Lyric Writing
Lyric writing can be a fun way to explore your feelings through rhythm and sound.
However, sometimes the most difficult part of lyric writing involves just starting to write.
There aren't too many things more intimidating than staring at a blank page when you're beginning the creative process.
Sometimes that blank page has been known to stop writers of all genres dead in their tracks.
One way to prevent this from happening is to use a form where the ideas will still need to be generated by you, but at least your ideas will be loosely structured into a form.
This will just cover a few ideas on form for lyric writing, but for a more comprehensive look at the different lyric writing forms that are currently in use, read at Sheila Davis' The Craft of Lyric Writing.
Rhyming Forms Not all songs need to rhyme, as not all poems need to rhyme, either.
But the use of rhymes in lyric writing can help establish an internal rhythm in your song.
For this example, we're going to discuss purely end rhyme.
You can either write your verses in ABAB, AABB or ABBA.
There are other structures, but this is often the most common.
ABAB would look like this verse from Michael Jackson's "Thriller": It's close to midnight And something evil's lurking in the dark Under the moonlight You see a sight that almost stops your heart In this case "midnight" and "moonlight" are the A rhyme and "dark" and "heart" represent the B rhyme.
AABB would look like this verse from The Lumineer's "Hey Ho": I've been trying to do it right I've been living a lonely life I've been sleeping here instead I've been sleeping in my bed In this instance, "right" and "life" represent the A rhyme and "instead" and "bed" represent the B rhyme.
Even better, this song repeats the phrase "I've been" to establish even more structure for the lyrics.
ABBA would look like this verse from George Benson's "On Broadway": They say there's always magic in the air But when you're walking down that street And you ain't had enough to eat The glitter rubs right off and you're nowhere In this instance, "air" and "nowhere" are the A rhyme and "street" and "eat" are the B rhyme.
Song Structure Forms In an even broader sense, you can use the above patterns in lyric writing.
You can make "B" the chorus and have "A" represent the verses.
("C" could even represent a hypothetical bridge.
) If you rotated them, you could create an ABABCB pattern, which would really just mean verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus pattern.
You could use this model and rotate your rhyme scheme throughout it and create lyrics pretty easily.
However, sometimes the most difficult part of lyric writing involves just starting to write.
There aren't too many things more intimidating than staring at a blank page when you're beginning the creative process.
Sometimes that blank page has been known to stop writers of all genres dead in their tracks.
One way to prevent this from happening is to use a form where the ideas will still need to be generated by you, but at least your ideas will be loosely structured into a form.
This will just cover a few ideas on form for lyric writing, but for a more comprehensive look at the different lyric writing forms that are currently in use, read at Sheila Davis' The Craft of Lyric Writing.
Rhyming Forms Not all songs need to rhyme, as not all poems need to rhyme, either.
But the use of rhymes in lyric writing can help establish an internal rhythm in your song.
For this example, we're going to discuss purely end rhyme.
You can either write your verses in ABAB, AABB or ABBA.
There are other structures, but this is often the most common.
ABAB would look like this verse from Michael Jackson's "Thriller": It's close to midnight And something evil's lurking in the dark Under the moonlight You see a sight that almost stops your heart In this case "midnight" and "moonlight" are the A rhyme and "dark" and "heart" represent the B rhyme.
AABB would look like this verse from The Lumineer's "Hey Ho": I've been trying to do it right I've been living a lonely life I've been sleeping here instead I've been sleeping in my bed In this instance, "right" and "life" represent the A rhyme and "instead" and "bed" represent the B rhyme.
Even better, this song repeats the phrase "I've been" to establish even more structure for the lyrics.
ABBA would look like this verse from George Benson's "On Broadway": They say there's always magic in the air But when you're walking down that street And you ain't had enough to eat The glitter rubs right off and you're nowhere In this instance, "air" and "nowhere" are the A rhyme and "street" and "eat" are the B rhyme.
Song Structure Forms In an even broader sense, you can use the above patterns in lyric writing.
You can make "B" the chorus and have "A" represent the verses.
("C" could even represent a hypothetical bridge.
) If you rotated them, you could create an ABABCB pattern, which would really just mean verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus pattern.
You could use this model and rotate your rhyme scheme throughout it and create lyrics pretty easily.
Source...