Unravel the Methods of Master Lyricists with an Ordinary Notebook

Becoming a master lyricist takes years, even decades of study and practice. But the good news is: you can get a meaningful start today. If you’ve got a little free time, you can start now.

Two Buckets: Style and Content

To begin, you need two separate places to write stuff down. Divide a notebook into two sections, or grab two manila folders. Creating two text files will work too.

Whatever medium you choose, the important thing is that you label one of these sections “STYLE” and the other “CONTENT.” Together, these two sections form what we’ll call your “Copybook”.

From now on, while listening to music, keep an ear out for phrases of lyric that speak to you. Any clever turn of phrase, arresting image, insightful line, anything at all that grabs your interest and makes you feel something.

Then, when you hear a line of lyric that you love, make a note about it any way you can. Write yourself a post-it, step out of the shower to jot it in a notebook, or pull over safely to the shoulder of the road. Write down the title of the song as a reminder to return to it later.

There are two general reasons a given lyric might grab your attention.

1. It might be because of great content–maybe the ideas expressed in the song resonate with you.

2. The lyric might grab you because of great style–maybe there’s a cool turn of phrase, an intoxicating cluster of rhymes, a striking metaphor… basically whenever any cool writing skill gets flexed, that’s style.

One way to think of it is: content involves what the songster says, and style is how she says it.

Normally these two elements of a song are fused inseparably together. What we’re going to do is slice the song in half like a grapefruit to reveal the delicious structure and the juicy essence of the song: in one section of your copybook, the song’s content; in the other section, the song’s style.

Analyzing a Song For Style

So let’s say on your way to work you hear a line of lyric that hits you like a sucker punch, dead center in the heart.

As soon as you can, write or print out an accurate lyric sheet for that song. Grab a cup of coffee and a blue pen and start marking that lyric up. I suggest setting aside at least 20 minutes to really focus and settle into the world of the song.

You might want to mark any or all of the following:

Rhyme and other language sounds: rhyming techniques, rhyme schemes, alliteration, etc.

Imagery and figurative language: lyric imagery, descriptions, similes, metaphors

Lyric structure: arrangement of song sections, number of lines per song section, length of lines, structure of the most striking lines

While marking up a lyric, keep an eye out for any specific strategies and techniques that you’ve learned about in your study of lyric writing. Mark and label these techniques wherever you find them.

The more you know about the craft of lyric writing, the more you’ll get out of studying songs this way.

Analyzing a Song For Content

You can also study a lyric for its central ideas and themes.

Ideas for songs can’t be copyrighted, and for any given idea there are thousands and thousands of different ways to develop that premise into a full lyric.

As an example: how many songs use the premise of “an empowered person singing about a breakup and moving on with their life?” Just off the top of my head:

• “Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover” Paul Simon
• “I Will Survive” Gloria Gaynor
• “Forget You” Cee Lo Green

All three of these songs connect to the theme “Breaking up and moving on” from a different angle. And of course there are thousands of other lyrics that revolve around that core concept.

There are even whole genres and song forms that have loose premises built right into them. A few examples:

• Nocturnes create an atmosphere of nighttime.
• Ballads are story songs–often love stories set to music.
• Blues songs tend to be about personal hardships and struggle.

At the heart of every song is a condensed core idea that every word of the lyric revolves around. Any lyric’s premise can be boiled down to just a few words of description.

As the drunken sailor knows all too well

Take a sea chantey for example: the first verse of “Drunken Sailor” lays out the whole concept of the song.

“What shall we do with a drunken sailor?”

The rest of the song is just a long, enthusiastic brainstorming session of ways that the ship’s crew might mess with the unconscious and unfortunate sot:

Drop a lobster down his britches!

Put him in the crow’s nest and watch him fall out!

Shave his [NSFW] with a rusty razor!

