When it comes to writing songs, I have found most artists, producers and beatmakers struggle with lyrics. Since you are reading this article I will assume you are looking to become a better lyric writer. I'm going to give you a couple of tips you have probably never thought about. I think most artists don't understand that to write better lyrics they need to expand their vocabulary. Most people, in general, get their vocabulary from family and friends. Most young people get their vocabulary from family, friends, television shows and the latest music craze (video and radio). This is not necessarily a bad thing but, it is very limiting. A limited vocabulary will limit your lyric writing.
In school, the way we learned how to write sentences was to read sentences. Once we read the sentences we would then emulate what we saw. Many of us listen to songs and we sing the lyrics, but we never take the time to read the lyrics so our writing suffers.
Tip 1) One of the best ways to improve your lyric writing is to read song lyrics. Google the lyrics to your favorite songs, and not so favorite songs and read them. Read the lyrics without the music and then read them with the song playing. You will get a new appreciation for lyric writing, because it is truly an art form.
Record companies, publishers and even producers have specific people they go to for lyrics. These people specialize in lyric writing. If you research songwriters you will see many of them pop up on hit song after hit song. That is because they are always writing and studying lyrics and studying life (lyrics come from life).
Tip 2) Another good exercise is, find out who the writers are on your favorite songs, find other songs they have written and read them too. You will get a jolt of inspiration and you will increase your lyric writing greatly with this technique.
When I was a kid I would sit and listen to an album (now we have cds) with the words in front of me. I learned so much about production and lyrics by doing that. I wanted to know who wrote and produced every song on an album. That curiosity lead me to become a musician, songwriter and producer.
So remember, you need to become a student of great lyrics and great lyricist. So read song lyrics, books, magazines, newspaper articles, internet articles (like this one) and anything else you can get your hands on to increase your vocabulary. When you come across a word you don't understand go to dictionary.com or google to find its definition. And most of all keep writing.
Richard RJ Johnson is a musician, producer and songwriter. His works have appeared on the CW, LATV, BET, Oxygen, Superstation and Pepsi among others. He is the owner of Floric Music, which is a company geared toward empowering independent artist through information and education. For more information visit http://www.floricmusic.com/.
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