The Secret To Writing Lyrics

Lyrics are one of the most important aspects of songwriting: They're the first thing most people listen to, and they convey your song's story more clearly than anything else. But they're really hard, right? Language is so complicated and weird that many of the structural approaches we theorists like to take for chords and stuff just don't work. Well, fortunately for us, we're not the only ones asking these sorts of questions, and the answers are out there. We just have to look a little further afield.

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Also, thanks to Jareth Arnold and Jade Tan-Holmes for proofreading the script to make sure this all makes sense hopefully!

[etherealessence]

Honestly, when I write lyrics, i find it most effective to just start writing. not caring if its good, perfectly in time or meaningful or even rhyme. It gets my mind thinking about what i want to write and the structure i want it to have. As I keep writing, i'll start re-writing sections which invariably come out better. the more i write and try to fit that structure i want, the better I get at being able to do it. The real hurdle is that first bump, the one that keeps my pen from the paper.

[DennisTrovato]

me: rhymes "fire" with "desire"


my brain: genius poetry

[randomhuman]

lyricists really out here rhyming "virtue" and "choose" and it sounds fucking phenomenal

[realAdamClinch]

1. Find topics you are genuinely interested in, love is a fine topic sometimes but it's been overdone
2. Read a lot of old and new stories/lyrics and you'll find that characters are always the foundation to some degree, so when you write lyrics, try imagining character traits that fit the type of person that's saying it all as you decide what words to use (singing style and technique play a massive role in this too)
3. Just keep doing it, good lyric writing can take years to improve on and in the end you may not find your unique style for a long time

[HorribleSonofa]

My best 2 pieces of advice:
-Read lots of good and bad lyrics, and think about out what makes any given lyrics seem bad. (Learning to recognize cliches, ham-fistedness, clumsiness, distractions, poor flow, etc.)
-Write lots of bad lyrics. Write lyrics about stuff you don’t care about and that doesn’t matter to you. This is a great way learn to practice using language without being judgmental or letting your expectations interfere. Trying to say something you care about saying ..before you learn how to say it well.. is frustrating. The more crap you produce, the more you’ll learn how to produce stuff that isn’t crap.

[raygunn]

"There's no formula for great lyrics, anyone who says differently is selling something"
12tone, tellin it like it is!

[Gaenico]

One thing that totally changed my writing (I write in French, 'cause I'm French tho but that's a global advice I could give) : I stopped overthinking. If I wanna say something silly, or naive, I write it. If I wanna go on something more complex, or which makes only sense to me, I do it. And I stop being ashamed of the words I write.
And, it changed everything to be honest.
By the way, reading a lot, and developping my global culture and subjects gave me way more things to say and write about too, and a lot of new ways to express the same feelings.

[leowatley]

one thing i've always found makes writing anything better, but especially lyrics, is to remove the words 'i', 'me' and any other references to one's self - you wrote it, people assume it's from your perspective. it'll always make the writing more dynamic and allow people to see themselves in it more if they aren't constantly reminded that it's about the author. when i realized this, my writing jumped up a huge amount in quality. it's the single best piece of writing advice that i can give.

[HairJordan]

The secret: become left handed and draw backwards

[JoboostrGekkepekkie]

i am getting nervous because he is drawing from the right to the left

[deejaybundst]

i feel like there's a lot of good lyrics out there that are just missing a voice that can get them into people's ears

[DeesNerds]

I really judged myself harshly on lyrics for a long time. Then one day I was listening to some of my favorite artists and realized how simple and plain spoken their lyrics were. I’ve been kinder to myself since. And sometimes a cliche is okay, especially if it comes from the heart.

[easoo_]

I always try to remind myself that lyrics are poetry, and that poetry doesn’t always make sense to people. I like my lyrics to be a little nonsensical with my own deeper meanings sprinkled in. I use a ton of metaphors just cuz that’s what I like, and try to connect ideas people wouldn’t necessarily think of at first. I imagine if I were to share them with people, they would find their own meaning in it and that’s the beauty of lyrics !!

[onemicreview]

Best lyric advice ever given to me. Record it. Play it back. If you feel embarrassed about listening to those lyrics, you already know that it’s wrong

[blacklvrboy]

It’s not the lyrics for me, it’s the melodies. I want my words to go with my melodies but I don’t want the melodies boring and basic—ya know?

[perbox]

5:41 "like a loved one, a hobby or a treasured object"
*draws heroin needle*

[anshikakashyap]

"The fire of my desire never exhausted,
It kept me burning like a forest,
All I knew was her denial; the sounds of my heart pounding and my dials."

Great Video!!

[WCmoon]

I felt good about myself when I said “practice makes perfect” before you said the secret is practice. I’ve been doing this everyday for 6 years

[ThePiMan]

You just have to be a *SPIRITUAL LYRICAL MIRACLE CRIMINAL INDIVIDUAL IN YOUR SWIMMIN POOL*

[thefinstasis]

My problem with lyrics is that I can’t really write them, lyrics just come to me like a lightning or something. When I just try to write to something, it doesn’t work at all, but sometimes lyrics just come to your head and you don’t even need to do something. It’s weird af. I guess it’s because lyrics is literally poetry, and poetry is self expression, and the most of the time you don’t really have anything that emotional to think about. Patience is the key