some ideas for writing songs

hey... earlier i posted a thread about unlocking creative potential, and was wondering if anyone had some ideas for that... now i wanna ask you guys what you think of THESE ideas...

alright, two things i think could help me write some better lyrics...

1) writing around the chorus first - sometimes i come up with particular phrases and just things i say that sound like they would make a good chorus to a song. i think maybe if i sat down, and wrote it out, then possibly got a vibe for what i was feeling then, that could help? i could write the verses around the chorus, to elaborate on it. then add a bridge later. what do you think?

1) writing around someone elses music - i also sometimes find myself singing the lyrics to certain songs.. but then ill just start changing the lyrics around to things that i would sing. so i keep the same music, but im singing my lyrics? maybe i could just listen to other songs, and write lyrics against them, and then once i have my own music, apply my lyrics to that music.

i think those two ideas are best for those who put music first, and then add the lyrics, instead of building the music around the beat/melody of the lyrics. what do you guys think? anyone ever tried this?

bring on the feedback

ok first of all

i dont think the chorus is the way to go. personally i think that starting with a title is the best becuz this is were the writer would form his/her hooks in the song.

Second of all, lyrics are always first when making a song. music can almost always fit around lyrics not the other way around. i think you are confused or mayb i am lol

caits

well, this is just based on me. im starting from the chorus, because i feel thats what most people are going to remember about the song. and i DONT like to give the song a name before i write it, because i feel like that limits me in what im writing about. but as i said, thats just me, and its a matter of personal preference.

and you're not necessarily confused in this, just maybe uneducated about it .. and i think maybe you're confused as well, now that i read further lol..

some people like to think of lyrics, and sing them to themselves without music under them, thus giving them their own melody. then they write the music to fit the melody of the lyrics. others like to just keep lyrics on hand, then write some music, and apply the lyrics to the music and make them conform to that. i personally like to follow the latter.

If you can find a focal point you can begin to write. It may be different things at different times. Depending on you and your talent you may write in a typical way each time. You need to be open to starting at the point where the ideas flow.

I can start with my own guitar, or I can be provoked

by my band mates working on a new lick or two, or I can find my self writing lyrics---sometimes it's a chorus because it's a central theme of the song.

i just try to stay away from telling people how to write, i guess it just makes one more difference that i might have with the person. so ya anyways i think every way to write songs is ok or alrite but i was just voicing mine. dont shut me down by telling me that i am under educated, that doesn't help any.

caits

i wasn't saying your way was wrong. and i didnt mean you were uneducated as in you're unintelligent. i meant uneducated as in you may not have been aware that there are other ways to do things, or more than one way. dont be so sensitive. dont over-analyze other peoples words and take offense to them.

I always work on 4 or 5 at a time.. I'll find one line sounds good for another song I am working on and then I don't lose that line, just cut and paste to the other. (I've been using the computer more and more) When one of the songs starts feeling finished, then it's a good thing. I do the same with poems. The only problem I have is my book.. working on more than one book at a time gets too confusing. lol

Alwayz MisBhavin

I've been writing songs for a long time and my philosophy on writing is that there are no rules. I'm in a pretty popular original band and people ask me all the time "how do write your songs.....do you start with the music first or the lyrics?" I usually reply with either.

I've written lyrics and then written music to fit. I've written music and then written lyrics to fit.

I've written choruses first and I've written verses first. I've written entire songs on the acoustic guitar and brought them into the guys in my band and they added their parts. I've written with my band and contributed lyrics and melodies and structure, but didn't write the guitar parts. A couple of time I've had songs whose verses and choruses weren't working well together so I've stolen a chorus from one of my own songs and inserted it into another and it was a match made in Heaven (although I think I had to change the lyrics). I often get inspiried by a phrase I'll hear on t.v. or in a book that will be the basis for the lyrics or theme of a song. For instance, right after Sept. 11th I was playing a gig. Before we started I ran into a girl that I had seen a week before and her comment was "..the last time I saw you the world was a better place." I remembered that phrase and a few days later I started writing a song and using that comment as one of the main lyrics, with the songs theme being about the events of 9/11. Then later I was writing with my band and we hit on a cool thing and I was singing some nonsense lyrics to work on a melody and eventually starting singing the words from the 9/11 song I had written at home. For some reason the lyrics really fit the music and even though I didn't want to, I took the lyrics from the song I had written and put them into the new song with different melodies, but the lyrics were verbatim.

You can hear this song at http://www.soulvillemusic.com/music.html

or listen to other song samples at http://www.cdstreet.com/cgi-bin/artist_products.cgi?1239041&12361740&

I guess bottom line, I don't think that writing should be done in a contrived way or using a certain method. It can be done a number of ways and any one of them may yeild a magical result.

Good luck!

Steve

yeah.. i sometimes start songs around a line that i've heard. it usually works pretty well when i do that. it's just gotta be a line that i think means something to me