Excerpt from You Can Write Song Lyrics
Songwriting -- as any other kind of creativity, including life itself -- is a collaboration between the miraculous and the mundane. It takes part inspiration, part perspiration. Inspiration is usually what starts a song; perspiration is often what finishes it. Inspiration births essence, the spark or heart of an idea; perspiration involves the mechanics of craft -- building and assembling ideas into a cohesive form. Inspiration is your lift, and craft is your landing gear. Most writers start with the heart and take off from there.
When I first started writing lyrics, I didn't have a clue about craft. All I had were a bunch of stored up feelings and thoughts that had erupted into some vague form of poetry, along with some melodies that seemed to go with them. Ironically, I didn't know that I didn't know anything about the craft of songwriting until after I was accepted by professionals into a songwriting workshop based on the quality of my submissions. Evidently my love for writing and a passion to express myself had inspired me enough to "feel" how to put songs together well enough to get into the workshop. When I realized how little I really knew, I began to lose confidence in myself and my ability to write. It seemed like everybody in the workshop had more experience and was writing better songs than I was. Suddenly I couldn't feel what to write because I was so busy thinking about how I was supposed to write! I became totally uninspired and even went through a period when I couldn't write at all. Then someone gave me this encouraging analogy, and I'll pass it along to you here.
Imagine a painter trying to paint before he learns how to use brushes or mix colors. He may have lots of finger-paintings in primary colors or maybe he'll combine whatever's at hand and come up with something original. But sooner or later if he doesn't expand his knowledge of the tools of his craft and the versatility they can provide, he's likely to feel limited and frustrated. No matter how grand an inner vision, it needs vehicles of expression that craft can provide. Songs have sometimes been described as "ear paintings," and like a painter, I had to learn how to use my tools -- some of which are the rules of songwriting -- to better capture my subject. So that's what I did. Over time, the rules became second nature and helped to focus my thoughts and feelings instead of distracting or constricting me. And feeling comfortable with the basic rules enabled me to know how and when I could break them or make up variations. My inspiration came back -- but with a broader palette -- giving me more colors, textures and techniques to paint with.
People start out writing songs for all kinds of reasons. It might be the compelling need for self-expression, a desire to communicate something to others in the world, a way to have fun and belong to a very unique peer group - not to mention an ecstatic love of music -- and so on. A couple of writers told me they started writing songs so they could be in a band and get girls. Artist Eric Bazilian of the Hooters, and writer of unusual megahits like Joan Osborne's "One of Us," said he started writing songs so he could sing and play guitar solos, and now he writes because "there is no greater satisfaction in life (aside from Love and Family) than finishing up four minutes of melody and words that express some Greater Truth." John Bettis, who's co-written songs for Michael Jackson, Madonna and a few hundred other artists, and was also a writing and performing member of the original Carpenters, says, "Writing came to me so early that it feels like a natural part of me. It's like dreaming; I have always done it. ...I had no choice. I still do not." Jenny Yates, who has written several songs with Garth Brooks, says "in a world of uncontrollable circumstances there is one thing I can do -- write a song -- to say something that might capture a feeling, a moment, an opinion, a person, an exchange, a loss, a love, that maybe speaks a truth for and to someone else." Whatever our reasons for starting to write, and however much those reasons and our circumstances might change as we keep at it -- at the heart, most of us do it because we love it. And we love it so much that often the best thing about success is that it enables us to keep doing it.
Even if a writer's songs are extremely personal and expressing deep private truths, usually he or she hopes others will relate to them as well. The chances of that happening are pretty good if your song has three things: (1) it's a genuine expression of something you feel or think, (2) it's in a form that's enjoyable to sing or listen to, and (3) it's memorable. There are no rules about the first point. That's the stuff that comes from inside, and it has to do with how you experience life. The second and third points you can learn because they have to do with form -- how you present your inside on the outside. It's sort of like how the clothing you wear expresses what you feel about yourself, who you are or maybe want to be. A song must have form in order to be presented and heard, and that's where the rules and the craft of songwriting come in.
Some of my songwriter friends and I have often discussed our sense that writing is essentially about listening. We all have feelings, thoughts and ideas that "speak" to us, whether they come from or through our own inner voices or the voices of other people and their experiences. It's almost as if the writing part is just a way of capturing what we hear, think and feel by focusing, recording and fine-tuning it with the languages of words and music. Having a good grasp of the mechanics frees you from having to think about HOW to write so that you can go with the magic and just DO IT! And when you know your stuff and you're really in tune with your subject matter, sometimes the song will even write itself!
