how you write your lyrics?

[Docmattic]

I read the producers block thread and thought of this.

I used to write alot of songs, then stopped for a few years to concerntrate on compleating school.

I now find myself eager to write again but often i sit down, and cant come up with any good ideas. I just end up writing a shit song that I will never use. Have people found that it starts commin easier when you do it regularly?

But the point of the topic is not that. simply, what are your conditions when you write. Do you like to sit at a desk with head phones on and just write. Do you like to have the speakers pumping and freestlye, write what your comming up with down then fix it up to make more sence later?

Ive found the later gets me in the zone, speakers and pass pumping, get the blood flowingthumbsup

how does everyone else do it

[jikky]

Mannnnnnnnn!!!! Hmmm alotta stuff comes to me at times when I don't have paper, so I'll spit in in my phone recorder or type it in a memo pad. I also write whatever comes to me at anytime that I can. I have stacks and stacks of notebook spirals where I wrote shit from as far back as 14 years old.

I have instrumentals I go thru that motivate me, I have listening parties with other rappers, sometimes other songs motivate a subject in me, however it may come i take it as I can get it. I throw an instrumental in the Cubase, a compressor on the insert, crank the speakers, and spit all over tha pop filter! Lol my style is that southern Texas type rap.

Same here tho as far as school. I used to write 2 or 3 songs a day. And I'm pushing myself to knock out a verse and a hook a day. I just finished my last directing project today so I'm pushing myself to knock out alot while I'm outta school for this next few weeks.

Overall I write where ever I'm at. Anywhere anytime period.

[cynic one]

Originally Posted by Docmattic

Do you like to have the speakers pumping and freestlye, write what your comming up with down then fix it up to make more sence later?

how does everyone else do it

1: concept
2: blast the verse on loop, freestyle out loud.

i'll just keep freestyling and coming up with shit and refining it. i usually write it down in 4 bar chunks until i'm done. rework that if shit doesn't make sense.

seems to work better for me when i do it out loud, cause you come up with rhymes and other patterns when you can hear yourself, rather than in your head. at least that's the best way for me.

shit will come to me in the day too, and a voice recorder on the phone is the best way to capture that. i've got little 2-4 bar things i'll use as a chorus, or building block for a song.

[T. Gundersen]

I'm with cynic. I spend around 12 hours a week writing and I simply put on my beat in loop and start rappin. Every time I feel 4 or 8 lines 'are there', I just push record. Sometimes I get out of loop mode and arrange a little/listen to what I've come up with to keep the lyrics consistant.

For this method to work, you have to come up with the concepts of the song first - you have to know which direction you're going in. It usually takes me anywhere from 30 mins to 4 hours to write a complete song this way, and sometimes I need to change up a few lines/words at a later time.

Most important thing for me is: be a fan of the beat/feel the vibe of the beat so you'll be inspired, get an interesting concept/focal point for the song, work concentrated and fast so you get results.

[author]

Originally Posted by Docmattic

i sit down, and cant come up with any good ideas.

Just write! Non stop! Then you'll find wonderful ideas everywhere. Here's a few:

Originally Posted by Docmattic

when you do it

Originally Posted by Docmattic

a shit song

Originally Posted by Docmattic

I will

Okay, Beatles already used that one -- but the next ones are even better:

Originally Posted by Docmattic

get the blood flowing

Originally Posted by Docmattic

fix it up

Originally Posted by Docmattic

in the zone

[The Beatsmith]

that freestyle shit doesn't work for me. everything comes out too simplistic and basic, unless you're supernatural or something.

get the beat. play it back. write to it til your verse(s) are done.

if you're stuck, leave it and go for a walk, watch tv, listen to other music for inspiration, go out and chill with your friends, and when you feel like it, come back and carry on

[PettyCash]

Freestyle to the beat while im making it...

Then take whatever concepts I come up with through freestyle and start writing... the rest is usually history from there.

Anytime I get stuck and cant think of anything worth spitting or writing, I stop and try working on a different song.

As a producer/artist, this is also one of the reasons why I like making complete songs in one day, from start to finish. Sometimes when you let a beat sit for a day or two its hard to come back to it with the same exact energy you had when you first laid the beat down.

[pootkao]

I also write and write and write wherever and whenever inspiration strikes. ALWAYS keep a small notebook and pen on you.

If you've been lyrically quiet for a while, it may take some time to get back in the pocket, but you'll get there. Just keep on climbing the wall, and write and write and write and eventually everything will just click again.

[PettyCash]

Originally Posted by The Beatsmith

that freestyle shit doesn't work for me. everything comes out too simplistic and basic, unless you're supernatural or something.

