How to Write Your Own Lyrics
Freewrite about whatever is on your mind., Find your favorite lines and build rhymes off of them., Develop a simple hook or chorus., Cut away any excess words, lines, and ideas until only the best stuff remains., Explore different types of rhymes...
Step-by-Step Guide
-
Step 1: Freewrite about whatever is on your mind.
Songs are about anything
-- romance, lost shoes, politics, depression, euphoria, school, etc.
-- so don't worry about writing the "right" thing and just start scribbling.
If you don't even want to rhyme the lyrics just yet, that's totally fine.
Right now, you're just collecting ideas and material to work with later.
When thinking of ideas, try to:
Speak from the heart-- the things you really feel strongly about are usually the easiest to write lyrics for.
Don't judge or throw out your work yet
-- this is the drafting stage, you'll be perfecting as you keep writing. -
Step 2: Find your favorite lines and build rhymes off of them.
Say you're writing about school, and you have the line, "Pushing pencils for a teacher no smarter than me." Instead of trying to write the whole song at once, use this line to start building.
All you need is one good line to get the ball rolling.
What would you rather be doing then school ("I'd rather be picking apples and swinging from trees")? How do you know the teacher is no smarter than you ("My paper on quantum physics only got me a C")? Most song verses are only 4-6 lines long, so this is already halfway to a verse! , The hook is the repeated part of the song.
It should be simple and fun, and usually tells people what the song is about.
A good strategy for a hook is to just write two good rhymes and then repeat them, helping them get stuck in the listener's mind:
Choruses should be simple so that they are easy to remember.
Hooks don't even have to rhyme, as seen in the famous Rolling Stones hook: "You can't always get what you want / But if you try sometimes you might find you what you need."
Songs are short and to the point, and the best songs don't waste a single syllable.
When revising songs, think about:
Action words.
Don't rely on "is," "love," and other commonly used words that everyone has heard.
Try to use unique, precise words to convey the song's emotion.
Trimming.
How can you re-write a line to make it shorter and more to the point? Where are the lyrics vague? Instead of saying, "we got in the car," say the type of car.
Instead of talking about going to dinner, say what type of food you ate., There are a lot of ways to write a song, but almost all of them rhyme.
The best practice for beginners is to understand the types of rhymes they have available and just work on simple, 2-4 line sections of rhyming lines.
As you pull these together, a song will slowly be born:
Simple Rhyme:
This is simply rhyming the last syllables of two lines, like "I've just seen a face / I can't forget the time or place." Slant Rhyme:
This is when the words don't technically rhyme, but they're sung in a way that makes them appear to rhyme.
It is surprisingly common in all forms of songwriting.
Examples include "Nose" and "go," or "orange" and "porridge."Multi-syllabic rhyme:
This uses multiple words or syllables, all of which rhyme.
Check Big Daddy Kane on "One Day," where he raps "Ain’t no need for wondering who’s the man/ Staying looking right always an exclusive brand."
Even songs about a feeling or political idea can learn from storytelling techniques.
You want an arc, or some change or progression.
For example, think about how many love songs start with how downhearted or low the singer is before the girl/guy showed up.
You get a journey through the romance, which makes the lyrics interesting.
If you're writing a full song, just think of each verse like a scene in a short movie.
Since most songs have three verses, this simply means a beginning, middle, and end. , Even Bob Dylan, one of the most convoluted and complicated lyricists of all time, knew that a good song must be grounded in one good idea.
Looking simply at Dylan's catalog, the songwriter shows that the best songs explore one idea deeply, not a ton of ideas briefly: "Blowin' in the Wind," which examines lots of issues, grounds itself with a simple question in the beginning of every verse
-- how long can an injustice last before it must change? "Tombstone Blues," one of Dylan's more expansive and out-there songs, is about a worry about what written and remembered on our tombstones after we die. , Over time, however, these small bits will provide the springboards for entire songs, mixing and matching to help get started on a tune.
Keeping a notebook or a phone note on you is the best way to capture ideas whenever the come up.
Prolific songwriter Paul Simon claims that all of his songs are composed of these loose pieces.
As he finds some that match up, he slowly builds up lyrics to a song. -
Step 3: Develop a simple hook or chorus.