When I first started writing lyrics, I didn't have a clue about craft. All I had were a bunch of stored up feelings and thoughts that had erupted into some vague form of poetry, along with some melodies that seemed to go with them. Ironically, I didn't know that I didn't know anything about the craft of songwriting until after I was accepted by professionals into a songwriting workshop based on the quality of my submissions. Evidently my love for writing and a passion to express myself had inspired me enough to "feel" how to put songs together well enough to get into the workshop. When I realized how little I really knew, I began to lose confidence in myself and my ability to write. It seemed like everybody in the workshop had more experience and was writing better songs than I was. Suddenly I couldn't feel what to write because I was so busy thinking about how I was supposed to write! I became totally uninspired and even went through a period when I couldn't write at all. Then someone gave me this encouraging analogy, and I'll pass it along to you here.
Imagine a painter trying to paint before he learns how to use brushes or mix colors. He may have lots of finger-paintings in primary colors or maybe he'll combine whatever's at hand and come up with something original. But sooner or later if he doesn't expand his knowledge of the tools of his craft and the versatility they can provide, he's likely to feel limited and frustrated. No matter how grand an inner vision, it needs vehicles of expression that craft can provide. Songs have sometimes been described as "ear paintings," and like a painter, I had to learn how to use my tools -- some of which are the rules of songwriting -- to better capture my subject. So that's what I did. Over time, the rules became second nature and helped to focus my thoughts and feelings instead of distracting or constricting me. And feeling comfortable with the basic rules enabled me to know how and when I could break them or make up variations. My inspiration came back -- but with a broader palette -- giving me more colors, textures and techniques to paint with.
People start out writing songs for all kinds of reasons. It might be the compelling need for self-expression, a desire to communicate something to others in the world, a way to have fun and belong to a very unique peer group - not to mention an ecstatic love of music -- and so on. A couple of writers told me they started writing songs so they could be in a band and get girls. Artist Eric Bazilian of the Hooters, and writer of unusual megahits like Joan Osborne's "One of Us," said he started writing songs so he could sing and play guitar solos, and now he writes because "there is no greater satisfaction in life (aside from Love and Family) than finishing up four minutes of melody and words that express some Greater Truth." John Bettis, who's co-written songs for Michael Jackson, Madonna and a few hundred other artists, and was also a writing and performing member of the original Carpenters, says, "Writing came to me so early that it feels like a natural part of me. It's like dreaming; I have always done it. ...I had no choice. I still do not." Jenny Yates, who has written several songs with Garth Brooks, says "in a world of uncontrollable circumstances there is one thing I can do -- write a song -- to say something that might capture a feeling, a moment, an opinion, a person, an exchange, a loss, a love, that maybe speaks a truth for and to someone else." Whatever our reasons for starting to write, and however much those reasons and our circumstances might change as we keep at it -- at the heart, most of us do it because we love it. And we love it so much that often the best thing about success is that it enables us to keep doing it.
Even if a writer's songs are extremely personal and expressing deep private truths, usually he or she hopes others will relate to them as well. The chances of that happening are pretty good if your song has three things: (1) it's a genuine expression of something you feel or think, (2) it's in a form that's enjoyable to sing or listen to, and (3) it's memorable. There are no rules about the first point. That's the stuff that comes from inside, and it has to do with how you experience life. The second and third points you can learn because they have to do with form -- how you present your inside on the outside. It's sort of like how the clothing you wear expresses what you feel about yourself, who you are or maybe want to be. A song must have form in order to be presented and heard, and that's where the rules and the craft of songwriting come in.
Some of my songwriter friends and I have often discussed our sense that writing is essentially about listening. We all have feelings, thoughts and ideas that "speak" to us, whether they come from or through our own inner voices or the voices of other people and their experiences. It's almost as if the writing part is just a way of capturing what we hear, think and feel by focusing, recording and fine-tuning it with the languages of words and music. Having a good grasp of the mechanics frees you from having to think about HOW to write so that you can go with the magic and just DO IT! And when you know your stuff and you're really in tune with your subject matter, sometimes the song will even write itself!