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Advice and Pointers on Writing Lyrics?

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  • 20-11-2011 7:29pm
    #1
    johnROSS
    Registered Users Posts: 209 ✭✭


    hey, my band are currently writing songs for a gig we have in december. I'm trying to put some lyrics together, but making a complete FAIL of it. It's a completely new ball game to me, and , to complicate matters further, i can't sing. Any advice would be greatly apprieciated! Thanks.
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    #2
    aido179
    Registered Users Posts: 431 ✭✭aido179


    hey, Well I don't know if i'm qualified to give advice but ill try my best.
    I've been writing songs for a few years (bit.ly/cottonballthree for one oroginal ive written) so I'll try give some pointers.

    To get started, don't say you can't sing. unless you literally are a mute or talk with one of those machines people with throat cancer use...you can sing. Sure your range wont be great and your voice might break and pop etc but dont worry about that.

    Second, songwriters (unless prefessional and writing for a signed act) usually write for their own voice so try it. think of any melody that you can sing and start with that.

    I always start with the chord progression. Im a guitarist (who isn't these days) so I like to sit and jam until i find something interesting or catchy. then keep playing that until its in your head and eventually some sort of melody will come. hum it and keep humming and playing (or if you cant do that, loop the guitar and hum over it) until you develop a strong melody.

    the last bit is easy. Pick the topic you want to write about and start with a statement. mould it to fit with the beat, then think of another statement that follows on. it doesnt have to rhyme at first, but as you sing the two, something will pop into your head.

    Finally, keep a pen and paper, or a note taking device (i use my phone) and any time anything comes into your head write it down.

    thats my 2 cents


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    #3
    johnROSS
    Registered Users Posts: 209 ✭✭johnROSS


    thanks for the advice man


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    #4
    rp
    Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Posts: 1,227 ✭✭✭rp


    To write good songs, you have to be somewhere between a genius and a village idiot - Joe Strummer
    “Every time I found a great new record, I’d want Joe to hear it so he could see he could be better himself. When ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ by the Waterboys came out, I thought it was a great song. I played it to him. He said, ‘The problem is he’s saying what he feels. Bob Dylan doesn’t say, “I walked through a door.” He says, “There was smoke in the air.” He doesn’t say the obvious. This guy’s hitting it on the head. It’s just not interesting.’


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