One thing you can do to improve that is work on expanding your vocab, so you have a wider variety of words coming to mind. Another thing you can do is just expose your mind to more of the things around you. The more experience, wisdom, knowledge, etc., that you have, the more you will have to say.

It also helps if you are a person who is naturally talented at improvising. Thats why you see a lot of actors who take on music, and a lot of performers who take on acting. The ability to improvise on the spot is a skill and talent that is transferable to many other different things. Also, the ability to competently freestyle usually tends to be something that more extroverted individuals possess.

[Synthy08]

i mumble to the track, it just comes to me, then the words start forming

[Agzilla]

I second the mumble technique for finding a decent flow...

Then all i need is a first line..a good one....

Watch it fall into place like dominos son....

One after another all linked up..

Record it freestyle....not all inked up...

The time it takes to write it down lyrics..

Can cost me my spontaneous spirit..

Try this method don't decline it..

Once recorded you can always refine it...






lol.

Zz.

[Docmattic]

Yeh i worked out that freestyling to the beat, coming up with some focus points and refining it has been working for me. Im really pleased with some of the things i came up with the other night. The flow was crazy, i cant wait to get it recorded.

I normally hate splitting sessions up though, as petty cash said, energy is lost.

[beat you down]

i don't write, well haven't been writing for a looooong *ss time, but i heard kanye explain how he usually works. i think it was a mtv interview after his 2nd lp dropped, anyway...

now i look at it, it's common sense really but...
it was something like:

*come up with a concept. no concept, no direction.

*write your hook first... (i recall him stressing the importance of this a couple of times ), so this will be like the guide for your verses, like a climax each verse builds up to/works towards.

*write your verses.

[The Beatsmith]

Originally Posted by PettyCash

One thing you can do to improve that is work on expanding your vocab, so you have a wider variety of words coming to mind. Another thing you can do is just expose your mind to more of the things around you. The more experience, wisdom, knowledge, etc., that you have, the more you will have to say.

It also helps if you are a person who is naturally talented at improvising. Thats why you see a lot of actors who take on music, and a lot of performers who take on acting. The ability to improvise on the spot is a skill and talent that is transferable to many other different things. Also, the ability to competently freestyle usually tends to be something that more extroverted individuals possess.

Dude, i can freestyle. But imho the written stuff i do is too complex (in content and flow) to come from a process like that

If i wanna freestyle i freestyle. If i wanna make a track, I just sit down and write.

I prefer producing and mixing nowadays anyways

[T. Gundersen]

Originally Posted by The Beatsmith

Dude, i can freestyle. But imho the written stuff i do is too complex (in content and flow) to come from a process like that

If i wanna freestyle i freestyle. If i wanna make a track, I just sit down and write.

I prefer producing and mixing nowadays anyways

If you want to work with pop-hop/mainstream hiphop/whatever you want to call it, simple is the key. Complex and overthought don't necessarily make people dance. Not saying your method of working and doing complex lyrics is no good - I can enjoy that style as well - just saying it depends on what you want to do.

Also in regards to flow, some of my funniest stuff flowwise comes from impro and just feeling/listening to the beat while mumbling stuff using the voice as an instrument like I'd have played a rhythmic synth patch or something.

[Touchmaster]

sit in front of cubase with the beat and a mic, maybe having locked all doors and windows and hdrunken a cup of charis tea, and freestyle along to a topic (or anything and see where the vibe of the beat takes you), while recording, get into the vibe, listen back to your freestyle picking out bits you like, save these, repeat until youve got lots of dope little flows and lyrics, refine the dope flow bits so all the lyrics are good, refine the dope lyrics bits so the flows are good, get a rough framework for a tune, any catchy bits consider spending some time turning into a hook, bounce off good bits youve got, repeat until youve got everything you need for a song.

works for me, you get some real natural, bouncy sounding stuff like this, or at least i do. I dont like going back to a CD, pen and pad any more. I have to actually rap it to get a good feel, for me its all about the feel. the lyrics still have to be real good too though. But the feel is priority number one, its music, not a novel.

[phillysoulman]

My main forte is r&b in the "classic sense".

I usually start with a strong title...something that people can latch on to.
I have always kept a legal pad with lists of titles as they come to me.
It could be based on something someone has said in a conversation, a thought, an occurance,etc.

Then I'll develop the concept of the song around that title.
All great lyrics have to have a beginning, a middle and a "payoff" so to speak, and not just a bunch of words just thrown together.

Ill start with a great first verse to set up the song and then build into the pre hook which will then introduce a great chorus which people can sing along to.

