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How do you come up with good lyrics for a song that don't sound


Dr. Tweedbucket

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The secret to being a good writer is to write.

 

Write a bunch of bad songs. Keep writing. Start studying lyrics you like and look at what makes them work. Keep writing. Incorporate those into your bad songs. Keep writing. Eventually they'll get better. Keep writing.

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As soon as I see words on my page that are song words, songs phrases, I nix them out. It's like the bit in the movie where the guy is running away from his persuers "on the rooftops" and comes to the edge, looks back at them, looks at the next building across the alley ravine... Takes a deep breath and in slow mo leaps to the next faraway rooftop and runs off. Why is that in the movie? Because it's been in other movies. It hasn't happened in real life, just in movies. So why is it in this movie? Lazy writing. Unimaginative. How about a real moment. Something that happened in your day. A small moment or thought. That will ring true. That small moment can mean bigger things.

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Study great lyricists in various genres. Try to suss out how they get their effects. How they might go overboard at just the right time, or how they pull back and only hint at what they're saying.

 

There are 4 steps to becoming a great lyricist:

 

Study, listen, copy, write.

 

Study, listen, write.

 

Study, write.

 

Write.

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And be willing to write bad songs! You have to write through the bad ones to get to the good ones. Only about a tenth of the songs I've written are any good at all. But there's no way to skip the nine tossers to get to the keeper.

 

In fact, the first song I wrote and kept came after about nine throw-aways. Here it is:

 

http://www.thefullertons.net/uploads...la_tequila.mp3

 

Imagine! Nine songs that were worse than that! Wrote it over forty years ago. I like to think there's been some improvement. We can all dream, right?

 

=O]

 

Del

www.thefullertons.net

( •)—:::

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Study great lyricists in various genres. Try to suss out how they get their effects. How they might go overboard at just the right time, or how they pull back and only hint at what they're saying.

 

There are 4 steps to becoming a great lyricist:

 

Study, listen, copy, write.

 

Study, listen, write.

 

Study, write.

 

Write.

 

That's interesting.

 

I believe "study" actually comes along with the " these are my feelings" and maybe a bit more natural process in your above songwriting steps.

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