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Lyrical Ideas Are Everywhere. Just Listen!
It’s amazing the amount of lyrical ideas we can pick up if we just listened out for them. This concept is explained very clearly in an article by Shamir Rele from his “Songwriting & Beyond” blog called “Songwriting Tips – Listen For Lyrics”.
Personally, I found this article very useful. I hope you do too.
Do you ever have a time where you’re searching for lyrical ideas? I know I do.
Some of you may have already read my newsletter ‘Super-Charge Your Lyrical Ideas’ – and hopefully you’ve grabbed some idea’s from it. Here, I’ll go into it a little bit more.
You should certainly take what is happening in your daily life and try and ‘listen for lyrics’ as they happen to you.
Overheard Chit-Chat
For example, I overheard a conversation at a restaurant the other day (which usually isn’t very difficult) and somebody said the phrase “there’s just no use in me trying”. I immediately jotted it down, came home and starting to write a song based around that phrase.
The song was about a relationship and the girl tried her best to keep it together, but it was sinking situation and the hook (chorus) would sing “there just ain’t no use in my trying”.
This is a very simple yet powerful idea.
Write about your Friends Situation
There isn’t anything like taking ideas from your friends or relative’s life. Of course, if it’s seemingly negative then you may not want to tell them where the inspiration came from 
If your friend’s mother just had a heart transplant and the family is going through grief, then why not write a song about it? In fact, why don’t you go one further and make out like the father is cheating with another woman?
Fictionalizing a real life story is often a great way to write a song. Perhaps the father cheating can be a feature of the song.
Yes, this may seem harsh – but look, who’s to say you have to reveal your sources of inspiration? Remember, you are only writing a song here.
Grab the Daily News
What’s happening in the world today? Earthquakes? Tsunamis? Politics? Violence? Racism? Think about the implications of events that are unfolding before your very eyes.
These are the things and the people of the world are listening and watching.
Remember to take things to a new level with your song – meaning think of the depths of these events and circumstances and write from a ‘how this effects us’ stand point.
This is incredibly powerful because people will WANT to sing your song as it effects them too.
Ideas from TV and the Movies
How many times have you watched a movie and have been completely moved by it? This is exactly the feeling people experience when listening to a song they love. It makes them feel validated in some way.
The lyrics are totally congruent with their emotions. Writing about specific situations from TV and films in realistic genres (ie. not sci-fi and horror) will be a route to evoke somebody and then hopefully to like your song enough to want to hear it over and over.
As you can see, the above will surely get your ears listening for lyrical ideas in different situations. Once you make a habit of this, ideas will be flooding in your mind – sometimes non-stop.
Shamir Rele shows us that anyone can learn how to write a song with his ‘no nonsense’ styled approach songwriting tips.
Grab your tips here http://www.SongwritingTipsOnline.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shamir_Rele
No matter what I do, I find it a real challenge to write lyrics as freely as musical ideas.
I’m pretty sure that this block is a self imposed one however, it’s articles like this one that give me the confidence to write the lyrics that I want to write.
Anyone out there have other tips on writing better lyrics? Let me know, I’m all ears.
Until next time, happy writing,
Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Musician
Keywords: songwriting, songwriter, songwriting tip, songwriting idea, songwriting help, songwriting blog, corey stewart
Songwriting Tool – Oblique Strategies
Oblique Strategies (with the subtitle “over one hundred worthwhile dilemmas”) is a set of published cards first created in 1975 by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt.
It was designed to break creative deadlock by generating thought, discussion and inspiration from randomly chosen phrases or a cryptic remarks written on seperate cards. Oblique Strategies is now in its fifth edition.
I’ve mentioned Brian Eno before in my blog post “Favourite Songs – “By This River” By Brian Eno”.
In the post I mentioned that the song “… shows that Eno is a songwriter of extreme confidence”. Why wouldn’t he be confident with a songwriting tool like Oblique Strategies at his disposal.
A number of songwriters have used the concept of randomness as a songwriting idea generator.
Most notable of these writers is David Bowie who used the technique of cutting up words, throwing them up in the air and creating lyrics from the end result.
If my general knowledge is correct the songs that were written in this way are featured in his albums “Low” (1977), “Lodger” (1979) and “Scary Monsters” (1980).
I have been facinated by the Oblique Strategies concept for a long time and even though I’ve never used it as yet, I can see how they would be very helpful in my own songwriting process.
Like everyone else, I have songwriting ideas in my archive that I can’t seem to progress any further because I’ve set the idea in concrete. Every time I revisit the idea I find myself playing the same things over and over again.
It’s in these types of situations that I’d find the Oblique Strategies concept useful.
If you have taken my advice in my blog post “Brainstorming Possible Song Titles” and “Expanding On Your Possible Song Titles” you’d have a very large collection of lines, phrases and semi completed songs at your disposal.
Look at this list as your own personal set of Oblique Strategies.
Even if one line from your list sparks an idea that finishes a song that you’ve been agonising over for ages, it would’ve been well worth the effort.
Personally, I have a huge list that I add to every week. Pages and pages of random lines and phrases that I get from all sorts of places. I wonder if there’s a way I can share them with you.
Maybe we can create our own collective list of strategies and work on them together. What do you think?
In the meantime, here are some other Oblique Strategies links for you to look at:
Oblique Strategies Widget For MAC
Oblique Strategies – Web Version 1
Oblique Strategies – Web Version 2
Oblique Strategies – Web Version 3
Oblique Strategies – Web Version 4
Until next time, happy writing,
Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Musician
Keywords: david bowie, brian eno, oblique strategies, songwriting, songwriter, songwriting tip, songwriting tool, songwriting help, songwriting idea, songwriting blog, corey stewart
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