Songwriting

[soyperson]

OK, so I have a small high-school band of me and a couple of friends. my friend (Friend 1) and I sing and play guitar, and another friend (Friend 2) plays bass. 

I have been told that I am a talented guitarist, and am trying to write my own songs. 

HOWEVER:

I can't write very quality lyrics. 

So... Fellow Sharders, I beseech thee,  bestow upon me ideas or lyrics you have written, and if I write any songs with said lyrics in them, I will credit you for lyrics. 

Any ideas, lines, or lyrics are welcome. Not all are guaranteed to be used, but all are welcome. 

Thanks!

[Zathoth]

1. Avoid cliches, it is not a case of being original, it is just a case of not being generic. Avoid love songs like the plague unless you can truly do something interesting with them.

2. Read poetry, find bands with really good lyrics, be inspired (Personal favorites are Edgar Allen Poe, Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith. For bands you have Iron Maiden (Yes, seriously), Crimson Glory, Savatage, AC/DC with Bon Scott (Yes its all about women and booze, you can write amazing poetry about women and booze, apparently) Acid Bath (And really everything by Dax Riggs) Rush, The Doors, everything you can possibly find by Peter Laughner, Joni Mitchell, Purson, Fates Warning, Psychotic Waltz... I should stop before this goes on for way too long...)

3. If you are stuck find a word that rhymes with the word in the previous line and find a logical and seamless way to work it in.

4. Orange rhymes with sporange.

5. Lyrics dont need to mean anything. If it sounds good it is good. If it paints interesting pictures it is good.

6. Avoid cliches as much as you can. You can only rhyme so many words with each other, yes, but try to create other images than party all night, fall in love, heartache, so on. Unless, of course, there is an interesting twist to it

7. Don't take advice from strangers on the internet.

[soyperson]

7 minutes ago, Morzathoth said:

2. Read poetry, find bands with really good lyrics, be inspired (Personal favorites are Edgar Allen Poe, Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith. For bands you have Iron Maiden (Yes, seriously), Crimson Glory, Savatage, AC/DC with Bon Scott (Yes its all about women and booze, you can write amazing poetry about women and booze, apparently) Acid Bath (And really everything by Dax Riggs) Rush, The Doors, everything you can possibly find by Peter Laughner, Joni Mitchell, Purson, Fates Warning, Psychotic Waltz... I should stop before this goes on for way too long...)

 ... 

7. Don't take advice from strangers on the internet.

My favorite band has the best lyrics of any band ever in my opinion. Dawes is the band.

Also, I'll take advice any day but I will not always follow it.

Thanks for the input!

[Oversleep]

18 minutes ago, Morzathoth said:

5. Lyrics dont need to mean anything. If it sounds good it is good. If it paints interesting pictures it is good.

Even if the lyrics doesn't make sense to you, there are people who will argue for years over their intended meaning. So even if you printed a random list of words, threw a grenade into it and picked up the shreds, it would still be good.

[soyperson]

1 minute ago, Oversleep said:

Even if the lyrics doesn't make sense to you, there are people who will argue for years over their intended meaning. So even if you printed a random list of words, threw a grenade into it and picked up the shreds, it would still be good.

Is that why people like the Beatles so much? (Actually, their lyrics weren't that random, they made sense. If you were under the influence of a large range of narcotics/psychedelics...)

[Zathoth]

12 minutes ago, bleeder said:

My favorite band has the best lyrics of any band ever in my opinion. Dawes is the band.

Also, I'll take advice any day but I will not always follow it.

Thanks for the input!

It is really a matter of practice. I spend way too much time sculpting my lyrics into the closest thing to perfection that I can.

Just now, bleeder said:

Is that why people like the Beatles so much? (Actually, their lyrics weren't that random, they made sense. If you were under the influence of a large range of narcotics/psychedelics...)

It's mostly The Walrus that doesnt make any sense and that was written to make as little sense as possible. Lucy in the Sky is painting a surreal dreamscape, that is all it is trying to do.

[StormyQueen]

One thing that has helped me immensely in songwriting is a technique I learnt a few years ago. Once you know what Yu want to write a song about, like a theme or story, just write down phrases or words that come to mind when you think about this. Then once you have those, build on those again, and try to get more and more poetic as you go. After you've got heaps of phrases, just start to patch them together into a coherent sounding song.

For example, say I want to write a song about the plot of Mistborn. I could start off with the phrase 'really epic story'. From there I could move into changing one of the words to make it sound cooler, such as 'story of ages'. Then, take another idea like 'mitborns' lead it into 'mistcloaks' then just fancy it up by adding some adjectives turning it into 'a whirl of cloaks and daggers'. Then, once you have enough, you can just peices it together, adding in some simpler phrases such as 'mist' or something. You could cobble even that into some form of verse/chorus, and it becomes easier to write out a whole song when you have lots and lots of phrases and ideas.

Anyway, that's what I do, hopefully it helps somewhat, although for me it tends to be a bit more of an instinctive process. When in doubt, just act like you're some famous poet who is (somewhat pretentiously) describing whatever your theme is. 

[soyperson]

38 minutes ago, CalypsoDreaming said:

One thing that has helped me immensely in songwriting is a technique I learnt a few years ago. Once you know what Yu want to write a song about, like a theme or story, just write down phrases or words that come to mind when you think about this. Then once you have those, build on those again, and try to get more and more poetic as you go. After you've got heaps of phrases, just start to patch them together into a coherent sounding song.

For example, say I want to write a song about the plot of Mistborn. I could start off with the phrase 'really epic story'. From there I could move into changing one of the words to make it sound cooler, such as 'story of ages'. Then, take another idea like 'mitborns' lead it into 'mistcloaks' then just fancy it up by adding some adjectives turning it into 'a whirl of cloaks and daggers'. Then, once you have enough, you can just peices it together, adding in some simpler phrases such as 'mist' or something. You could cobble even that into some form of verse/chorus, and it becomes easier to write out a whole song when you have lots and lots of phrases and ideas.

Anyway, that's what I do, hopefully it helps somewhat, although for me it tends to be a bit more of an instinctive process. When in doubt, just act like you're some famous poet who is (somewhat pretentiously) describing whatever your theme is. 

Ok. Thanks for the advice!