Lyrics

Song Breakthroughs – How Do They Happen?

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© I.Woloshen

Have you ever had a song breakthrough? Do you know what I mean by that? I’m talking about a song that somehow stands apart from your usual fare…something that doesn’t seem at all your “normal” style of writing. How does it happen, and when it does, do you fight it or do you welcome it?

First of all, the “rut” we all get ourselves into once in awhile often creates a kind of frustration that is actually very useful. I relate it to what happens to children when they are small…just before they have a growth spurt, they go through a small period of restlessness and discomfort. As a parent, you KNOW that when they start getting restless, it’s because a change is coming! If, as a songwriter, you try to view your ruts as the frustration before the breakthrough, this might help you to get through them.

So what do you do to get to the “breakthrough” part? This should be treated exactly the same as when you are simply low on inspiration, which is pretty much the same thing. Many songwriters discuss the idea of listening to other music, something completely out of your normal realm, as being helpful in this cause. Trying other instruments can also bring about a musical epiphany. If you’re stuck on ideas for song topics, read a book that you would not have chosen before, go to a place you haven’t been before and people watch, or read some lyrics from your favourite lyricists.

I’ll tell you something that recently worked for me. I sat down with my guitar and started to pretend I was a completely different singer…I was basically “acting”. And for some reason, this brought out a very unusual (for me) chord progression, melody, and a kind of phrasing I hadn’t tried before. What is “phrasing”? In musical terms, it’s a grouping of words and melody. For instance:

Mary had a little lamb
Little lamb, little lamb

The first line has one phrase, the second has two. I’ve separated the phrases with commas. Do you write in long phrasings, or do you create a series of short ones in, for instance, a verse?



But I digress 🙂 The point is that pretending I was someone else just put me in a completely different head space, and out came something quite new for me. This is what I would consider a “breakthrough”. I could have just laughed at it and moved on, but instead I allowed myself to explore it a little. Don’t throw anything away too quickly! If you’re not sure about it, record it on your trusty little digital recorder and then listen to it later with fresh ears. Then again, you might be extremely excited at what is coming out and have the drive to finish it right then and there. The opposite could also be true…you could finish it and then when you’re listening to it later, it could sound like complete garbage. Oh, well 🙂

In the beginning, as you’re honing your songwriting craft, you might have quite a few breakthroughs. A learning environment almost always inspires. As time goes by, you’ll likely find that you fall into more predictable patterns with your writing as well. This is not necessarily a bad thing…hey, maybe it’s just your style! But if you feel stagnant, then it’s time to do something really different in your life that will change your perspective and help you to find a fresh path. Changing your songwriting environment may also help. Have you ever tried to write something in the great outdoors? On a beach or under the stars?

Another point: don’t be afraid to explore this breakthrough with several songs. Sometimes painters will draw a number of sketches of the same subject before they focus on one perspective and paint that. If you’ve come up with something really different for you, let it develop a little by writing a couple of songs in the same style. Breakthroughs don’t come along very often…so make the most of it!

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Songwriting Topics Poll

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© I.Woloshen

I did a little survey on the BMI website (of which I am a member), just to see how many people used certain words in their titles. The fact is that you can’t copyright a title, so if you wanted to write a song called (gag) “I Love You”, you could certainly do that, provided you don’t plagiarize someone else’s song. Now don’t get mad at me if you’ve actually written a song called “I Love You” 🙂

Do you want to guess how many songs are listed in the BMI catalog with just that title? 2,304. I’m asking myself, do people think that this is an original title?!?! There are probably many others in the ASCAP catalog, even more in other countries, and probably ten times that many that have never even been registered! I picked two other titles I thought were obvious…well, these weren’t quite as common. The title “I’m Alright” had 70 entries, but “You’re The One” had 619!

Next, I decided just to use single words…I picked some random ones, and here’s what I came up with:

You (or) I – so many titles I had a runtime error!
Love – 31,404
Me – 25,014
Don’t – 23,943
When – 19,176
Why – 7,291
Life – 5835
Time – 7778

And then I picked some odd words…even they had entries!

