Let’s talk about some factors that’s involved and things we can work with when it comes to lyrics. For instance how we structure our lyrics regarding rhyme scheme and whether the lyrics are very poetic or specific or repetitive. There’s a lot of factors that can help the storytelling and the flow. Don’t forget to tell it the way you want to and to use your own voice!
First things first, to make your songwriting believable you need to speak your own truth, it don’t need to be about you but try to start writing things that you in someway can relate to or believe in or things that feels important to say. Try to find your own way to express your self and be true to that voice. Sooner or later you will find where you have your strength in songwriting. Some are very good at writing very specific and down to earth topic kind of lyrics and some are more poetic in their writing with lots of metaphors. You can of course be a lot of things and be good at everything. Just remember to stay true to your own voice and follow your instinct and don’t judge the process.
RHYME
There’s a lot of ways to work with rhyme schemes. Why do we rhyme? It’s basically to get the lyrics to flow a little better, It’s not a rule, you don’t have to rhyme but it’s something that really makes lyrics more memorable and the lyrics will flow better when you sing it. You don’t have to use perfect rhymes, you can use near rhymes as well. There’s a lot of websites where you can search for rhymes and it’s a pretty good tool to use, you even get help finding words you didn’t think of to begin with.
REPETITIVE LINES OR WORDS
A common thing to do is to say one word or a phrase many times, be repetitive. It’s fun to play around with where and when to use the repetitions, it’s not only a thing for the chorus. This also help with making the lyrics easily memorable and catchy. I’ll show you one example where you also see a clear rhyme scheme as well.
AUGUST (Taylor Swift)
Salt air, and the rust on your door
I never needed anything more
Whispers of "Are you sure?"
"Never have I ever before”
But I can see us lost in the memory
August slipped away into a moment in time
'Cause it was never mine
And I can see us twisted in bedsheets
August sipped away like a bottle of wine
'Cause you were never mine
PENNY LANE (The Beatles)
In Penny Lane there is a fireman with an hourglass
And in his pocket is a portrait of the queen
He likes to keep his fire engine clean
It's a clean machine
Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes
A four of fish and finger pies
In summer, meanwhile back
HOOK
The hook is the part of the song that catches your attention or the part you’ll remember and can’t stop singing. In pop music we want strong and catchy hooks, something memorable. Something worth sining many times. A lot of the time the hook is also the titel of the song.
RECOGNIZEABLE & MEMORABLE
Make your lyrics recognizable! It can be done in many ways for example through the way you rhyme or use repetition or with a cool hook or with getting an angel of a story that feels fresh. You can also play around with words, put together words that clashes a bit or are opposites to each other ”happy sad”. Song lyrics also need a strong melody so in the end you gotta make sure that the melody, chords and the lyrics works together. Make sure that the lyrics won’t feel rushed and that it’s singable. Make it flow and it’s easier to make it memorable!
REFRENCES & METAPHORES
A fun way to play around with lyrics is to use metaphors or work with references or a theme of words. Describe a situation or an object with other words that could paint the picture. Take a troubled relationship that could be turned into ”a house of cards”, and use that as a metaphor for how the relationship feels. You can even put in some more references into it by playing with words that have something to do with games like ”gamble”, ”winning”, ”losing”, ”cards on the table”, ”throw the dice”, ”token”. Using words from the same kind of ”world” also make it more rememberable, fun and structured. It also gives you a clear theme.
REPETITIVE LINES OR WORDS
A common thing to do is to say one word or a phrase many times, be repetitive. It’s fun to play around with where and when to use the repetitions, it’s not only a thing for the chorus. This also help with making the lyrics easily memorable and catchy. I’ll show you one example where you also see a clear rhyme scheme as well.
RAIN (Patty Griffin)
It's hard to listen to a hard hard heart
Beating close to mine
Pounding up against the stone and steel
Walls that I won't climb
Sometimes a hurt is so deep deep deep
You think that you're gonna drown
Sometimes all I can do is weep weep weep
With all this rain falling down
The 7 Cs of songwriting
There’s a lot of books out there about songwriting and a lot of tools to use and ways to think and ways to strengthen your writing skills. Here’s some points that can be useful while writing. Always remember that not all of these tools are gonna work for you, some might and some won’t. We’re all different and so is our writing process!
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Concept - Can you summarize the point in one sentence?
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Clever - Is your concept or twist truly fresh and does it have that "aha" moment?
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Clear - Is every line easily understandable and does it clearly illustrate your concept?
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Concise - Are your lines non-wordy and is there enough space for breath and to hear each syllable?
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Catchy - Are the lyrics and melody infectious and memorable?
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Consistent - Do all of the lines in the hook relay the same message?
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Conversational - Does it feel personal? Does it have a natural flow, for how you would express you?
K.I.S.S = Keep it simple and singable!
Why? You always wanna sound good right? Write for your range or the range of the singer you’re writing for. If it’s too hard to sing for the singer or for you, maybe you need to change the song a bit, it can be as simple as changing the key, but sometimes it’s just not the right flow or it’s too many words or words that’s hard to sing so keep it simple and singable.