Ill then go to a great second verse which will further explain the songs concept...then pre hook two which will be different from the first one...then chorus... and then maybe a bridge if the song needs one.


I am very much into the CRAFT and FINE ART of songwriting and always strive for songs which I feel will be rerecorded over the years.

[Touchmaster]

sure I always make sure my tracks have a strong 'narrative arc' in a feel sense if not always in a literal sense.
I certainly dont just chuck a load of words together randomly. however the details are fleshed out with live improvisation, which I often find makes things more imaginative and less trite, and takes you on tangents youd never go on by sitting down and 'crafting'. tapping into the subconscious brain can be a wonderful thing. I come up with the real catchiest sing along choruses just by sing along to beats, balls out (not literally), for a while and recording the results until ive got some off the wall business. My choruses seem to get quite a lot of love.

[Jay-]

I listen to another song and sing along with my palm pilot on voice record but I swap out the theme and compleatley tell a new story.

I find it best to copy the melody of another popular track.

[beat you down]

Originally Posted by phillysoulman

My main forte is r&b in the "classic sense"...

hey, i've seen you mention this before... what is your definition of this?
thanks.

[phillysoulman]

Originally Posted by beat you down

hey, i've seen you mention this before... what is your definition of this?
thanks.

My definition???

Im not certain as to which part of my post you are refering to.

[Igotsoul4u]

I hate to say it but when I can't come up with anything I light up. I usually have the entire song done within the next 20 minutes. I hate to use it as a crutch but it works so damn well for me.

[beat you down]

Originally Posted by phillysoulman

My definition???

Im not certain as to which part of my post you are refering to.

sorry,
your defenition of r&b in the "classic sense".
some names/titles perhaps?
thanks.

[DaKid]

One of the last people I recorded bugged me out.

He walks in to put a verse down on a song... he hasn't heard the beat or anything yet so he had to come up with his verse at the place.

He walks in, we chat a sec and catch up a bit cuz I knew the cat from way back, so I say-

me - "aight lets go downstairs to record. you need a pen and a pad?"

him - "nah I'm good."

me - "what you got your own?"

him - "Nah I write up here" (pointing to his head)

I was a little nervous.

He sat in front of the speakers with his 16 bar loop for his verse just repeating for a good twenty minutes.... kinda nodding his head... Then he says, "ok ready"

Got in the booth and spit a hot ass verse!

I've heard Jay-Z doing that and other artists... but to actually see it was crazy.

[phillysoulman]

Originally Posted by beat you down

sorry,
your defenition of r&b in the "classic sense".
some names/titles perhaps?
thanks.

Being that Im an "old school soul", I tend to favor the great songwriters who have come before... the ones who really had something to say with their words and not just the "ima lick you till ya scream, and call the police" kind of nonsense.
Songs about LOVE and sensuality.

Take a song like "My Girl" by the Temptations where they said:

"Ive got sunshine,on a cloudy day
When its cold outside,Ive got the month of May
Now,I guess you'll say,what can make me feel this way?
My Girl,talkin' 'bout My Girl.

Thats just one example of a song for the ages, a song that will live forever and which wil no doubt be recorded over and over again somewhere in the WORLD.

They didnt have to say.."yo bitch..lemme f**k you till ya bleed..amd then you can smell my d**k" to get their point across
Im saying that because as a songwriter you will NEVER get covers (remakes)on those kind of somgs...they will not send your kids to college

ya feel me??

[beat you down]

thanks, yeah...
nowadays nothing is left to the imagination which sucks i agree.
kind of like adolescent vs mature stuff.

[phillysoulman]

Originally Posted by beat you down

thanks, yeah...
nowadays nothing is left to the imagination which sucks i agree.
kind of like adolescent vs mature stuff.

yeah, but those songs were bought by adolescents at that time..thats the difference

[Autumn]

I like my lyrics to be descriptive "The dark sky now, is a crinsom light, the sun reaches up & the morning rises"

If, your struggling for a concept. Play the beat on loop until something hits you. You will find yourself nodding away, mumbling lyrics to yourself. Then BAM! an idea.

[taturana]

for me lyric writing is just like the douglas adams's definition how to fly... you throw yourself at the floor and miss...

it's easy to get to caught up on some dead end so you have to make your mind wander and after that you edit things and make them cohesive...

a friend of mine who is a great lyricist would write one sentence and then make another sentence that answers it... and it did work for her...

[beat you down]

Originally Posted by phillysoulman

yeah, but those songs were bought by adolescents at that time..thats the difference

yes but the shock value of vulgarity isn't going to last forever.
so it'll balance itself out one day is my guess.