Guest BigPoppaKev Report post Posted February 21, 2003 I'm sure most of you guys out there have tried your hand at writing a song or two but what do you think it takes to like really write a meaningful song. Like some people can just sit down and it flows. I don't think I am all that good at it but I was wondering if you have any advice or anything. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Nevermortal Report post Posted February 21, 2003 I've tried, and I've sucked. It takes some talent to write a good song. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest BigPoppaKev Report post Posted February 21, 2003 This is my first attemtpt at writing a song, may be a little sappy but oh well, a little feeback would be nice: As each day passes by I don’t even want to try It isn’t worth my time But in the end I will be fine I shouldn’t even care But I can’t stop what I feel It is like my heart has a tare Maybe time will help it heal The pain inside is killing my very existence Whatever I do doesn’t make a difference That you cannot see I just wish my heart was free Time, Time, Time I just wish there was more I could do With each passing day things seem more blue I just sit here and think what we could have together But I guess we weren’t meant to be with each other Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest CoreyLazarus416 Report post Posted February 21, 2003 I'm okay when it comes to verses and catchy sing-along choruses (I expect Agent to comment on my musical preference aiding to my knack for catchy choruses), but I struggle sometimes. Here are two songs I've written, lyrics and guitar parts too (minus solo's, because I'm a born rhythm guitarist, meaning I CAN'T SOLO FOR SHIT). "No Place For Man"We're going to war... And so, at dawn The solider marches With fear of death in his eyes He never will forget The words his father said No matter how hard he tries Reach the next town His muddy clothes brown As he wants to remember life Looking for a girl To give his mind a swirl A woman that isn't his wife He wipes off the dust Mind filled with lust A woman to make him feel alive Body turns to mush Acting like a putz As he loses his will to survive The siren is declared Is the soldier repaired? He no longer thinks of this hell He grabs his helmet fest Perhaps this won't last And he thinks to himself This is no Place for man (3x) Back to the fields... Orders coming from The setting of the sun Instructions to commit suicide Tries to keep his couth No knowledge of the truth Just goes along for the ride Friends dying alone The king gets his throne By spilling the blood of his brother Spirit is worn Clothes tattered and torn Then turns around to kill another Slay your enemy Destroy his family Firey death that awaits Burn the village down Houses to the ground Destroy the city's gates Such a simple young man No knowledge of the plan Does everything that they tell Witness the violence Deafened by silence As he thinks to himself This is no Place for man (3x) Napalm Burn it all down Bodies Slam to the ground This is no Place for man (6x) "AKKK-47" Lying mouths and foolish minds Trying to survive on borrowed time Chickenhawks with a hand to the sky Trying to survive on borrowed time Spread the word Of stupid dreams Kill the color The leader screams "Nothing lives That isn't us" In our lives Our lies we trust No more blacks Only whites Long to see The fires burn bright But no more It's time to die Too bad for them ...I got my... A KK K 47 (8x) Civil unrest and the purest lies Trying to survive on borrowed time Under the hoods I see fear in their eyes Trying to survive on borrowed time Spread the word Of stupid dreams Kill the color The leader screams "Nothing lives That isn't us In our lies Our lives we trust" No more blacks Only whites Long to see The fires burn bright But no more It's time to die Too bad for them ...I got my... A KK K 47 (8x) Spread the word Of stupid dreams Kill the color The leader screams "Nothing lives That isn't us" In our lives Our lies we trust No more blacks Only whites Long to see The fires burn bright But no more It's time to die Too bad for them ...I got my... A KK K 47 (16x) I also wrote a kick-ass song today, but it's all on guitar, so I need to put lyrics to it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest IDrinkRatsMilk Report post Posted February 21, 2003 If you want to write lyrics, this is what you've gotta do, seriously. Just write them all the time. Be able to recognize when something you've written sucks, necause you're going to write a lot of crap. Just churn out some lyrics at any spare moment, and they'll be horrible at first, but keep doing it, and they'll get better and better. No real technique, it just takes practice. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest T®ITEC Report post Posted February 21, 2003 IDRM is totally right. I used to think that I could write lyrics, but I only actually did so once. The best thing to come out of my batch was a song called "Die Jeff Die". Oh, that was.. the literal definition of "ghey". Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Agent of Oblivion Report post Posted February 21, 2003 Nail on the head, rats. Personally, I don't try to write deeply meaningful lyrics, because that means you've got to write a deeply meaningful song to go with it, and that's even harder. Also, don't even fucking try to do something politically motivated unless you know exactly, meaning word for word, what the point you want to make precicely is, THEN make it into lyrics. Here's some of my stuff: --- Dead flesh on dry cement The slow red trickle tries to walk No burden of breath Flesh like chalk, She screamed until her veins were empty. --- See, that song, should I put music to it, is about 20-30 seconds. Good length for grind, and fairly sick. Does that say anything deeply personal or meaningful that's going to change anyone's life? Fuck no, and I don't want it to. I'm not the type to write really personal stuff, and I don't want to try to play puppeteer with someone else's personal shit. It just is what it is. The thing is, shit gets open for interpretation, and that's where the shit hits the fan. It's obviously about some girl killing herself, I don't know who, I don't know why, It's just the act itself. Those other two topics are different songs. Where the interpretation comes in is when people think "Gee, maybe it was a girlfriend, or a sister, or something..or else it's talking about how suicide happens to all kinds of people every day, and it's speaking out against it!" when in fact I just made up a scene in my head where some girl slits her wrists. That's it. Bottom line, know if you suck, and don't get deeper than what your ability allows. If need be, let the audience interpret things. At least that's my two cents.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Mik at Cornell Report post Posted February 21, 2003 "AKKK-47" Lying mouths and foolish minds Trying to survive on borrowed time Chickenhawks with a hand to the sky Trying to survive on borrowed time Spread the word Of stupid dreams Kill the color The leader screams "Nothing lives That isn't us" In our lives Our lies we trust No more blacks Only whites Long to see The fires burn bright But no more It's time to die Too bad for them ...I got my... A KK K 47 (8x) Civil unrest and the purest lies Trying to survive on borrowed time Under the hoods I see fear in their eyes Trying to survive on borrowed time Spread the word Of stupid dreams Kill the color The leader screams "Nothing lives That isn't us In our lies Our lives we trust" No more blacks Only whites Long to see The fires burn bright But no more It's time to die Too bad for them ...I got my... A KK K 47 (8x) Spread the word Of stupid dreams Kill the color The leader screams "Nothing lives That isn't us" In our lives Our lies we trust No more blacks Only whites Long to see The fires burn bright But no more It's time to die Too bad for them ...I got my... A KK K 47 (16x) Um, holy racism batman. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest CoreyLazarus416 Report post Posted February 21, 2003 I knew somebody wouldn't get the point. I'm pretty anti-KKK, anti-Aryan Nations, and anti-racist. Read the verses. It's also kind of obvious with the line "Under the hoods I see fear in their eyes." Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest cynicalprofit Report post Posted February 22, 2003 If you want to write lyrics, this is what you've gotta do, seriously. Just write them all the time. Be able to recognize when something you've written sucks, necause you're going to write a lot of crap. Just churn out some lyrics at any spare moment, and they'll be horrible at first, but keep doing it, and they'll get better and better. No real technique, it just takes practice. yeah, thats how I do it, and after you write 99.9% crap, you'll hit the .1% gold. Ive gone through atleast 6 notebooks in the last 6 years, alot fo stuff was only started and never finished, but its not in waste, because I can always go back and rework things. Just write it all down and be ready to edit as you see fit. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Vitamin X Report post Posted February 22, 2003 If you want to write lyrics, this is what you've gotta do, seriously. Just write them all the time. Be able to recognize when something you've written sucks, necause you're going to write a lot of crap. Just churn out some lyrics at any spare moment, and they'll be horrible at first, but keep doing it, and they'll get better and better. No real technique, it just takes practice. yeah, thats how I do it, and after you write 99.9% crap, you'll hit the .1% gold. Ive gone through atleast 6 notebooks in the last 6 years, alot fo stuff was only started and never finished, but its not in waste, because I can always go back and rework things. Just write it all down and be ready to edit as you see fit. the notebooks statement reminds me.. has anyone ever read that Kurt Cobain - Journals book? seems like he hit gold quite a bit in it, then again he probably had a lot of shit in there I myself have always been able to put pen to paper, but of course there is a difference between SONG writing and LYRIC writing. My difficulty has been in songwriting, so it's always one thing or another I guess... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest godthedog Report post Posted February 23, 2003 i'm a really good writer, & i'm more versatile than most people i know: i can write some really poetic prose, i'm good with dialogue, i can do scripts, plays, stories...but i cannot write a song or a poem to save my life. i wrote gobs & gobs of songs in middle school (along with a ton of other stuff). and i got progressively better at all the other stuff, but my songwriting ability never improved. so i just gave up on it, & i haven't gone back to it since. i'm so self-conscious about how bad my songwriting ability is/was that i can never be comfortable sitting down & writing a song. so i pretty much conditioned myself to not think like that anymore. and music is a huge inspiration for everything i write, i try to imitate music in a lot of it, but i can't get the music itself. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Neil-o-Mac Report post Posted February 23, 2003 I'm a bit of a songwriter, so I might as well post here and give a bit of an insight into how I do it. Most of the stuff I've written & recorded (available at http://www.soundclick.com/delusi0n, BTW) I've generally came up with the music first, be it a chord progression, a riff, a bass lick, whatever. When that comes I jump into Cakewalk Pro Audio and start sketching it out with General MIDI sounds (except the drums, where I use my favourite drum soundfont(s), cause I'll use that drum part in the final version, same goes if I want to have any strings, synth or whatever). Sometimes when I'm sketching out the music I'll get a lyrical idea, or a theme in my head for the lyrics. Then, I'll whip out the V-Amp (digital guitar amplifier modelling unit for direct recording, for those who don't know ) and lay down the bass part, then the guitars. Again sometimes I'll get lyrical ideas here. Sometimes I won't. As far as writing lyrics go, I can be quite wildly imaginative when I want to be. One of the guys in my college band says my lyrics have an 'epic' feel, as one mf my tunes has lyrics about smoke above the treetops and mountains filling the sky. Must be all that sci-fi, video games and prog I'm into But yeah. Lyrics are the hardest bit for me for sure, unless I have a theme or an idea in mind, which helps a bit (for example, I wanted to take the storyline of your stereotypical concept album like Tommy or Snow and turn it into a condensed rock tune. Because I basically ripped the storyline off from Snow I managed to write the lyrics in 15 minutes ). As for advice, I'd agree with whoever it was who said that you should write as often as you can, even if it's shite. The more you do it the better you get, and the easier it gets. Hope that's helped some people Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Agent of Oblivion Report post Posted February 23, 2003 One could always just pull a Dax Riggs, and do an astronomical amount of hallucinogens, pass out on the beach, and come to a couple days later, surrounded by pieces of paper with lyrics scrawled on them. Acid Bath rules. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest redbaron51 Report post Posted February 23, 2003 my lyrics are as cheesy as Dream Theater's lyrics Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Choken One Report post Posted February 23, 2003 I can't do music but I've always been good writer and I am partically good at Poems...Which wouldn't be too much different then Lyrics, I imagine... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest JAxlMorrison Report post Posted February 23, 2003 Here I am gonna post a couple, and I would appreciate your thoughts. DO YOU LIKE IT? I'm just here to ask a few questions And learn for myself a simple lesson So sit back, relax, puff away on that blunt I'm a little bit pissed, so prepare for the brunt Planes crash down our symbols of freedom Did you ask yourself what the hell have we done? Cops, firemen with families burn, it's a little rotten Our desensitized asses have already forgotten So tell me, do you like it? Now, onto the old assholes Schools have warped kids minds to the point of homocide Force feeding them bullshit, it's their brains you have fried Giving up their lives and taking others with them Just for a couple of days in a newspaper column Hey Mom and Dad USA, why do your 16 year olds give in? Instead of at home, they wanna be fucked up, dead or in prison So tell me, do you like it? Now for years, political lies have held many in frustration Yet you keep electing figureheads to your corporation Many people cry for change, it'll never be America will never learn from the mistakes of history So the terrorists want us dead, they've picked out a plot And until we give a shit, we all continue to rot And tell me, do you like it? Now, back to the young assholes So as your nation collapsed, you continued to lag I saw you, you fuck, on the way to your next bag You don't get life, come and read my directions And start respecting women, goddamn walking erections And like your dick, your life usually comes up limp But it don't matter, right, in your eyes, you're a pimp And tell me, do you like it? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest JAxlMorrison Report post Posted February 23, 2003 UNTITLED (FOR NIKKI #2) It may have been in bits and pieces But I tried to give you the best of me I know I come with folds and creases And I am mostly my own enemy Your storms will always cloud up my sunshine Regrets? Well, I wish you had known me I'm a drinker, yeah, you'll always be my favorite wine So why is it in your bed I feel the most lonely? Nailed in my head are quotes about the wisdom of excess This person I've invented is my only roadblock to success Shit, if I had a mountain of coke in front of me, I'd do it Am I wrong to see no reason to put you through it? I recognize my problems, I don't want them to be yours My best moments are when love for you seeps out of my pores I'm an alleycat, incapable of being the type of man you need Thoughts of this, wasted talent cause me to make myself bleed You have needs, wants, I refuse to fulfill The thing that hurts me most is that I love you still Until the day comes that I finally find peace and rest I hope you'll come to realize I only wish you the best Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
