Eight Strategies for Writing Great Song Lyrics
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Anyone is able to write very good song lyrics. Often I find myself humming or whistling catchy words which stick in the mind of mine. Soemtimes, I might write down a couple of lines of poetry that could be easily transformed into lyrics. Experts from the areas of music, songwriting as well as psychology all agree this impulsive childlike room is exactly where the majority of innovative ideas are born. Occasionally our greatest work just happens when we do not have some expectations.
Take the song “Puff The Magic Dragon.” It began to be a poem written by Leonard Lipton. While at Cornell, Lipton was a buddy with a housemate of Peter Yarrow. Throughout 1959 he published a poem about Jackie Paper who played with the imaginary dragon of his called Puff in an area close to the ocean known as Honalee. Even though Lipton forgot all about the poem, Yarrow discovered it and set it to music. Yarrow started playing the song with the friends Paul Stookey of his and The rest and mary Travers is history.
Although spontaneity is an excellent starting place for lyric, majority of professionals follow a few fundamental rules.
#1 Make The Storyline Consistent: “In Puff The Magic Dragon”, Jackie Paper grows up, manages to lose interest in his imaginary friend that “sadly fallen into his cave.” If Lipton had finished the poem of his by chatting about exactly why he loved golf over tennis for instance, the story will have fallen most and apart likely not caught the eye of Peter Yarrow.
#2 Possess a Catchy Title: Select a name which not merely sets the scene for the storyline of yours, but features a catchy sound to it. A couple of good titles which come to care about are: Feelings, White Christmas, A buck In The Jeans of mine, Lady, Lady Lay, El Paso, I Love The way you Love Me, Until It is Time That you can Go, Suspicious Minds, Fever, The Way of mine… the list goes on.