you've practiced those methods, the possibilities are endless!
Click on "Buy Now" above to take advantage of this limited-time offer.
BEING CREATIVE WOULD SEEM TO BE A GIVEN... But creativity is a nice touch. A sense of creativity in the way you word things can hold your song in higher esteem. A creative turn of phrase can make a lyric feel smoother and demand a bit more attention. Check out the following: SAMPLE 1: I walked long the winding road Thinking about my life... There's nothing wrong with that as a lyric. And as unremarkable as it is, it really depends on what your melody is, and what you really want to focus on. But you could try something more creative: SAMPLE 2: My mind wandered like the road It's not possible to say if the second example is a better lyric, because good lyrics need to be judged along with the other two major components, melody and chords. But it's a slightly more creative way of saying the same thing. BEING TOO CREATIVE Though being creative is very important, there is a point at which songwriters can become too creative, where every thought seems to require an innovative way of phrasing. So be careful - there's no need to be overly creative. Going overboard with descriptive language has the effect of pulling focus from the more important emotions. Sometimes, when I am writing text (whether song or prose) the best editing I do is when I remove unnecessary words. It results in a shorter text, but something far clearer and far more succinct. Here are some great examples of concise, clear, creative lyrics. They use a mixture of great emotional descriptions and clear everyday language: What if I got it wrong You fill up my senses like a night in the forest (John Denver, "Annie's Song") All for you I give it all ACTIVITIES for WRITING CREATIVE LYRICS 1. Phrase Rewording. EXAMPLE: a) Stay with me for the rest of my life. POSSIBLE REWORDINGS: ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ b) I'm descending into a life that is too complicated for me to figure out. POSSIBLE REWORDINGS: ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ c) I'm trying to tell you that I love you very much. POSSIBLE REWORDINGS: ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ d) My job is keeping me from focusing on you. POSSIBLE REWORDINGS: ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ e) The ocean waves made me think of my life with you. POSSIBLE REWORDINGS: ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ 2. Finish the Thought Try this exercise in various ways. Try rhyming, then non-rhyming. EXAMPLE: a) I walked the walk of every man, _________________________________________ b) You're my every day and night, __________________________________________ c) Open hands are hard to find, _____________________________________________ d) Come into my eyes ____________________________________________________ e) I want you, need you, in my life __________________________________________ 3. Start the Thought a) ___________________________________, and held your hand in mine. b) ___________________________________, tomorrow will soon be yesterday. c) ___________________________________, with my mind falling down, like rain. d) ___________________________________, ease the pain of letting go. e) ___________________________________, what is wrong with me tonight. Proceed to Lesson 3: WRITING "FAMILIAR" LYRICS ©2017 Pantomime Music Publications
...but you would be quite astounded to see that it's not necessarily the creative way you word things that will capture an audience - it's how real you are being.
As I thought about my life...
And no poet or song
Could put right what I got wrong
Or make you feel I belong
(Coldplay, "What If?" from "X&Y")
Cause when I'm thinking of you
When I'm flying above the world
How I wish I was drowning in you
(Dave Matthews, "Up and Away", from "Some Devil")
The following lyric examples are, generally speaking, a bit too wordy, and not very creative. Take each sample and rewrite them into something clearer and more concise. Don't worry about beats, phrasing, rhyming. Just come up with creative ways of saying the same thing.
Under the sky that was lit by the moon.
POSSIBLE REWORDING: Under the moonlit sky
The following phrases are the first line of a pair of phrases that complete a thought. Write a second phrase to complete the following thoughts.
In journeys of the heart and mind, you're the one I knew I'd find.
The following phrases are the last line of a pair of phrases that complete a thought. Write a first phrase to start the following thoughts.
Contact: info@pantomimemusic.com | Contact Gary Ewer: gary@pantomimemusic.com