I am so fucking bad at writing lyrics, it's ridiculous

I am so fucking bad at writing lyrics, it's ridiculous.

Those of you who are decent at it, are there exercises I can do to get better at them, or is it something you have to be born with?

Fuck, why am I so bad at this?

Other urls found in this thread:

vocaroo.com/i/s0Hi5oxl5nfd
vocaroo.com/i/s19jvkFNkbKR
youtube.com/watch?v=xTlZsyas-eI
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

Is it rap?

At least you have a good taste in reaction images

acoustic folk

You have to practice it for a long time, I've been doing it for a couple years and I cringe a lot when I go back to my old stuff

Did you write the vocal melody first using gibberish, humming, etc?

yeah, that's what normally happens. nonsense syllables to get the cadence/melody down

i mean i can't write lyrics period. bad or not. i just can't think of any words at all when i'm trying to. it's the most infuriating thing.

just right from the

stop thinking, open notepad right now and start writing without thinking
yes, literally right now, you think I won't know if you don't do it, I will, I can see you, do it right fucking now

The only good lyrics I can write are about dicks

just use the gibberish as a springboard.

Read books and

...

>tfw my most proud lyrical opus is a homosexual erotic punfest

look at car seat headrest; you can write whatever you want, man

The trick to songwriting is saying something as close to what you mean as possible without ever touching the surface. The words don't have to mean anything or they can mean many things. In music you are not using words as words, you are using words as shapes. Open brooks and eddys are often surprisingly populated. If you know what I mean.

car seat headrest is pretty bad though

he's popular though and that counts for something

So I've been writing folk punk acoustic shit for the last year, and it's been kinda garbage.
I've usually found myself continuing to write even if it's trash, because maybe upon my shit writing I might find some lines that kinda work.

Basically (and this is coming from a guy who's never shared outside his Facebook friends' list) keep writing. Find a story about your life and express it. Find a feeling and expand upon it. Find some shit to make a story on.

Hope it works out. I'm gonna lurk a bit longer for some better advice to hopefully help.

this, your goal isn't to describe what you feel to the listener, it's to guide the listener into feeling the same thing that you feel
I like to think of it as using words to describe something that can't be said in words

this is weirdly the best advice in this thread

so be specific enough where *I* know what I mean, but vague enough so that it's open for interpretation?

that might be one of my problems, everything i write ends up sounding too literal so i immediately discard it

This.
Plus whatever you sing, doesn't have to make sense. Confidence is what makes lyrics in a song.

Plus, another thing to remember is that song lyrics are not meant to hold up on their own without the music. Everyone knows that the lyrics to most songs aren't going to be poetry on paper.

Practice tip: Talk to someone and sing your responses in your songs to the melody. Literally just sing your conversation, and do it with confidence.

This is some of the best lyric advice I've ever heard. I'm not OP. i feel blessed to have read this articulated this way.

Here are general tips for writing lyrics

- avoid sweeping generalizations. don't write about "everyone"
- write with nouns. then describe the places, people and things your lyrics involve
- it's fine to be as abstract as you want. lyrics don't even have to make grammatical sense, and lots of famous lyrics don't
- it's fine to write fiction. your lyrics don't have to be in any way true to your personal experience.
- don't write about your personal life unless your personal life is either unusual or highly emotional to you
- rhyme sparingly, unless you write hip-hop
- it's fine to plagiarize. borrow from other songs and writers whose work you enjoy.
- for a lot of song writers, focusing on lyrics that are phonetically appropriate to the song (or "sound right") is more important than writing lyrics that have literary merit, that is another valid approach

so is taylor swift, justin bieber and corey feldman

you guys win. sleep knowing that you've aided a lost soul tonight. i'm sure my lyrics will still be mostly garbage, but they'll be garbage with substance now

Please post it for my enjoyment

What do you mean rhyme sparingly?
I'm really curious.
Everything else here seems like really good advice, but I don't get that one.

Same here. Whenever I write a song I get the urge to record a demo of it asap so I just start trying to find a good vocal melody and mumble shit. I spend maybe 30-45 minutes thinking of a decent set of lyrics and then just file it away thinking I'll write something better later.

If you try too hard to rhyme, it shows.
You don't want your lyrics to be Dr Seuss tier.
It's better to not rhyme at all in most cases, or a half-rhyme, slur-rhyme, etc if it's what you were saying anyway.

This. SO many novice lyricists will start a verse off good, but then you can tell they crafted the second half to rhyme with the first. It limits you and stifles whatever message would otherwise come out.

Also, the idea that rhyming sounds good or make a song flow better is pretty much not true. It just makes a song sound corny and old fashioned a lot of the time.

