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Showing posts with label CREATIVE SONGLYRICS Manual. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CREATIVE SONGLYRICS Manual. Show all posts

CREATIVE SONG LYRICS Manual

CREATIVE SONG LYRICS WRITING
Self-teaching Manual




Self-Teaching Guide to

WRITING SONG LYRICS

By Paul Rodricks

    Have you ever felt the urge to write your own songs?
To compose your own lyrics ?
    Or a music lover and hobbyist wondering how songs are crafted?
    If so, Creative SongLyrics is just the right practical
self-teaching manual for you. Because Songwriting has
never been made so easy and simple.


     Is all about Lyrics Composing – Song forms, Title/Hook lines, Storylines and Themes, Rhyme Scheme, Crafting the Verse-Chorus-Bridge-Tag, Song Performing Styles and much more.
  
     The latest in Gospel/Worship Songwriting is also presented in a whole separate chapter devoted to it in this book.
  
     Become a successful Songwriter.  Compose your own Lyrics and Music to styles such as Pop, Rock, Blues, Country, R&B, Jazz and Gospel.



Please get your copy here:





Your comments and views will be appreciated.




Blog: www.paulswritersdig7.blogspot.com


Creative SongWriting

CREATIVE SONG LYRICS
Self-teaching Manual


CREATIVE SONG LYRICS
Self-teaching Manual



Self-Teaching Guide to

WRITING SONG LYRICS

By Paul Rodricks

    Have you ever felt the urge to write your own songs?
To compose your own lyrics and melody?
    Are you a lyricist wishing to set music to your lyrics?
Or a music composer desirous of writing the lyrics to
your music? 
Or a music lover and hobbyist wondering how songs are crafted?
    If so, Creative Songwriting is just the right practical
self-teaching manual for you. Because Songwriting has
never been made so easy and simple.


     Is all about Lyrics Composing – Song forms, Title/Hook lines, Storylines and Themes, Rhyme Scheme, Crafting the Verse-Chorus-Bridge-Tag, Song Performing Styles and much more.
  
     The latest in Gospel/Worship Songwriting is also presented in a whole separate chapter devoted to it in this book.
  
     Become a successful Songwriter.  Compose your own Lyrics and Music to styles such as Pop, Rock, Blues, Country, R&B, Jazz and Gospel.




FREE Sample Chapters from the Songwriting Manual, "CREATIVE SONGLYRICS" by Paul Rodricks.


If you have any questions or need assistance, please feel free to contact/email me.  



Click to Contact Author

or use the

CONTACT FORM



Your comments and views will be appreciated.

Paul Rodricks, 

Author, Songwriter & Music Composer 


Blog: www.paulswritersdig7.blogspot.com


PREVIEW of SECTION 2 - The Hook

CREATIVE SONG LYRICS
Self-teaching Manual


CREATIVE SONG LYRICS
Self-teaching Manual



Self-Teaching Guide to

WRITING SONG LYRICS

By Paul Rodricks

    Have you ever felt the urge to write your own songs?
To compose your own lyrics and melody?
    Are you a lyricist wishing to set music to your lyrics?
Or a music composer desirous of writing the lyrics to
your music? 
Or a music lover and hobbyist wondering how songs are crafted?
    If so, Creative Songwriting is just the right practical
self-teaching manual for you. Because Songwriting has
never been made so easy and simple.


     Is all about Lyrics Composing – Song forms, Title/Hook lines, Storylines and Themes, Rhyme Scheme, Crafting the Verse-Chorus-Bridge-Tag, Song Performing Styles and much more.
  
     The latest in Gospel/Worship Songwriting is also presented in a whole separate chapter devoted to it in this book.
  
     Become a successful Songwriter.  Compose your own Lyrics and Music to styles such as Pop, Rock, Blues, Country, R&B, Jazz and Gospel.



Lyrics: The Composition

SECTION TWO 
(Continued)

SAMPLING

 “To seize the flying thought before it escapes us is our only  touch with reality.” –  Ellen Glasgow


The Hook

(Songs are BEST remembered by their Title/Hook Line)


So, strive to make yours a memorable one.

Your title must be a short one, up-to-date and catchy enough to grab the listener‟s attention. Through the title or hook-line, the listener comes to know what your song is about as the story is built up on the title. The listener also gets an indication from the title as to the mood and rhythm of the song, i.e. the nature of the topic (love & romance and so on) and the type/style (pop, country, ballad, rock and so forth). Therefore, your title should be clear enough and appealing to most people for the song to become popular. Also bear in mind that that lyrical mood and rhythm should match that of the melody.

Purpose & Role of the Hook

You weave lyrics around the title. A simple story line or a narrative ballad or some dark and heavy lyrical stuff that begins with the first verse, builds up in the following verses, and resolves in the last verse, and/or with some additional twist in the Bridge section of the song, fading away in the tag. The Chorus all along summarizes your story line. That‟s the gist of it. Nothing hard and fast to restrict you from the freedom of attempting and coming up with some very good song lyrics in the best manner you can.

Usually, it is the title line of your song that is the HOOK. It very much matters that this title line/Hook attracts the immediate attention of the listener as he or she may relate to it due to some previous association of similarity, or from some personal experience or just that the Hook seems to incite curiosity.

