Lyric Mastery - The Art of Writing Song Lyrics

How many of you have a message for the world, but you need help finding your voice or your audience?

Close your eyes. Take a deep breath.

I want you to imagine millions of people listening to your song.

I want you to imagine thousands of people knocking your door down wanting to know when you come to their city to play them the song live because that song is so valuable to them.

You can open your eyes.

And I will tell you this.

This does...

Lets move away from all those love songs we’ve talked about in the past because I recently had the pleasure to listen to the song “The Comeback” by the London-based musician Drew Davies.

As stated on metaltalk.net, this song by Davies “is a call to arms for society's malcontents and a tip of the hat to an era of alternative greats such as David Bowie, Sisters of Mercy and Nine Inch Nails.”

And in this episode, we're gonna t...

In today’s episode, we’re gonna explore what it looks when we write about facing a crisis.

We’ve all been in a dilemma in our life, right?

It’s when no matter what we choose, there’s always something to lose, but also something to gain.

But it’s normal if we fear the loss more than having the potential to gain something.

Being in a dilemma, there’s just so much uncertainty attached it.

And we might fear making a choice at all.

So when we...

Today, I wanna answer a question that I got recently asked in my Facebook Group.

It’s from Hudson.

And he asked:

How can I combine every part of the song so that it contributes to one central meaning of the lyrics?

That’s an awesome question, and let’s talk about it right now.

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If you’re like me, you have something valuable to share.

Something that matters.

And that we know that can help someone who will listen to our song. 

And to get our message across in a way that bypasses a listener's critical mind, we have to wrap what we have to say into an experience.

And we create that experience through the journey we send our song’s main character on.

So that’s ...

Today, I wanna take the chance and introduce myself to you. Especially, I wanna tell you the story about the time in my life when I was completely lost, on my own, literally at the end of the world, and how one song gave me the strength to carry on… and what all of that taught me about what makes lyrics powerful.

So it’s all about my journey, so to say, and why I’m so passionate about the power of lyrics. Because this is t...

You know, I always consider what happens in a powerful lyric like a journey.
 
It’s basically about watching a character move from one point in their life to another.
 
They are in a certain external or internal situation, and they wanna get from where they are to a better place.
 
So there’s always this little journey that the song’s main character goes on.
 
But before anyone moves in life and take...

In today’s episode, I want to talk with you about you, your purpose, and why we write lyrics. 

For me, when it comes to writing – no matter if it’s novels or lyrics – I use my words as the means to communicate with my audience and deliver a meaningful message that has the power to make an impact on them. 

And I guess, since you are here, you have the same desire. You want to be heard because you have something to say about life. And ...

In today’s episode, we’ll go through the lyrics of  “Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not” by Thompson Square.

And I tell you, as I first listened to the song. I thought: Quite nice. But I didn’t give the lyrics much thought. But now, after I have studied the lyrics and their storytelling power, I must say, I’m super surprised by how well-crafted those lyrics are. 

It’s like when you say: Yes, Game of Thrones by G.R.R. Martin is a nice fanta...

#043 - Welcome to part 3 of our mini-series of Attention-Grabbing Opening Lines.

In episode 41 of the Stories in Songs Podcast, I’m gonna throw a lot of questions at you.

Why?

Listen to the show and find out. ;-)

Episode Overview

[00:00:53] The Intriguing Question

[00:03:37] Different Types of Questions to ask

[00:07:13] Song Examples that start with a question

[00:09:49] The Intriguing Que...

#040 - Creating A One-Sentence Lyric Outline To Guide Your Writing Process.

In today’s episode, we continue with steps Two and Three to Creating A One-Sentence Lyric Outline To Guide Your Writing Process.

If you haven’t listened to episode 38 yet where we talked about the character’s literal action, please go back to that episode and listen to it. It’s vital if you want to move forward with me in this episode. 

I’ll include ...

#39 - Today, we continue with another technique of how you can create an attention-grabbing opening line for your lyrics beginning.

And specifically, we talk about the Shocking Statement and different ways how you can pull it off to stun your audience and make them wanna hear more!

Episode Overview:

• [00:01:08] The Shocking Statement
• [00:03:35] Different Ways to Create a Shocking Statement:
• [00:07:02] More examples of songs...

#038 - Let's address the question of why we should look at the craft of storytelling when we write our lyrics – apart from the impact the power of storytelling has on our audience. 

Let's focus on our writing process.

Because when we write our lyrics, it’s good to know where we are going. Otherwise, we’re just writing words that are all over the place. 

And that’s going to feel messy to our listeners. So to write a good line...

#037 - How can we write an attention-grabbing opening line so that we can hook our listener with our first line?

In today’s age, thousands of distractions compete for our audience’s attention. And if our song doesn’t hook our listeners straight away, they might not listen to it at all.

But we want to get heard, right?

Songs are a powerful way to make an impact on someone – in as little as three minutes. But in order to get our message...

#036 - How To Answer The Question Of Relevancy when it comes to Writing Lyrics.

Have you ever listened to a song only to end up confused because something in the lyrics seemed off? Did you struggle because something was missing or didn’t understand why something was included because it didn’t seem relevant?

In today’s episode, I want to talk with you about how you can figure out what’s relevant to include in your lyrics and...

#035 - “Can A Song Save A Life.” Lyrics ain’t an afterthought to making a song. They are equally as important as the melody and the song’s production.

I mean, writing Songs as well as Listening to Songs can be the greatest aid in a desperate situation. It can keep us from falling down a cliff and empower us again. Like Galadriel said to Frodo: “May it be a light to you in dark places when all other lights go out.”

That’s the power of...

#034 - How to Crush it as a Support Act to Get People Interested in Your Stuff.

After all, it’s all a question: Will they sing your lyrics back to you, or will they not?

For me as a listener, yes, I’ll definitely shout back: Viva La Victoria!

Now what that means and how you can get people excited as a support act – even if they didn’t come because of you – you’ll discover that in this episode. We talk about how you can hook, captivate...

#033 - What does  “character development” or “developing characters” mean?

And do we, as songwriters, really have to think about how we create our song’s character? And if so, how can we show the audience a character in the lyrics that they can invest themselves in? That is so believable that they themselves have the power to carry the message of the song?

If you ever thought that the task of character development is for w...