How to Write Lyrics, Even if You’re Not a Musician
Climbing a Mountain with An Electric Guitar
I stared up at the rock face, my new husband holding a rope in one hand, heavy electric guitar case in the other.
“How on earth are you going to climb that?” I asked.
“With one hand.” Of course. I’m still learning how crazy brave my husband is. While the rest of us struggled our way up the muddy crevasse, he launched himself, guitar and all, up the wall. If that’s not a hard rock attitude, what is?
Climbing a mountain for a music video: I’m pretty sure it’s a first. Also a first was the song. It was one we wrote together.
A few months early, my husband popped his head around our bedroom door where I was writing and asked if I wanted to help with lyrics to a song.
I’ve been a writer for over 12 years, but I’ve never once written lyrics. How hard could it be, I thought. Surely it’s a bit like poetry? Another form I’m not that experienced in, but I’m always up for experimenting with writing, so I agreed.
Now that I’ve done it, I think writing lyrics is a great activity for everyone to try at least once. Especially writers. And if your partner is a musician, even more reason to try it out!
How to write lyrics for the first time
I had no idea where to start with lyrics. My husband gave me his demo drum and guitar tracks which he’d hummed along to and in some places “mumble sung”. Parts of it kind of sounded like words already which was helpful.
Then I did what I always do with a new writing form or client — research.
I asked him about songs he liked and looked them up. You can learn an amazing amount by analyzing other people’s writing. Lyrics are no different. I noted down rhyme patterns and the types of language they used. I looked at how they broke their lyrics down, verse by verse, to progress the story they were telling. I examined the chorus and the bridge.
Start with the basics
If you’re giving lyrics a try for the first time, start with a template. Find a song you like and break it down to see how it’s done. Most songs are surprisingly simple and repetitive.
Getting into the details
After I’d analyzed the songs I started to write out some basic phrases, using what I’d learned about rhyme and patterns. I thought about a story he’d be happy to tell — he’d be the one singing it after all — and sung each line repeatedly to the demo to make sure it fit naturally.
After about an hour, I had something I liked and called my husband back in. He made a few suggestions, played around with some phrases on his guitar, and swapped a couple of lines around. You need to be open to suggestions as a writer and a team approach works really well for music.
Line by line
At the writing stage, pay attention to the sounds of the words you choose. For example, hard sounds: “t” and “b” give a different impression than softer sounds: “sh” and “l”.
You may need to swap out words to get the effect you’re going for.
Also, think about the overall story. How does your character or story progress if there is one? Not all songs have a story though. You may choose to play with mood and tone instead — increasing excitement or building up to something. Great songs are not all one-note, so don’t make your lyrics all one tone.
My job was basically done after the lyrics. All that was left was making the right supportive noises as my multi-instrumentalist hubby did his part. And eventually cheering him on as he climbed a mountain with a guitar.
Our teamwork paid off and the song ended up on four local radio stations. A nice bonus for our first combined effort!
If you’re wanting a new challenge, why not grab the nearest musician and give lyrics a go?
Feel free to let us know what you think of our first effort:
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