Repeating the Hook

As a general guideline, the HOOK/Title-line can be the first line of your verse or the last line and can be repeated as the first line of your following verses. The hook must definitely be repeated, preferably not less than twice in the Chorus. Sometimes, depending on the genre of the song, the whole of the chorus lyrics is a mere repetition of the hook. However, it would not be wise to over-use the hook/title line.

Here‟s an example of an 8-line Chorus from a hip-hop song, “Baby, What‟s Love if It Isn‟t You?” where the hook is repeated twice at the beginning and twice for the ending. Moreover, the central theme of the chorus is the same as the hook.

Chorus:

Oh, Baby, what's love if it isn’t you?
Tell me, Baby, what's love if it isn’t you?
Breathing a new life in me
The kind of the love I never knew
So wholesome and wonderful
What more could I ask of you?
Oh Baby, what's love if isn’t you?
Tell me, baby, what's love, if it isn’t you?

Copyright 2004 Paul Rodericks

Song Forms & Hook Lines

Some popular song-forms like AACA, use the hook as the first or last line of every verse and not at all in the chorus.

Again, in the AAA form, the hook can be any one of the verse lines, repeating for the same line in the subsequent verses or as the top line of every verse.

BABAB or ABABCB format may have the hook line in the chorus, generally the first and the last line. Given a choice, make the hook the last line of your chorus.

Some Musical Requirements of a Hook:

1. Put a catchy rhythmic melody to your hook that calls for attention

2. Your rhythmic hook melody can come in as an Intro (perhaps a four-bar riff) or as part of your instrumental opening lines to the song and/or amidst vocalization.

3. Use a chord progression that leads into your opening verse or chorus, producing some contrast with that of the latter.

4. Keeping in view the above, experiment with a few different approaches – using both instrumental and vocal variations.

Story-Form Development Questionnaire

1. What is the subject, topic or theme of your song lyrics?

2. What is the subject category, such as love & romance and themes relating to social, political, philosophical and religious aspects?

3. Who moves the story forward - the gender of the character – male or female or neuter?

4. Where, When and How does the story, incident or plot develop?

5. Are the stages of story-development properly distributed in the verses and linked to the summary in the Chorus?

6. Is the time sequence properly maintained in all the sections and is clear to the listener?

7. Do the lyrics contain dialogue and is the speech form properly maintained, including the genders in all the sections of the songs?

8. Is there any interesting part of the theme that you may have overlooked or not fully developed?

9. Does the theme have a universal appeal or limited to a specific area or audience?

***



NEXT: Section 3
"The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas.”
- Linus Pauling.

 Whence the Topic or Main Theme?

Do not miss out the next interesting component of Songwriting.

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Was this useful to you...?  If you have any questions or need assistance, please feel free to contact/email me.  





Click to Contact Author

or use the

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Your comments and views will be appreciated.

Paul Rodricks, Author & Freelance Writer


Blog: www.paulswritersdig7.blogspot.com




















SECTION 2 - The Title Line or HOOK (Contd.)

CREATIVE SONG LYRICS
Self-teaching Manual


CREATIVE SONG LYRICS
Self-teaching Manual



Self-Teaching Guide to

WRITING SONG LYRICS

By Paul Rodricks

    Have you ever felt the urge to write your own songs?
To compose your own lyrics and melody?
    Are you a lyricist wishing to set music to your lyrics?
Or a music composer desirous of writing the lyrics to
your music? 
Or a music lover and hobbyist wondering how songs are crafted?
    If so, Creative Songwriting is just the right practical
self-teaching manual for you. Because Songwriting has
never been made so easy and simple.


     Is all about Lyrics Composing – Song forms, Title/Hook lines, Storylines and Themes, Rhyme Scheme, Crafting the Verse-Chorus-Bridge-Tag, Song Performing Styles and much more.
  
     The latest in Gospel/Worship Songwriting is also presented in a whole separate chapter devoted to it in this book.
  
     Become a successful Songwriter.  Compose your own Lyrics and Music to styles such as Pop, Rock, Blues, Country, R&B, Jazz and Gospel.



Lyrics: The Composition

SECTION TWO 
(Continued)

SAMPLING

 “To seize the flying thought before it escapes us is our only  touch with reality.” –  Ellen Glasgow

The Title Line or HOOK
(The make or break element of the Song)

Title Line Can Tell a Tale

You could take the first title, “Why does it have to be this way?” and see what random ideas you can come up with. First of all, the questioning nature of the title invokes curiosity. The listener would be keen enough to know what‟s the explanation (story) behind the Why?

This title can be interpreted in different ways:

(a) From a human interest point of view, it could mean a relationship on the rocks. Here we could develop the reasons for the relationship going wrong and maybe asking for or offering reconciliation or patch-up of some sort. Everything appeared to be going fine until some diversion came up, viz. In the form of another person, a misunderstanding, past history, a malicious rumor, some untoward incident or happening, affecting the relationship of the parties involved and so on.

(b) In a general way – the Title could be making a circumstantial statement about an event or happening or from a point of view arising from whatever manner of living – thoughts and action. And we could develop a story from any such personal or social theme.

