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Anybody have any advice on song writing? I have never really tried it before, and I am not very good with poetry, so…
I decided to write one. 🙂
My messages and imagery need to be stronger, but I need to keep the verses a very similar size and *sigh* possibly meter.
Ideas?
Jackson E. Graham
http://jacksonegraham.wixsite.com/jackson-e-graham@gretald, @bluejay, @writefury, @daeus, @hannah-olsen, @mark-kamibaya, @Sarah-H, @kate-flournoy, @emma-flournoy, @dragon-snapper, @michael-stanton
Calling all Keepers…
Come to my aid! 🙂 haha
Jackson E. Graham
http://jacksonegraham.wixsite.com/jackson-e-graham@warrioroftherealm
Sing it to yourself, or someone else. Just like writing, you should read it out loud. Switch words around so they fit the meter you’re singing.☀ ☀ ☀ ENFP ☀ ☀ ☀
@WarrioroftheRealm I make up tunes for poems and songs sometimes, but I don’t have much experience writing the lyrics myself. I’m sorry I can’t help you… 😛
@WarrioroftheRealm wow, this is really not my field of expertise. 😛 I write poems and sometimes turn them into songs in my head, but as far as actual lyric writing goes, I’m afraid I haven’t got much of anything to offer in the way of knowledge or advice. I’ll let you know if I think of anything though.
@Warrioroftherealm I’ve written one set of lyrics before. As far as the actually poetic style, lyrics aren’t really very different from most other forms of poetry. I don’t believe lyrics need to have meter, but I may be wrong. It’s also not necessary to have the exact same number of syllables in every line, but the difference shouldn’t be more than a syllable or two.
My only other piece of advice is that if this is a hymn, don’t rhyme love with above. You would only be the 500,000,000th to do so.
🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢
@warrioroftherealm The only advice I can think of is to keep clearly in mind what you are trying to say, when you are writing it. It’s easy to ramble and say a lot of nothing when you’re trying to be poetic (at least for me.)
So I should know a lot about this . . . but I forget all that I’ve read. Okay, so here goes . . .
–Get rid of song cliches. Broken heart. Cold meaning emotional indifference. Light meaning knowledge. I mean come on!
–Learn rhyme schemes. It’s very important. Like AABB or ABAB are super common. Especially how they make the audience feel. Like ABAA (one of my personal favorites) is called a deceptive resolution because it is resolved but the audience expects a B for the last line. And ABBA? It’s gloriously unstable. Keeps the song moving forward. Good to put right before a chorus.
–The first and last lines of a song or stanza or even verse are called power positions. This is the place where the most memorable lines can be placed. This is more important than you think. That’s why we sometimes feel like a plastic bag floating in the wind (hopefully nobody will get that).
–Meter can be used to make the audience feel unstable too.
–Learn close rhymes. They free your lyrical side up more. Study this. Your life depends on it,
That’s all I remember. Hopefully there’re more creative people around here.
I blog on story and spiritual things at mkami.weebly.com
Thanks for your insight! I do need some clearing up on the attachment you put linked to the sentence: Study this. Your life depends on it.
I looked up AABB and ABAB rhyme schemes, and I just realized how easy they are. You are just creating two sentences with rhyming ends (A lines), and two others with rhyming ends different than the first (B lines).
Jackson E. Graham
http://jacksonegraham.wixsite.com/jackson-e-grahamYeah, @warrioroftherealm. You got it. But The AABB and ABAB rhyme schemes are a little too common in my eyes. That’s why I prefer the ABAA, ABBA, AABA, XXAA, and stuff like that.
The link attached to the sentence is a chart of close rhymes. That’s why it’s so important. The plosives, fricatives, and nasals are all sounds that sound similar. So, for example, you could rhyme “bug” and “club” because the b and g are in the same group, the plosives. Same thing with words like “wash” and “watch” and, for the nasals, “ham” and “man.”
If they feel off-kilter to you then don’t worry. It’ll work when you add a tune. Just listen to songs and you’ll hear this everywhere.
So study close rhymes. And don’t forget the power positions. Very important stuff, my man.
I blog on story and spiritual things at mkami.weebly.com
Thanks for the clarification dude! 🙂
Could you give an example of a fricative rhyme (& specific letters/sounds) and specific letters/sounds in nasal rhyme? Looked it up on the internet and couldn’t seem to find this.
Jackson E. Graham
http://jacksonegraham.wixsite.com/jackson-e-grahamHa, forgot another question. About the XXAA rhyme scheme—what rhyme would classify as an X line? Why would this be called XXAA instead of BBAA, if you know what I mean?
Sorry I’m asking so many questions. This whole songwriting thing is really intriguing. When I was studying poetry for school, I didn’t pay much attention. Bad move on my part. The rhyme schemes now seem simpler now and easier to understand! I need to revisit my poetry studies and see what I can get out of ’em.
Jackson E. Graham
http://jacksonegraham.wixsite.com/jackson-e-grahamActually, I realized in your link it listed the sounds/letters used in all the close rhymes. Whoops. Forget my second to last post. 🙂
Jackson E. Graham
http://jacksonegraham.wixsite.com/jackson-e-grahamThe XXAA rhyme scheme uses the X because it doesn’t rhyme with anything. If you use a letter like A or B or C or whatever then that is binding you to rhyme it later on. If you use an X then it won’t rhyme with anything.
If you have any more questions then just go ahead and ask. I’ll be glad to give my two cents worth.
I blog on story and spiritual things at mkami.weebly.com
Keep in mind that I do NOT actually write music. But I have many friends who do and have picked up some tips along the way.
1. Don’t start with cords
The reason being, if you start with building the cord progression for a song you will limit yourself severely. Try just stringing some notes together or work on the lyrics first.2. Try different starting points
A friend of mine has recently gotten stuck in his song writing. In the past, he always had generally the same method for coming up with and fine-tuning his songs. Don’t always do the same thing. Do you typically start by writing a poem and defining a rhyme pattern? Fine, but try a different starting point for your next song. Write something in prose first. Draw something first. Go out and take photos first. Hum something first. Find an odd sound you like first. Listen to a genre you don’t normally like and pick one musical element you like and build from there… First.3. It’s okay to let a song sit for a bit
If you aren’t happy with a song, be sure to write down what you have so far (or record it). You might find that when you come back to it just an hour later you will have fresh ears to hear what could be added or removed.4. Collaborate (but Document)
You might let someone else add to your song in some way (give it a base line, new drum line, new cords, new lyrics, etc.). That is great, and you might come up with a whole new song. But be sure to document your progress so you can refer back to old versions. This might be as simple as letting your phone record the sound of you collaborating and brainstorming so you can refer back to the session later.That’s all I got. Hope it helps
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