Many of us spend hours in our studios or living rooms, starting songs and trashing them, with the hopes that just putting in the hours will be enough to eventually write something we’re pleased with. Undoubtedly, practice does lead to growth. But I find it amazing that it is generally accepted that we can learn an instrument using a tried and true methodology, but don’t ascribe the same potential to learning to write songs. 

As writers, we may fancy ourselves poets or storytellers. But as lyricists, we’ve got to keep a strong hold on those reins of free-flowing prose. Connecting with our listener requires signals, keying them in to when sections begin and when they end and which phrases are most central to the main point and which are not.

We songwriters rarely get to choose how our songs come to us. Concept, chords, or melody first, these elements tend to descend on our bedroom nightstands in the late hours of the night or early morning before we’re fully conscious. We know that familiar shiver when the air around us sparkles with inspiration.

Some things in life that should come with a manual, don’t. Living healthy, choosing a college major, being a good friend, choosing a spouse, and raising a child are just a few. It seems that meaningful living simply doesn’t distill well into a one-size-fits-all instruction booklet. Neither does the Smagora wardrobe I recently purchased from IKEA. Songwriting, as it seems, is similarly perplexing.

I once heard Taylor Swift refer to inspiration as a “purple, sparkly cloud.” It’s common to assume songs magically descend on our favorite artists and writers without all the hair-pulling and self-doubt.

There are three things Valentines Day gets me thinking about. One of them is LA traffic. Three hours in a car for a two-hour dinner on February 14th sucked the magic right out one year. The second is free chocolate. No explanation needed. The third, though, is canned love.

Inspiration isn’t ours to control. We can, however, learn to tame it, understanding its ways so it drifts by more often.

As a songwriter who has struggled with lyric writing and come out the other side, I’ve recognized a few reasons why my cryptic lyrics happened, and what I did to change them.

We may not realize it, but when we determine to share our music outside the confines of our own living rooms, we shift from being a songwriter to being an entrepreneur.

Now, with a few decades of lyric struggle behind me, I can understand what is so hard about setting lyrics to music. The fact is, choosing a melody, chords, and groove that enhance the meaning of our words and marry them all precisely is no small task.

Sensory writing is writing from the senses of taste, touch, sight, sound, smell, and movement.

We songwriters know the challenge of finishing songs, especially when it comes to writing second verses.

It is no secret that writing from an authentic point of view is a great way to get a listener hooked.  It’s one thing to tell a story and another thing to tell a relatable story.  Easier said than done, huh?  In order for the listener to truly feel what you are talking about, they need to be able to imagine themselves in the character’s shoes.  We do this successfully with a type of object writing called destination writing. 

Rhymes can help give a song its ability to create a believable experience. We are going to talk about five different types of rhymes: perfect rhymes, family rhymes, additive/subtractive rhymes, assonance rhymes and consonance rhymes.