Let's call this first part "Song Writing 101":
Basic songwriting is about mixing your insights and experiences into poetry in the form of lyrics. That can be stories, or just entertaining concepts. We cover many music styles and sub genres and music fusions to support our story driven content. That's what we can teach best, but setting up classes may come in the future, as we are just too busy at this juncture.
And make certain you learn about the requirements of how you get paid after writing lyrics as you have different requirements and agencies to join to protect your intellectual property, from your first Performing Rights Organization, as a SONGWRITER, and if your song gets recorded and published, you need your song added to the Library of Congress and now you to other agencies to collect all your royalties. So if you self publish, consider WHICH site on which to publish your finished songs and offer them for distribution.
We write music for everyone and all ages. While some songs may even be enjoyed safely by little kids, we tackle teen and adult topics and even call out malfeasance and misdeeds as well. But we magazine it without explicit lyrics as we create a safe haven for people.
Most of the songs I add are topical to the concept albums but I include a plethora of music styles. We do occasionally offer occasional albums in limited music genres. However, we always offer song content aligned with the album title.
Album titles may be specific or broad in scope, but our lyrical stories will entertain while they make listeners feel better about their life (in most cases). We try to either connect with fans on a core emotional level, offer edutainment, or leave listeners laughing.
We also try to keep educational content subtle. We want people to grow smarter in their intellectual and emotional understanding of themselves and others plus the world. It's critical to help our fans feel connected and feel SEEN
We want no one left feeling isolated from the world at large. And that's a full introduction to music writing from our perspective.Listen to the songs in your favorite music genres and get copies of the lyrics.
Next you will need to understand musical sections in terms of the musical composition formatting with the sectional terminology of INTRO, VERSE, PRE-CHORUS, CHORUS, BRIDGE, HOOK, and OUTRO.
Let's call this next part "Song Writing 102":
Next you'll need to insert instrumental sections, plus learn to add notations for time signature, pacing (beat), keys, progressions, and volume adjustments if you want to be thorough in controlling the music creation that is necessary. While not every song contains every element, every song contains a minimum of a few verses followed by chorus sections. The rest depends on the songwriter.
And some writers jam music, then add lyrics. The complete opposite to my method. There is nothing wrong with that. For me, adding the jam after creating the basic melody within the music genre(s) fits best, and then we can jam and create fresh instrumental sections. That unless I'm composing am instrumental..🫣
The bottom line is once you can apply the basics after practicing creating simple songs, you'll start to understand the usage of each type of section in lyrics, and later you'll stay to understand the notation concepts. That's the way in which I, the chief lyricist of our group, learned my basics.
I studied music theory in classes and attended other music classes in college. But for me, the theories actually confused me as none focused on lyrics, but I learned the basics of using different keys and styles to evoke different emotions in listeners. That assisted with my understanding the emotional core in various music genres, how to fuse music genres and ultimately, helped with music genre choices when composing the music for my songs after deciding on a basic melody for the vocals. I even came up with theories on applying music as non physically invasive adjunctive therapy. But that's a different story and beyond the scope of this quick lesson.
I feel it is important not to stay too rigid. I turn to others when I'm stuck on a lyric. Plus our other vocalists sometimes change my mind on portions of the lyrics, melody, and even the music style, which leads to rewriting.
Look, if you only want to write fun dance songs or pop or a specific music genre, I suggest you start your journey by looking at your ability to pen your ideas on paper. If you can write poetry, you can likely convert that poetry into lyrics by rewriting and changing some words for some rhymes in your chorus.
Let's call this last part "Song Writing 103: Advanced concepts":
I recommend a chorus to be really easy l remember for your early fans. But I like rhymes in music even if it's not a true necessity. Some great songs didn't rhyme at all; not even in the chorus. Examples of non-rhyming popular songs are:
- “Moonlight in Vermont” (Written by Karl Suessdorf and John Blackburn with covers recorded by many artists).
- “America” (Written by Paul Simon then recorded by Simon & Garfunkel).
- “At This Moment” (Written by Billy Vera then recorded by Billy Vera & the Beaters).
- “Fields of Gold” (Written and recorded by Sting).
- “Killing the Blues” (Written by Roly Salley then recorded by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss).
My point is simple: Your decision to rhyme or not to rhyme, is completely up to you. Give that sample list of non-rhyming songs a good listen first. Deconstruct the lyrics and lawn from them if you want to write without rhymes.
You are the songwriter, or maybe a full songsmith. Be your genuine self when you write and/or compose. That's how great songs are born.
Enjoy a melodious day! 🤘
Musically yours,
~Mark J. Segal~
💙✌️🖖
