JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Songwriter Message Forum Why are there so many lyric-only folks?

Michael, that turned out really well. The lyrics are simple and straightforward. Lovely music & melody from Joe too. I can understand you feeling drawn to the piece.

(I seem to recall being in contact with Joe several years ago over a possible collaboration. I forget though whether anything resulted. And I lost a lot of music in a computer crash. ) )

I remember four or five years ago hearing someone's instrumental track somewhere, and feeling immediately inspired. The words almost began writing themselves while I was listening. I contacted the composer soon after to ask if he'd be up for a collaboration, but - unfortunately for me - someone else had got there first. Sometimes you gotta be quick.

Jane, you're right on all counts.
Re-writing, patience, a good vocabulary, devotion to the art.

Add to those a good thesaurus (like the Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus), a good dictionary (to build up that vocabulary ), a good rhyming dictionary (like The Complete Rhyming Dictionary edited by Clement Wood; online ones are useful too, like RhymeZone, RhymeGenie, or others), and access to books on lyric writing (e.g. Sheila Davis, Rikky Rooksby, Bill Pere, Pat Pattison) or online instruction (e.g. Pat Pattison, Ralph Murphy, and others).

Most important though I think is to know one's own strengths and to focus on those.

For instance, as much as I'd love to be able to play an instrument (and believe me, I've made serious attempts on both guitar and keyboard over the years), it simply is not going to happen. And life at this point is too short for me to learn DAWs or BIAB or GarageBand or what have you. My active creative interests (other than writing lyrics) lie in art and photography.

Where songwriting is concerned, my gift - if you can call it that - is Words. Yours - in abundance - is Music & Vocals.

If words are a problem for you, I strongly recommend you consider turning your drafts (which will already have a melody) over to a lyricist co-writer. She/he will apply her/his skills to contribute to yours.

End of monologue.