The three cornerstones of good songwriting are:

• The purpose of a song is to convey an emotion
• Lyrically a song is about one moment in time from an emotional point of view
• Musically a song is a balance of repetition and surprise

This post digs a little deeper into the lyric writing aspect.

I am primarily a musician. That comes easily to me. I had to work at writing effective lyrics.

• One moment in time
  That one moment is usually now. If the singer is remembering something, it’s in the context of what’s going on now. If the singer is thinking ahead, he’s still planted in the reality of now.
• Say one thing
  Each verse should basically say one thing. When you plan your song, come up with an outline of the entire song something like this:
  V1 – one thing
  CHORUS
  V2 – one thing
  CHORUS
  V3 or BRIDGE – one thing
  CHORUSEach time the chorus comes back, it should have a slightly different meaning because of the new context of the verse that sets it up.
• Punch lines
  There are always two planes of thought in a well written song: the logical plane and the emotional plane. Each couplet should be written with the two planes of thought intersecting at the last word (the link word). in other words, write it like a joke. A joke is also the intersection of two different planes of thought. The listener is led along the logical line of thought until the last word, which introduces a completely different plane of thought.Here’s a pun to illustrate the point – My last job was working in a muffler factory, but I had to quit. It was too exhausting.   “Exhaust” is the link word – joining the logical reason for quitting with the physical function of a muffler.Construct the last line of your couplet from the thought generated by the last word (the link), then work backwards. Come up with your setup rhyme word and write the lead-in line that ends with that word. That way you always write to the strong word.
• Bridges
  My rule of thumb for bridges is this. If you’ve written two verses and choruses and still feel that you haven’t made your point, then you need to write a lyric bridge. Lyric bridges can go two directions. They can be universal, as if to say everyone feels this way or this is the way the world goes. They can also go inward, as if to say this is how I truly feel in my heart. Either way, when you write your bridge, forget about your rhyme scheme or your lyric rhythm. Get right to the heart of the matter and just blurt out what it is that you are trying to say. Once you have that bit of prose, then you can let it lead you as to what to do musically with it.

I hope this helps you when you hit a lyric wall.

The meaning of your lyric depends on which word gets the emphasis.  For example, the phrase “I’m going to the store” could mean:

• I’M going to the store    (not you, me)
• I’m GOING to the store  (in motion, on the move)
• I’m going TO the store    (not away from it)
• I’m going to THE store   (the only one, the most important one)
• I’m going to the STORE  (not the office)

As a songwriter, you have two ways of creating emphasis: pitch and rhythm.

PITCH

“Pitch” is how high or how low a note is.  There are always exceptions, but as a rule high notes get more emphasis than low notes.  For example, the old nursery song “Row Row Row Your Boat” begins with a low pitch on the word “row” and rises to a higher pitch on the word “boat.”  In this case, “boat” would get the emphasis in the phrase.

RHYTHM

Rhythm is concerned with the beat or the flow of the melody. In general, longer notes get more emphasis than shorter notes, and remember – space counts.  If you sing a note and wait a while before singing the next note, it has the same effect as holding the note out. There are three ways to emphasize a melody note with rhythm:

1. Start the note at the usual place and hold it longer
2. Start the note earlier and release it at the usual place
3. Wait a little longer before singing the next note.

In addition to these two ways of creating emphasis, singers have one more tool: 

TONE

Tone can be changed in a number of ways.  For example,

• If you’ve been properly singing every line and then you speak a couple of words, the spoken words will stand out and get emphasis.
• If you’ve sung a line in a normal tone and then sing from the back of your throat for a couple of words, those will stand out.
• If you “growl” on a few words, those will stand out and get emphasis.

These variations become especially useful when you’re singing a song demo.  Remember that musically your song should be a balance of repetition and surprise.  Too much repetition and the listener is bored.  Too much surprise and the listener is confused. If you’ve sung the chorus the same way twice, it’s time to make a change for the third time.  If you’ve already sung the first verse straight, you have the freedom to give the second verse a little more expression. Take note of where you want to create your emphasis , try each method – pitch, rhythm, and tone, and use what works best.

I’ve given a course on songwriting and presented a few talks on aspects of it to various groups. While I haven’t published anything formally, I wanted to use this blog to at least give the main points of my approach. Whenever a songwriter comes in the studio with a song that may need a bit of work, I always use these principles to guide my suggestions on improvement.

1. The purpose of a song is to convey an emotion to the listener.
   Ask yourself what emotion you want someone to feel after hearing your song. If you get that emotion back from your listener, you have succeeded as a songwriter. I’m not talking about deep, heavy emotions necessarily. It may be that all you want someone to feel is light and carefree. Maybe you want them to be amused. There is a huge range of feeling and emotion between happy and sad, so try to be as specific as you can.
2. Lyrically, a song should be about one moment in time from an emotional point of view.
   Without getting into a lot of lyric writing technique, this principle alone should keep you on target. This is not to say you can’t change scenes and go from one point in your life to another in one song. It’s that, if you do, each of those scenes should still be about the same moment, even though they occurred at different points in time.
3. Musically, a song should have a balance of repetition and surprise.
   Too much repetition creates boredom. Too much surprise creates confusion. We need repetition to remember the song after it’s over. We need surprise to create a pleasant excitement for our ears.

Remember, there are no rules in songwriting, only expectations. We are used to hearing things presented in a certain way; however, the three-minute verse-chorus song is not the only way that a song can be done. No matter how you choose to write your song, if you adhere to these three overriding principles, you should be able to keep your listeners’ interest, deliver the emotion you were feeling when you wrote it, and connect.