-
Step 4: Cut away any excess words
-
Step 5: and ideas until only the best stuff remains.
-
Step 6: Explore different types of rhymes.
-
Step 7: Think of your song like a small story.
-
Step 8: Stick to one idea or theme per song.
-
Step 9: Keep a notebook for writing down catchy rhyming lines
-
Step 10: even if they don't form a song.
Detailed Guide
Songs are about anything
-- romance, lost shoes, politics, depression, euphoria, school, etc.
-- so don't worry about writing the "right" thing and just start scribbling.
If you don't even want to rhyme the lyrics just yet, that's totally fine.
Right now, you're just collecting ideas and material to work with later.
When thinking of ideas, try to:
Speak from the heart-- the things you really feel strongly about are usually the easiest to write lyrics for.
Don't judge or throw out your work yet
-- this is the drafting stage, you'll be perfecting as you keep writing.
Say you're writing about school, and you have the line, "Pushing pencils for a teacher no smarter than me." Instead of trying to write the whole song at once, use this line to start building.
All you need is one good line to get the ball rolling.
What would you rather be doing then school ("I'd rather be picking apples and swinging from trees")? How do you know the teacher is no smarter than you ("My paper on quantum physics only got me a C")? Most song verses are only 4-6 lines long, so this is already halfway to a verse! , The hook is the repeated part of the song.
It should be simple and fun, and usually tells people what the song is about.
A good strategy for a hook is to just write two good rhymes and then repeat them, helping them get stuck in the listener's mind:
Choruses should be simple so that they are easy to remember.
Hooks don't even have to rhyme, as seen in the famous Rolling Stones hook: "You can't always get what you want / But if you try sometimes you might find you what you need."
Songs are short and to the point, and the best songs don't waste a single syllable.
When revising songs, think about:
Action words.
Don't rely on "is," "love," and other commonly used words that everyone has heard.
Try to use unique, precise words to convey the song's emotion.
Trimming.
How can you re-write a line to make it shorter and more to the point? Where are the lyrics vague? Instead of saying, "we got in the car," say the type of car.
Instead of talking about going to dinner, say what type of food you ate., There are a lot of ways to write a song, but almost all of them rhyme.
The best practice for beginners is to understand the types of rhymes they have available and just work on simple, 2-4 line sections of rhyming lines.
As you pull these together, a song will slowly be born:
Simple Rhyme:
This is simply rhyming the last syllables of two lines, like "I've just seen a face / I can't forget the time or place." Slant Rhyme:
This is when the words don't technically rhyme, but they're sung in a way that makes them appear to rhyme.
It is surprisingly common in all forms of songwriting.
Examples include "Nose" and "go," or "orange" and "porridge."Multi-syllabic rhyme:
This uses multiple words or syllables, all of which rhyme.
Check Big Daddy Kane on "One Day," where he raps "Ain’t no need for wondering who’s the man/ Staying looking right always an exclusive brand."
Even songs about a feeling or political idea can learn from storytelling techniques.
You want an arc, or some change or progression.
For example, think about how many love songs start with how downhearted or low the singer is before the girl/guy showed up.
You get a journey through the romance, which makes the lyrics interesting.
If you're writing a full song, just think of each verse like a scene in a short movie.
Since most songs have three verses, this simply means a beginning, middle, and end. , Even Bob Dylan, one of the most convoluted and complicated lyricists of all time, knew that a good song must be grounded in one good idea.
Looking simply at Dylan's catalog, the songwriter shows that the best songs explore one idea deeply, not a ton of ideas briefly: "Blowin' in the Wind," which examines lots of issues, grounds itself with a simple question in the beginning of every verse
-- how long can an injustice last before it must change? "Tombstone Blues," one of Dylan's more expansive and out-there songs, is about a worry about what written and remembered on our tombstones after we die. , Over time, however, these small bits will provide the springboards for entire songs, mixing and matching to help get started on a tune.
Keeping a notebook or a phone note on you is the best way to capture ideas whenever the come up.
Prolific songwriter Paul Simon claims that all of his songs are composed of these loose pieces.
As he finds some that match up, he slowly builds up lyrics to a song.
About the Author
Dennis Price
Enthusiastic about teaching pet care techniques through clear, step-by-step guides.
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