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Showing results for tags 'lyric writing'.
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I am churning out music I am happy with, a lot quicker than I am currently managing to produce lyrics. It's not a wuestion of ideas, it's motivation. I thinked I've sussed out what's wrong (again). Motivation. (still) I just don't spend enough time writing. When I sit down with an instrument I can simply express myself. My inner feelings are given a voice and it's good just to let that out. With lyrics, I tend to put a lot of myself into them. They are about me, my life, or something that has touched my life. As a younger writer I would be just as happy to write about other people's lives or abstract situations. The fact that I now write about something personal means that every lyric means raking over coals, open up wounds etc, making the whole thing a far less pleasing experience. It does also give me a somewhat more limited subject matter. Maybe it's about time I was a bit less inward looking. Not give it up, more re-engage in writing from different perspectives at the same time. I now have a huge backlog of tunes with part written lyrics. Time I knuckled down!
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Posted Hit and Run for critique If you get a chance drop by and tell me what you think of it
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I posted up the first lyric I'm completed in a little while. here: I am one There's a few comments in the thread and some explanations of my reasoning, if not my inspiration. Please drop by and have a read, and if you feel like it leave a comment. Critique did bring up an interesting point of discussion. Several actually! The debate of directness of a lyric came up and the need for balance both within a lyric and across a portrfolio of lyrics. Ok, well it interests me!
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Similes, Metaphors and Allegories are essential tools in writing lyrics where the intent is to leave the lyric more open to interpretaion by the listener. So, I thought I'd bring together the descriptions in one place. I've reworded the best I found on the web in the hope that the meanings are clear. Simile a simile states that A is like B A simile is a juxtaposed comparison of two or more subjects to draw attention to their similarities. Similes are typically identified by the use of "like" or "as" or "than", or "resembles". Similes are a specific and formulaic form of allegory. Metaphor a metaphor states that A is B or substitutes B for A A metaphor is defined as an indirect comparison between two or more apprently unrelated subjects that typically uses "is a" to join the subjects Allegory Allegory is a type of extended metaphor, where objects, individuals, and actions in a work, are equated with meanings outside the work itself. The hidden meaning has social, moral, religious, or political significance, and often characters are personifications of abstract ideas such as greed, or envy. Allegory encompasses such forms as fable, parable, and apologue and may involve either a literary or an interpretive process. An allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning.
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ok, for personal reason there's been a delay in my writing, but I will be taking the 21 in 31 challenge! Aaaargh I was so looking forward to it! oh well, onwards and upwards!
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I've set myself a challenge of writing 21 lyrics during the 31 days of January, pretty well 2 lyrics every 3 days. The point isn't to write masterpieces, but to try to get ideas flowing without letting myself get bogged down. I have no idea if it'll work, or if I'll even get close to writing that many lyrics in such a short time, but it will be interesting! If anyone else is interested in such a challenge I've posted a topic here: lyrics writing challenge Please join in and challenge yourself! Post each lyric in it's own topic in the lyrics critique board... Lyrics critique
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Songwriters often shun the idea of being "commercial" in their writing, without pausing to think about the what they are throwing away under the heading "commercial". I've seen so many songwriters that don't edit, or are only open to editing certain parts of songs purely on the grounds that writing in a way that makes their lyrics more appealing is equated with selling out to commercialism. One of the points of writing a song is to communicate. One of the reasons can be to make a point. In most cases we want to: Make our message understandable Make it easily digestable (don't confuse with watered down) Make it able to do both of the previous two points to as broad a collection of listeners as possible When I review a lyric I try to view it from these perspectives. Appeal is what we generally want, even when we say something controversial, shocking or offensive. Paying attention to these aspects of writing a song helps to achieve appeal. With lyrics that can sometimes be a tweak of phrasing, a structural change, hook type and hook placement etc. Writers often think that "rules" are there to be broken. That somehow they don't need to think about them. The fact is they are guidelines. Something to be aware of when writing, understanding that structures, hooks, rhyme schemes etc all effect appeal, understandability, and digestability. The fact that commercial music also desires these qualities does not devalue them as useful perspective son the part of the writer
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Thought I'd bring the links for my song and lyric writing articles together: Commercial Songwriting Commerciality, Familiarity and Originality Songwriting Tips Lyrics - Function and Form Improve Your Lyric Writing Lyrics Critiquefor Songwriters
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I've just written a new article about lyric critique: Lyrics Critique for Songwriters I'd love to hear any feedback/comments/suggestions you have, so please feel free to post a reply here or on the boards Thanks!
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Hey I've been getting back to writing some lyrics. At the moment I have about twenty songs with incomplete or no lyrics yet. I'm really happy with the musical direction of the songs but getting the lyrics written takes a deliberate effort for me. Music always comes naturally. So now I have melodies and chords and rhythm, and a few ideas and concepts, occasional lines and one or two verse/chorus combos. I know what to do, and how I will do it. Now I just need to get to it My pet hate is weher lyrically I come up with a verse I think is good, but haven't thought through what the song is about. It makes writing the chorus harder and selecting a title. I prefer now to work the other way, starting with a message, then thinking of the vehicle for that message i.e. the concept/theme/story that I will use to convey the message. Selecting a title flows out of the combination of the message and the theme, and that helps give me the chorus and so on. Unfortunately that conflicts with the way I use sounds and meaningless words to help express a melody during the early stages of a song. The meainingless words have a habit of taking on meaning as the melody evolves and words tend to be chosen as suggested by the melody, so the verse or chorus lyric may evolve. Anyway, back to writing some lyrics... Cheers John
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Hey Lyric writing comes from the heart, but not the heart alone. Writing lyrics uses several aspects of our mind, not just our feelings. Improve Your Lyric Writing Drop by and have a read. Feel free to post any comment in the Music Forum