Dog – 1302
Spoon – 101

There are 101 registered titles with “spoon” in them???? 🙂

Try it yourself…go to the BMI website (link above) and type in a few of your most recent titles 🙂 Think they were pretty original? Ha! I found one of mine that was all by its lonesome…”Fusion and Fire”. I thought that was pretty unique and I was right, at least in BMI’s database.



So let’s talk about titles for a moment. What’s so important about a title? Well, I guess in some ways that’s up to you. Sometimes you write lyrics where the title jumps out and you and seems pretty obvious. A lot of people use the “hook” line as a title. Sometimes, there is no obvious title…recently someone asked a question on my forum about the importance of titles in instrumental songs. What do you think? I occasionally use less obvious words or phrases for my titles because I like the sound of them…I will never use something that isn’t actually in the song somewhere. As far as I’m concerned, I want people to remember the names of the songs I play. You improve your chances of that when the title is actually in the song!

But this article is meant to be about topics. I would venture to guess that the most common topic is love, or some aspect of it. Most of the songs I review tend to involve this topic. So if you don’t want to be like everyone else, what else can you write about?

I was watching a series on Mark Twain the other night, and one thing that was mentioned was that he was most successful when he drew from his childhood experiences to come up with some of his stories. Do your songs have to be about you? Of course not. When we’re first starting out, the majority of us tend to write about ourselves…songwriting CAN be a rather self-indulgent form of expression. But you can use your past experiences, which are “truths”, to embellish your lyrics in a more universal way. Remember, “truths” in songwriting are very powerful. When you express something that is a common truth, people pick up on that. I once wrote a song called “One More”, which was really about a personal experience I had with the death of a friend. I get a lot of response from that song when I perform it, or when people hear it on my CD. I must have found a few universal truths when I was writing it that people can relate to.

Where can you find new and interesting topics? Well, if your past or your own experiences are not full of potential songs, what about the people around you? Their experiences may also be a source of ideas for you. Just make sure you discuss it with them, or at least make it anonymous enough so they don’t know it’s about them!! Beyond that, there are stories in newspapers, books and magazines. I wrote a song based on a true story that was on a television magazine-type of show…I didn’t write it immediately after, the but the story moved me so much that it stuck with me.

From the sounds of it, I’m trying to encourage you to write “story” songs. You can use the emotional impact of a story, or isolate small parts of it and only write about that. I have explained this in other articles, but the best songs require a beginning, a middle and an end. Sometimes people think I mean they have to be stories, but that’s not what I mean! I mean that the song has to feel like it makes sense, that it has a beginning, and one verse (one thought) leads to another and then it resolves itself, even if just to say nothing is ever going to be resolved. Does this make sense? In many song lyrics I read, the verses could be all swapped around and it wouldn’t make any difference to the song…whereas a song lyric that is well-written has every verse exactly where it makes sense, and would be ruined if any of them were changed around. THAT’S what I mean. Recently, a fellow who’s song I actually PRAISED for having a beginning, middle and end, told me to read it again! He didn’t get what I meant, and I probably didn’t explain myself well enough 🙂

Beyond this, you can write about places, spiritual things, or how much your job is a pain in the ass…hell, you could write a song about dancing! Of course it’s been done before…they ALL have, but not with your voice. The fact is that song topics are everywhere around you, and only you can express them in a certain way. And that is the most important point. If we sat down and listened to every single one of those 2,304 songs called “I Love You”…I wonder how many of them would use exactly the same phrases?? So even if you choose to write a love song, remember to write it with your unique songwriting “voice” and stay away from those old, worn out lines and expressions that we’ve all heard a thousand times before.

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Where to Get A Critique and What to Expect

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© I.Woloshen

First of all, let me say that I don’t privately critique lyrics anymore for several reasons. The most important one being that it takes a lot of time to do a proper critique of most lyrics, and I just don’t have that time anymore! Be happy for me, that’s a good thing 🙂

So what I want to do is give a list of places where you can post your lyrics for critique. There is no guarantee with any of them that you will get lots of critiques, or even good ones, but it’s really important to keep trying to get feedback on your songs, so these places are a good starting block. For most of them, you simply have to scan down to the “lyric critiques” section:

The Muse’s Muse forum is tops on my list because I know that Jodi keeps an eye out for what is going on there. I know how sensitive you all are to having your lyrics evaluated by people you don’t know 🙂

The Just Plain Folks forum is also a good one, and busy! You can also get feedback on your mp3 files if you have ’em!