Given the number of times this song has been sung since the early 1800’s in all of the world’s oceans, it’s believed that hundreds, even thousands of original verses have been invented for this tune–each verse being another creative, cruel, and hilarious prank on the haplessly drunken sailor.

I’ve invented a few verses myself. I especially like:

Draw [NSFW] on his face with a magic marker!

Here’s the moral of “The Drunken Sailor”: one core premise can sprout boatloads of unique treatments from different writers. You can borrow ideas from existing songs and invent totally original new material based on that central premise.

Here’s the second moral of “The Drunken Sailor”: don’t pass out drunk on a boat.

Layers of Analysis

You’ll love some song lyrics for their form and style.

You’ll love other lyrics for their ideas, their messages, and their content.

Sometimes–oh, happy day–you’ll love both.

Bear in mind too that you’ll live and grow with certain songs as you learn more about the craft of lyric writing. Maybe early on the imagery in a song captures your imagination, so on your first pass, you marvel at the lyric’s lavish descriptions. Months later, you listen to the same song again and maybe the rhyme scheme is the thing that most impresses you now–a surprising and unusual pattern.

The more you learn about the craft of lyric writing, the more detailed your analyses will become, and the more you’ll learn.

Writing things down and marking up lyrics is a way of really making techniques and ideas stick in your mind. It helps you connect the techniques you learn with lyrics you love. As you analyze any given lyric, try to really pinpoint exactly why and how that lyric appeals to you, both as a listener and a writer.

Some tunes you’ll study just once and move on. But you’ll find yourself returning to other lyrics again and again, continuing to learn from them for years to come.

Two ways to write an original song

At this point you may be wondering how exactly we bridge the gap from analyzing song lyrics to writing song lyrics of our own.

There are many ways to go about that–but here are two of the simplest and most powerful kickstarts to writing lyrics of your own.

1. Take any aspect(s) of style–rhyme schemes, turns of phrase, poetic techniques–and brainstorm new content to fill them with.
2. Take an existing premise (aka the song’s content) and express it with your own unique blend of techniques and your own style.

Perils of imitation

Borrowing from other songwriters is a totally normal and ethical way of piecing together bold new lyrics of your own–but only if it’s done thoughtfully. Here are a few pointers to help you avoid the most common pitfalls of imitation:

Find your own angle. Imitate intelligently, approaching ideas from your own stylistic preferences and your own unique life experience.

Draw from many different sources to avoid sounding like a clone of any one artist or any one song.

Be critical. Appreciate well-crafted work, but acknowledge weaknesses you find as well. Even the best songwriters write a mediocre line now and then. Learn from everyone’s best methods, but try also to avoid their weaknesses.

Study the craft of lyric writing as often as you can. This will bring a constant fresh stream of new techniques to your attention. The more techniques you absorb, the better-stocked your toolbox will be.

Lyrics worth analyzing

Of course, you do need to pick good examples for all this to work. Here’s an incomplete list of lyrics I’ve found instructive and inspiring, either because of content, style, or both.

• “Alice” by Tom Waits
• “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell
• “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman
• “The Fabulous Ones” by Blackalicious
• “Mojo Pin” by Jeff Buckley
• “Four Women” by Nina Simone
• “Elephant Talk” by King Crimson
• “Brother” by Murder by Death
• “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” by Paul Simon
• “Why?” by Andrew Bird
• “Misery is the River of the World” by Tom Waits
• “The Late Greats” by Wilco
• “Heavy Metal Drummer” by Wilco
• “Strawberry Wine” by Matraca Berg and Gary Harrison
• “Killing Me Softly With His Song” by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel
• “Slow Like Honey” by Fiona Apple
• “Fast As You Can”, also by Fiona Apple

Conclusion

Creative, original work often begins as a reaction to the work of others. If you resolve to spend even 20 minutes a day analyzing great lyrics, you’re going to accumulate a lot of knowledge over the coming week, month, year, and beyond.

One slice at a time, you’ll absorb the talents of master songwriters–until you can stand comfortably among them.