Let‟s subject the title line, “Why does it have to be this Way?” to some scrutiny from a flashback point of view of a personal relationship:

Who is making this statement?
Who else is involved?
What led to making this statement?
What went wrong? How did it come about?
When did this happen?
Who is to blame?
Is reconciliation possible?
Do the parties desire it?
Or is it the end, kaput, to the relationship?
Regrets? No Regrets?
How does the theme end?

Here‟s one way to make a start:

Why does it have to be this way?
You and I made a pledge
Never like memories to fade away
But now how strangely we behave
The pretenses we act and the things we say
Past caring who or how much we hurt
Leveling the score, never to trust
Why does it have to be this way?

As an imaginative exercise, take the above theme forward and see what you make of the rest verses, a chorus and bridge. Of course, you could rewrite the above example to suit your theme.

Start making a list of words or phrases by way of expressing the thoughts, emotions and images that come to your mind from answering such queries. Write down as many as you can. To be more graphic or colorful, look into the thesaurus for other similar words and phrases and then check them against those of opposite meanings.

Proceeding with this line of examining any title or theme and depending on what answers you come up with, you will at least have a glimmer of an idea or some outline of a story line for your song lyrics, which you can later improvise with better lyrics incorporating graphic, emotive words and phrases of varied structure for overall contrast in the song.

Next: The Hook
(Songs are BEST remembered by their Title/Hook Line)

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SECTION 2 - The Title Line or HOOK

CREATIVE SONG LYRICS

Self-teaching Manual



Releasing Soon 


Self-Teaching Guide to

WRITING SONG LYRICS

By Paul Rodricks

    Have you ever felt the urge to write your own songs?
To compose your own lyrics and melody?
    Are you a lyricist wishing to set music to your lyrics?
Or a music composer desirous of writing the lyrics to
your music? 
Or a music lover and hobbyist wondering how songs are crafted?
    If so, Creative Songwriting is just the right practical
self-teaching manual for you. Because Songwriting has
never been made so easy and simple.


     Is all about Lyrics Composing – Song forms, Title/Hook lines, Storylines and Themes, Rhyme Scheme, Crafting the Verse-Chorus-Bridge-Tag, Song Performing Styles and much more.
  
     The latest in Gospel/Worship Songwriting is also presented in a whole separate chapter devoted to it in this book.
  
     Become a successful Songwriter.  Compose your own Lyrics and Music to styles such as Pop, Rock, Blues, Country, R&B, Jazz and Gospel.



Lyrics: The Composition

SECTION TWO

SAMPLING

 “To seize the flying thought before it escapes us is our only  touch with reality.” –  Ellen Glasgow

The Title Line or HOOK
(The make or break element of the Song)



     Make the title prompt you to write the song. After all it is the title of your song that people will relate to most – first and last. People are fascinated by the title when they listen to a song or read it on the CD cover. If your title interests you, the same could happen to others. So it is your duty to ensure that the title is the best one you can come up with, one that also tells what your song is about.

     How and where do you start? Impromptu! Well, if you are undecided on a topic, start randomly making a list of titles – whatever short lines or phrases that crop up in your mind – on whatever subjects or topics. Do not critique and do not reason. Make it appear like fun. Just keep on writing till you have listed down quite a few of them to begin with.
     
     You can then sort them out and you will be surprised to find more than line of phrase or expression worthy of expounding or depicting into a full-fledged theme. You start dressing up the title/s colorfully, that is, finding or replacing the original words that form the title with those most appropriate ones that sound as emotional and graphic as possible. Your thesaurus would be of immense help here. Once you have the title ready or even the hint of it, the other elements of the theme will flow through your thought-process as you proceed building up the theme from any perspective [point of view], part-by part, from a mere outline into a complete set of lyrics. It is also possible sometimes that you would want to compose the title after you have done the chorus or a couple of the verses first, that is, considering that you already have an idea of what the theme of your song is about.


Starting Guidelines

     1. Look into your random list. Have you short-listed some of the titles that appear interesting, however vague?
     
     2. Alternatively, switch on the TV and latch onto some news item titles or action dialogues from movies and interviews that sound interesting to you. Other immediate sources are magazines, books, newspapers, CDs covers, conversational phrases, even slang, sermons or just anything that catches your fancy.
     
     3. Write down the actual words or titles you hear or read. Then swap, add and replace words of the title line to make it finally look as personal and to your liking as possible.
     
     4. Study the title/s from various angles or point of view. If you apply the five W‟s – What, When, Where, Why and How to any title or line of thought, you will find yourself coming up with many ideas one or two of which you could develop into your song‟s storyline. This will be discussed in greater details later when dealing with the development of each section of the song.

Title Line Can Tell a Tale

“Why does it have to be this Way?”
“Don’t Let Us Be Messing"
“Playing the Waiting Game"
"She has Stars In her Eyes”
"This Sunrise is Mine”
“Never Seen So Many Rainbows Before”

Each of these titles is easy to grasp, to relate to and each can tell a story from many different perspectives or points of view.


To be continued...


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Paul Rodricks, Author.