If you do a search on any search engine using keywords “lyric critique” you’ll find a bunch more, I promise you, but the ones above are set up by people that I know and therefore recommend. Now, onto the “what to expect from a critique” part of our discussion 🙂



I’ve got other articles on critiques and how they work, etc., but I still find that many songwriters really don’t know how to judge a critique and what to take from it. The first thing you must realize is that many songwriters who will critique your songs on these boards are in the same position you are…they may not know all, but they are sincerely looking to improve their craft. You can expect some of them to pat you on the back…”great song!”…”wow, I really like this!”. This might make your head swell, but it isn’t much of a reality check 🙂 What you NEED from a critique can be broken down into several things:

1. Honesty. This doesn’t mean that the “wow, this is great” comments aren’t honest, but they really don’t help you much. There is no perfect song, and always something you can do to improve a song. Those who are willing to give you an honest assessment, are your best friends! Even if they don’t like something!

2. Meat & Potatoes. You need people to tell you, as much as they can, why something isn’t working for them. Do they misunderstand your lyric’s message? Do they get mixed up with your songs’ characters? What isn’t working and why? Don’t be afraid to ask questions, just remember not to sound too defensive 🙂

3. Suggestions. You can take them or leave them, but if someone suggests another way of writing something, give it a good look first before you decide to ignore it! You might not want to re-write exactly that way, but it might give you a better understanding of where they are coming from and what isn’t working.

4. Twice is Right. If you don’t agree with an assessment, that’s cool. But if you hear the SAME THING from more than one source, this is really something you should take a second look at! Don’t ignore it, don’t let your hurt feelings get in the way.

5. The Truth Hurts. Critiques are NOT easy to take in the beginning. But someone who takes the time to give you the hard facts, some real feedback, is worth thanking. So PLEASE remember your manners and thank them, even if they just mashed your song to pieces and flushed it down the loo.

Try doing a few critiques yourself on these boards so that you can feel what it’s like to be on the other side. Just because you don’t think you know enough, you can still offer some feedback, and that is a very valuable thing!

Okay, now take a deep breath, and put your lyrics out there!

[Oh, and p.s. – if you know of a great forum where you can post lyrics and songs for feedback, please let us know and add it in the comments below!]

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Vowels and Consonants and Syllables – Oh My!

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© I.Woloshen

When I was in Grade 7 I remember my teacher, Mr. Fergus, giving us word definition tests every week…I hated them. Words intimidated me for some reason. My vocabulary, I felt, was limited at best, and who the heck needed all of those big words anyway when you could use small ones? I still love the saying “Don’t use a big word when a diminutive one will suffice!”

Most of us understand the K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid) rule when it comes to vocabulary in songwriting. Don’t pop in a fancy word when the rest of the song doesn’t have any. Lyrics seem to be a struggle for a lot of songwriters…they are what I consider to be my weakest element in my songwriting! Why? Well, maybe I still picture myself sitting in Mr. Fergus’ class, dreading the next vocabulary test. As a result, I’ve spent a great deal of time working on my lyrics in the last few years in order to overcome my fear of them. And I’ve learned a few things along the way!

Most importantly, words aren’t just a bunch of letters strung together, they can actually “sing” in a lyric! Some words even sound like the emotion or sound you’re trying to express…”hiss” is one that comes to mind. These words are called “Onomatopoeia“…other examples are clang, pop, ding, wham, splonk, and splat.

You may have heard the term “scan” in a songwriting context. When a line in a song scans well, it has a flow to it, where the sounds of the words, the vowels and consonants all flow together beautifully. A line that scans well is easily sung. One that doesn’t, feels like a tongue twister!

The wrong word in the wrong position can completely blow a line….it can throw the tempo and feel off entirely. A lot of this comes from a songwriter not spending enough time and attention on the lyrics, including misplaced vowels and consonants, and bad placement altogether.

