What's the process you have when coming up with original lyrics? I can't seem to write what i'm thinking into something musical. I've written a few things previously that i'm proud of but can't do this regularly. Any tips or advice on how i can open up more is appreciated.
Haven't written a song in a while, but when I did, the music always came first, or at the same time as the words. I'd either be noodling around on my guitar and find a series of notes that sound cool, or I'd fuck around randomly on a pentatonic scale, just inserting random words in to be replaced with real lyrics later. If I didn't have a guitar or piano, I'd still usually come up with a melody first, but sometimes, I'd find a phrase that catches my eye or ear. "takin a vacation from reality" ended up becoming a song, and I once misheard a friend, thinking he said "die of lunacy" and I liked that phrase enough to build a song around it. Some of my songs were stories, but a lot of the time, the lyrics were just designed to sound cool. Just do what you find interesting. No need to write love songs cause that's what everyone does, or someshit. hope that helps?
How I write I just take in my perception of reality and things in It and how they associate with me and how I can associate them through words or make funny connections with words while using it as a medium to get out my feelings and shit lol But I could never write good music, just lyrics :/
This helped me think about it a little better. Haven't come up with anything yet but i'm sure i will.
Man, all of my best songs just flowed out of me. Use metaphors to your benefit. I haven't been able to use this strategy well, but my friend likes to write his ideas out in prose. Take 3-5 minutes, just freewrite about whatever it is you want to write about. Don't overthink. Don't think at all, just write a continuous stream of thought with little or no mind to spelling, grammar, punctuation, logic. Then once you've done that, edit it. Take out what you don't want to say, and expound on what you do. Next, turn it into poetry. Use imagery. Avoid words that don't add specific descriptions. Use a thesaurus. Use rhymezone.com Strive to separate the creative process from the editorial process.
Just write a lot of songs. At first your lyrics will be garbage just like your melodies and everything else, but just like you get better at all that stuff you'll improve with lyrics. Early on I used to use a rhyming dictionary or something on occasion, but I haven't touched one in forever. Songs are generally pretty simple, and lyrics tend to be as well. It's also because most words that will be used with a good melody and proper singing will be one or a small amount of sylables. Rap probably is restricted by the same sort of rules although you can probably get away with a little more. I would sit down and write, and then go over your lyrics seperate from the music just read them, and analyze what you're doing wrong. Are they too trite, cheesey? Are they whiney? Are they disjointed leaving the song without a clear theme? Once you know what you're doing wrong, you can work to correct it. So in short, just write write write.