Tips anyone?

C0untPh33r

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Hello fellow musicians.
does anyone have any tips on writting songs?
Like templates for lyrics or figuring out what style of song goes with certain lyrics?
thnx for ur time.
 
Hello fellow musicians.
does anyone have any tips on writting songs?
Like templates for lyrics or figuring out what style of song goes with certain lyrics?
thnx for ur time.

It really helps me to pay attention to what I learned in English class. A lot of people ask me for help with their lyrics, and too often it's some kind of formless stream-of-consciousness thing... I actually think it's easier to write with form in mind. For the verses try a simple rhyme scheme like:

A
A
B
B

The easiest style of chorus is one line repetition. Think "Born in the U.S.A." or "Dude Looks Like A Lady."

Now that you've got your chorus, write your second verse using the same rhyme scheme as the first verse. Repeat the chorus. At this point, you could write a bridge or a third verse. Sometimes people even just repeat the first verse again. After that, repeat the chorus twice and you're done.

There's your structure. Now as far as finding what notes to sing and what chords to play, usually your lyrics will tell you what notes they are. Or at least give you clues.

Speak your first line or two aloud. Your voice will naturally give stress to certain syllables and de-stress others. The stressed syllables are your high and/or longer notes, while your de-stressed syllables are your lower and/or shorter notes. Your line should also have it's own natural rhythm. The most important syllables also usually come on the down beat.

For example, let's say I wrote this line as my opener:

"I sell baby carrots from door to door."

If I speak that line aloud, my naturally stressed syllables are the "car" in carrots, and the first "door." These syllables would be my high and long notes. Furthermore, they seem to lend themselves to a feel in 6/8 time. Given that, I might write the rhythm of that line as:

Code:
I sell bab-y car-rots from door to door
  1    2   3 4   5    6    12   3  456

If the above is greek to you, let me help you understand. 6/8 time means you have 6 beats to a measure. Clap your hands 6 times. That's one measure. The stressed beats in 6/8 time are the 1 and the 4. Clap a little louder on those beats. I have two measures above, so do two repetitions of 6 claps. Got it?

Now speak the line while clapping, taking care to place the syllables on the beats I have assigned them to. Here's a short video to help you.

Now what notes to use? What chords to use? Pick a chord, any chord will do. Let's choose C. We have already decided on the "car" in carrots and the first door as our "tent poles," so I would start the melody low and rise up to "car." I'd then go back down before going back up for "door." Something like this could work:

l82W8.gif


Here's a link to an mp3 so you could listen to what that sounds like:
http://www.box.net/shared/avsmgugl4x

The song seemed to want to switch chords on that first "door," so I went ahead and switched to an F chord there. I went back to the C for the second "door." It just seemed to want to do that.

I like it!

So I guess the short answer is, listen to what your song wants to do. It's not that you're "writing" a song per se, it's more like you're letting a song write itself.
 
Really helpful! Thanks!
 
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