Oh, oh. We’re in English 101 class again 🙂 What is a vowel? Do you remember? A,E,I,O,U and sometimes Y. In the English language you can get two different sounds from each of these vowels, and different sounds from combinations of them. Bonus! And what are consonants? All of the other letters. I’m going to assume you know what a syllable is 🙂 What I want to discuss here is what vowels, consonants and syllables have to do with WHERE you place a word in a lyric and HOW you use it!

Let’s look at any old word…how about the word “it”. The “i” in “it” is a short sound…so an easy rule to remember is “short sound, short note”. For instance, you don’t want to sing the word “it” over a whole note (4 beats). Not only is the “i” in “it” short, but the word has only one syllable. And NOT ONLY THAT, but the word itself is not all that significant. What does that tell you? Don’t put it in a powerful position! For instance, here’s a simple line:

Don’t you know it

If you say this line in conversation, which words would you stress or emphasize? Probably “don’t” and “know”…the “you” and the “it” are not as significant. If you emphasized the phrase this way: don’t YOU know IT…it wouldn’t sound right!

Now look at that line again from another perspective. Which words could you place the longer musical notes under? The same words that are emphasized:

doooonn’t you knoowww it

The word “you” could also have a longer note under it. But the little word “it” will never work that way, certainly not very well! Words that end with a long vowel and no consonant, like “you” or “goodbye” work well at the end of lines, especially if the note at the end of a line is held for any length of time. Words with a hard consonant ending will SOMETIMES work, as in the example “don’t” above. “Don’t” ends with a hard “t”, but because it has a long vowel sound of “o” in it, the word can be sung over a longer note, and the “t” not sounded until the very end of the note. But it can also be sung over a shorter note, with a very quick ending. So let the natural rhythm of your lyrics dictate the flow of your melody…don’t force them into positions where they are uncomfortable!

Now let’s take a look at a verse of a song you probably won’t know, and you try to figure out how the melody might work with it:

Is this goodbye?
Well we haven’t said a thing all day
It’s almost time
So I’m wondering when the dam will break
(“Let It Go” Copyright © 1996 I. Woloshen SOCAN)

Look at the above verse and see if you can figure out the natural rhythm of the words…this, as we’ve said, is called the meter. It could probably be interpreted more than one way!

If you write music and melody first, which is what I usually do, the rhythm and meter of the melody dictates where a long or short vowel might be. Some people find this much more difficult or limiting when it comes to finding words that will “fit” into those notes. When I’m sitting down and creating a melody, sometimes as I’m singing kind of nonsense lyrics, a line or a phrase will pop out that works well with it. Most of the time I have the melody finished before I even starting thinking about lyrics. But I can always mess a little with the melody to accommodate a word or phrase that I really like. It really is very much like a puzzle, except that YOU decide what the end result is going to be and how the pieces will all fit together!

This is really only a brief introduction to vowels and consonants and syllables (oh, my!), and how they work in songwriting. But the next time you sit down to write a melody to your lyrics or fit some lyrics to your melody, pay close attention to the “sound” of the words, not just the sound of your notes!

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Self-Indulgence – Don’t Sound Like A Beginner!

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© I.Woloshen

Just to qualify what I’m about to say here: this applies to songwriters who are either performing or trying to pitch their songs, not necessarily to hobbyists!

After having listened to many, many songs, and critiquing lots of lyrics over the years, I can spot a “beginner” almost immediately! Don’t misunderstand, there is nothing BAD about beginner songwriters…we all have to start somewhere! As I’ve said before, it takes about 50 songs before you begin to find your songwriting “voice”, your individual style and content. But some songwriters take 100 songs to get there, and some never get there. Why? Well, it’s simple. It’s difficult to step outside of yourself and hear your song from another person’s point of view. And THAT is the whole key to writing songs that you want others to hear and love. Right?

What I’m going to discuss here ideally shouldn’t be implemented until AFTER your first draft…that’s because if you think too hard too soon, you’ll lose the connection with your creative self, and we can’t have that! So consider what I’m about to say once you’ve got the first version of your song in front of you.