Some of the all time best lyrics are non-rhyming and contain little to no rhymes, but that doesn't mean it's not allowed or even frowned on, lyrics can rhyme without being cringey. I'd say for new song writers to mostly avoid rhyming unless you write hip-hop or your intention is to be funny/cute but it's a loose suggestion

Even in a song cycle, every song is it's own little movie no matter how much you try to finagle the lyrics to play as a whole story throughout. You're directing and you get to pick all the camera angles, but the internal pull is always going to be building every interaction you're showing people towards something natural and a confluence of objects and people. It's very much a matter of confidence. It's very much pulling off a practical joke in a real world setting where things can be messy. Tragedy snakes around art like a coyote. The humor in the obfuscated confusion is the real rebellion and the heart of the things I think we really admire. What a lyric needs to do is the same thing as a screenplay: give the actor the necessary structure, and then find what will make it meaningful to others.

Study and analyze lyricism of your favorite songs.
Do some digging and listen to loads of other albums from lots of different groups with many different styles.
Decide what you want to associate yourself with.
Anytime any spark of an idea pops in your head, write that shit down.
Write, listen to music, then write some more.
Prioritize feeling over meaning.
Do all of this as much as possible.

As a songwriter, I cringe at the trash I wrote even a year ago. Just keep on writing and eventually you'll find your groove.

I'm not a lyricist, but I do write poetry relatively often (or used to, been busy with life lately and haven't had a chance). I often felt that my poetry was melodramatic or silly or just bad, but I'd still force myself to share each and every one with at least one other person. Invariably, they'd say 'it's good, really like the imagery' or this and that good thing. Maybe something was off; perhaps a different word would fit the flow (or in the case of lyrics, melody) better. But if you can write even competently, people will dig your stuff if they find it.

If that wasn't helpful at all, I am incredibly drunk and apologize for wasting your time. But point is, just because you're critical of your stuff doesn't mean it's bad: SHARE IT.

To clarify, they'd also say bad things about my poetry, but that's integral and good too! When you share a poem (or other thing), and get bad feedback, but also get good feedback (as you will from anyone truly invested in it), then you know what to aim for and what to avoid in the future. If you share you're lyrics or fiction or poetry or art with another person, you can see things wrong or right with it that you missed. There is nothing more important in creation, as far as I am concerned, than a good editor.

Legitimately googled to make sure you didn't just take it from somewhere. Great advice. Keep writing, I'd read it more than most people making a living off it now.

nah bruh more articulation than what i've already is detrimental to industry position

Just listen and let it flow out
throw out all that learning
and follow that intuitive pattern you know is true
cannot follow the old ways?
new habits can be created more easily than you know
if you want to start somewhere begin with poetry and just slam whatever comes to your mind
don't clutter behind the insecurity just hold onto you mind tight and exercise the remaining self reservation

just take a release and spit and spew some lyrics

even through a cycle
every litlle movement has to finaalise
a story needs direction and you pick the angles with a camera from behind your face
in internal pull you need to build that interaction towards the natural confidence

it's a confident matter to obfuscate confusion as you pull yourself from this joke that is the real world.

it snakes like a shakesperean tragedy and the humour in the situation is a true replay of a janitorial structure to find meaning in what is but a lining in a cloth

oh boy it's robert palmer's legal team vigilant as God on the Mississippi
'sup senpai
wire that ten percent

OP here. welp here's my progress so far fellas. vague yet specific, trying not to be too melodramatic (possibly failing at that one but w/e). a couple of you said i need to share it with people for input, so here is me sharing.

hopeful eyes and honest tongues
make no ground
when in motion
an open door with no defense
somehow
keeps them away

recorded this crap on vocaroo for context: vocaroo.com/i/s0Hi5oxl5nfd

vocaroo.com/i/s19jvkFNkbKR bonus octave higher with some sexy falsetto

how old are you bud? that's the only honest litmus test before "they say this is a classic". the instrumental work at least is fucking 100 percent.

i'm 23. thanks, i'm actually fairly insecure about my sloppy playing, so this makes me feel a little better lol

I'd consider myself alright, i also do acoustic folk or something, but it kinda comes from in me.
I've always been alright at literary things but try writing poems and such to exercise and try to find some powerful phrases and concepts.
Use alliteration and practice your available vocabulary

Is that a mandolin? Weird hearing it played as a solo instrument, but you make it work.

fuck, dude.

yep! it's a mandolin. i got one recently after becoming obsessed with punch brothers, but i have nobody to play it with, so i had to kinda make it a solo thing lol. thank!

shucks...

Read. Go away from Sup Forums and spend some time on /lit/ for a while. Pick up some books and read read read. Also write a lot.

Or you could just make instrumental music. Lyrics were the worst thing to happen to music. You have to be not only a musician but a poet, which sucks.

>it's fine to be as abstract as you want. lyrics don't even have to make grammatical sense, and lots of famous lyrics don't

>FUCK FUCK FUCK YOUR NAME IS FUCK
>HALLELELELELELELELELELUJAH
>I'M GOING HOOOOOME
>MOCK MOCK MOCK MOCK MOCK
checks out

that guy has a funny YouTube channel btw
youtube.com/watch?v=xTlZsyas-eI