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Originally Posted by flakey40
i just sit down and play around with some chords see if i can get a progression dwn that sounds good, but i can't fit anything in with it. i suppose being a good poet helps a lot. unfortunatly i am not blessed with that skill. is there any way of overcoming that?
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It may be that some have the gift more than others, but a simple rhyming lyric isn't that hard. For me the way to start songwriting was to look at the structure of LOTS of songs.
A great many songs follow one of three simple formulas, with variations:
1. Verse, Chorus, Verse Chorus etc (the verse and chorus may have the same rhythm and chord progression or they may be different).
2. Verse [Verse] Bridge Verse
3. Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, [Verse] Chorus.
The verses in brackets may be omitted. These, with slight variations such as a repeated bridge and chorus at the end, cover about 90 per cent of the songs out there. A bridge is a separate section which has a different melody and progression than the verse and chorus. A chorus is a section that is repeated, usually after each verse but sometimes not introduced until two verses have been sung.
Those are some possible overall song structures. Now you need a structure for your verse, including a rhythm (usually 4/4 or 3/4) and a different structure for the chorus (and a third for the bridge if there is one).
You need inspiration, too. That can't be measured and seems to happen at the whim of the muse, so accept that at times a song may come easily and at others you may be struggling.
Let's start from scratch and write a simple song about a cat. Having observed cats over many years I have some knowledge of the habits and characteristics many of them have in common: aloofness, laziness, demanding at dinnertime, may react strongly to being touched on the belly, to the point of attacking you if you do that. They like to scratch their claws on the furniture or anything else handy. Full of energy for short bursts when not asleep. They rarely come and sit on your lap unless you're about to get up or you really don't want them in your lap right now (such as when you're at the computer keyboard). They disappear completely when they don't want to be found. They like high places. And so on.
So we now have material for a song that could suggest some of those characteristics and also say hint at what you feel when the cat does such-and-such. The best songs don't come right out and tell you what emotion is being felt. You know that from what is said. Examples: "A tear fell when they told me that you'd found somebody new". You know what's happened, and you're told the physical signs of the emotion, but there's no mention of sadness or heartache. "You give your hand to me, and then you say hello, and I can hardly speak, my heart is beating so" Already you get that this guy is nervous meeting the girl he loves, but nervousness is never mentioned. (Both these lyrics from Ray Charles songs, the first from "A Tear Fell" and the second from "You Don't Know Me.")
Okay, you have the song topic, the characteristics you want to describe, and let's say you've decided this is going to be a simple Verse, Chorus, Verse Chorus song with just two verses.
Go! See what you come up with. Write down anything you think of, even if it's crap. The idea is to keep writing crap until you come up with a line or two that works. One good line at the start of a verse can make up for one or two ordinary ones. If you can't think of a rhythm, use an existing song as a template. Many many songs have been written to existing tunes, so don't be afraid to do that either. You can always write a new tune later if the existing song is fairly modern and copyright; folk tunes can be recycled more easily. in the mantime, the song you know will give you a suitable length for each line.
Here's my take on a possible verse and chorus for a cat song. It was thrown together in a few minutes, so don't expect a masterpiece. Remember that the lyric, although important, is only part of the song and not the most important part. Many people know the tunes of songs but have no idea of the lyrics; they often go almost unnoticed but they need to say something in case people are actually listening to them. Try writing another verse to this as an exercise and post it.
Verse
When the cat goes missing
Nowhere to be found
There's no need to worry
She's on higher ground
Top shelf of the wardrobe
On the garage roof
I know she's been in my room
Cause I just found the proof
If you think I'll find her
You don't know what I know
Gone until it's mealtime
But then she's sure to show
Chorus
Hair everywhere, in the bed and on the chair
Little tufts of snow white fur tell me she's been there
Calling her name, it's the old familiar game
She'll win until it's dinnertime, today will be the same
Okay, it's a very simple silly kid's song but it illustrates some of the essentials. The lines are of even length and rhythm, they rhyme consistently, there's a coherent theme or message (although many great songs are nonsense) and there's a recognisable song structure. The fault that is immedaitely apparent is that I have homed in the cat's elusiveness, and because that's there in the chorus the rest of the song kind of has to be about that, unless I write a new chorus for each verse (some songs do this). If I were rewriting I would try to lead into a chorus that didn't restrict the song to this idea.
Over to you.