Terrific --- thanks very much. Your ideas clarify many things for me.

Tom

14) Keep It Conversational
Write a lyric the way you would say it. Lyrics are conversational, don't reverse word order for the sake of rhyme, only use words you'd use in a natural normal conversation. KEEP IT SIMPLE.
Harlan Howard said, write songs so people who are half listening can half understand.

02) No Rules
There are no rules, there are only tools, guidelines. You'll find exceptions to everything below, but it's generally good to use the tools, unless you have a really good reason not to. It's important to understand each guideline.

This tip is genre specific. It is a good tip for country music lyrics but not such a good tip for hard rock or heavy metal, where lyrics can often be very mystical and poetic.

26) Bits and Pieces
Songs rarely arrive fully baked. They usually arrive in bits and pieces. It's up to you to put the lyric together. Writing lyrics can be like solving puzzles.

I hope this helps you write better songs, Let me know if it does.

Ande Rasmussen

Hey Andy,

First off, thanks for all these tips...several I already knew, but others, I was like, DUH, what was I thinking? Plus, it's nice to have this concise list to refer back to.

It seems I never have enough time to write, but no matter what's going on, my song radar IS on 100% of the time. My family and friends are constantly subjected to "hmm, there's a song in there somewhere". Just in conversation here on the boards, I find that happens a lot..."HOOK ALERT!"

So here's at least one person using your tips -- and I suspect there are more than a few others....

Cheers,
Beth

Ande, to let you know, this tip saves me a lot of worry. I can now jot down the beginnings of something and leave it for later, confident that it's all not "here" yet. My mind will work on it while I'm doing other things. And every time I come back to it, I see and add new things! So, thanks for that bit of wisdom!

Kristi

Great post Ande. Always nice to have a point of reference to go back to, even when experience tells us we don't need it. One thing that always stands out to me is the need to listen - a lot.

"Why isn't my song better than it is?"
"What makes that one work so well?"

There will always be dissenters around structure and method, etc., and certainly exceptions to everything.

Anyway - well done.

Barry

Ande:

Wow,you really know your stuff!

This is perhaps the most concise, complete and accurate list of songwriting tips I've ever seen. It took me more than 250 pages to say what you've summed up here. Of course, I included a bunch of song examples and more than a dozen stories of serendipity, self-destruction, recounting decades of close calls on my road to eventual victory (an experience, BTW, I wish on every creatively compulsive soul who applies him or herself to achieving songwriting success).

Anyway, I'd add only a couple of comments to your brilliant treatise.

First, songs (as copyrights) actually have only two essential components - music and lyrics. Music comprises the melody, the chordal context of the melody and the rhythm (including the relative length and dynamics of each note and the spaces in between).

Secondly, every song needs a "concept." That might be what you're getting at with your reference to "themes" and/or "ideas." By concept, I mean the characters, the story, the message, the point of view. A title is usually meaningless in and of itself. After all, what does "Yesterday" mean without that forlorn, heartbroken man longing for it?

So, as we keep our radar up and collect new song ideas and titles, we will need to paint them into a landscape that captures or re-captures a moment in time, or a period of time, or projects a wish upon the future, AND demonstrates a point of view. And, you are so right. Songs are, first and foremost, emotional things. That's how they communicate.

All in all, you have provided great wisdom in this post. As a pro in this biz for nearly 40 yrs, I take my hat off to the blogger from Texas.

Thank you for sharing this with the JPL family.

Rand Bishop
songwriter/producer/author - Makin' Stuff Up, secrets of song-craft and survival in the music-biz
http://www.makinstuffup.net

I think Zac Brown Band's "Chicken Fried" is one feel good catchy song with a touch of Patriotism

great advice Ande,I find all of your advice very helpful to me(a newbie)I remember some of the advice that I first learned when I signed up with SongU,was that there are a lot of rules that you should apply when you are songwriting,and there are times when you just need to throw those rules out the window.After hearing some of your music,it does seems that you have mastered the art of when to follow the rules,and when not to...and "Eventually" is absolutely beautiful...my teenage daughter thinks its about her and her BF...lol

Great tips, Ande. I think Scott Rose and I went through much the same process when we wrote "Born Again Barbie" (except we were usually tossing random lines at each other the whole time). We discussed Barbie's motivation, and history, and her problems with Ken (and the impact of Ken finally coming out of the closet), and why she'd turn to religion and how it fit in with her being a role model (if a somewhat airheady one) for girls. And then everything fell together almost instantaneously. It does work--and you get a good product out of it.

Joe

Still lovin' "Eventually"! Still completely baffled why it's not being covered by a major artist though Dave Brooks sings like one already! Great, great, great song!!!
http://www.songramp.com/mod/mps/viewtrack.php?trackid=12739
Best, Lynn

Halie Loren Rocks!

Ande, You've had over 42K different people read this, (a click is one unique visitor IP clicking on it) so I'd say since the numbers keep growing, folks are still using it! Brian

Wow that's crazy!

just looked at CDBaby, Halie Loren's latest isn't up there yet but they do offer

STAGES

After Dark

Full Circle

They Oughta Write a Song