The very first hurdle we have to overcome as writers is self-indulgence. Although “self” expression is probably why we started writing in the first place, it doesn’t have much weight when it comes to getting your material across to your listeners. Why do they want to hear all about you and your problems? You know what I mean? Self-indulgence happens when we get so enamoured with a chord, or a line, the sound of a note or a repetitive phrase, that we can’t let it go. This is “no-no” number one. The second no-no is when a song meanders on and on without any seeming purpose. It is NOT EASY spotting your own self-indulgence however! Here are some things to consider:

Repetition – I refer to this later in another article, but here is where I want you to understand the difference between “good” repetition, and “bad”. Popular music especially relies on a certain amount of repetition in order for the listener to remember! Rhyme helps too, but a “hook” or repeating line or musical phrase creates the memorable part of the song that brings a listener back for more. But how much do you repeat? Just enough and not too much 🙂 I once had a writer send me lyrics in which EVERY LINE ended with the same word! It’s not hard to see how this would create a yawn in no time! That is an extreme example, but I understood that he thought he was reinforcing his theme and how can you ever do too much of that? Well, you sure can.

Lyrically, I try to stick to the “three’s plenty” rule. If I want to use a word or phrase as a hook, if you will, I won’t repeat it more than three times in a chorus, for instance. If I had a four line chorus, the fourth line would be the “twist” or the surprise, or something different. But the shorter the lines, the less likely I’m going to repeat too soon!

(I want to make one destinction here…there is a difference between repeating a word that is IMPORTANT to the song [like the hook] and a word that is repeated in error! Sometimes I find that when I’m first writing, I use the same word twice in a verse or song without realizing it and when I get to the second draft or beyond, I’ll usually replace one of them.)

Musically I use the same rule. It is rare that I will repeat a musical phrase or melody more than three times within a verse or chorus. Here’s an exersize you can do to reinforce this idea. Sit down and sing the same short line four or more times. Try to pay attention to when it sounds cool, and when it gets tedious. Again, the length of the line has a lot to do with when that happens!

Meandering – this is almost the opposite of repetition! Some songs can go on and on and on and never get anywhere! Imagine listening to a long and boring monologue, no jokes, no purpose, just a continuous drone. I’ve heard many beginner songwriters write one like that, and I’ve written a few of those myself 🙂 This type of song is in DESPERATE need of repetition. You might be afraid to repeat too much and end up going in the opposite direction. Sit down with your song and plot out how long it takes you to repeat a musical phrase. So much of this is intinctual, so I can’t tell you you need to repeat every 10.5 seconds, but you HAVE to learn to listen to your own songs with some objectivity. If you have really long verses, think about repeating musical lines within that verse, don’t make the whole verse one long musical line. Does this make sense? If your verse is relatively short, there isn’t as much need for repetition, is there? Because you’re going to move on to the next verse more quickly! A repeated chorus can also satisfy this need for repetition somewhat. If your song doesn’t have a chorus, you still need SOMETHING that a listener can hang on to. A refrain will do that job…think about Bob Dylan’s song “The Times They Are A Changin'”. That line is the refrain…he doesn’t have a “chorus” in the song, just verses with that line at the end of each one.

Lyrically, meandering can be a little different. Sometimes a songwriter will send me a lyric that starts out with an idea in the first verse, and then moves onto another unrelated idea in the next verse, and another one…there is very little that ties these ideas all together. I find myself telling songwriters to “focus” a lot! Focus in on what your song’s lyrical purpose is. Plotting out a kind of storyline helps you to focus…write out a phrase that represents each verse and chorus, like this:

Verse 1
I just don’t want to see you anymore

Verse 2
What happened to the way things were?

Chorus
There’s nothing left of us

So I’m plotting out where I’m going with this song without getting tangled up in rhymes and meter and all of that, stripping it down to it’s main purpose.

A listener is almost ALWAYS waiting for the repeated part. If you make them wait too long, you’ve lost them. If you never get there, you bore them. There are simple listeners and sophisticated ones…you won’t please all of them, but your job is to decide who you are writing for and figure out how to leave them wanting more!

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