Write Better Lyrics in 10 Minutes: One Tip That Will Change Everything

[00:02] Mitchell and Super Rich Kids by Frank Ocean have in common these are two very different songs from very different artists in very different genres and from different eras but if we actually look underneath the hood of the lyrics

[00:17] and the approach to Lyric writing in these songs there is a key here for any songwriter into how to take any song idea that you have and actually turn it into great lyrics in this video what I want to do is show you a lyric writing

[00:33] exercise that's very quick very simple but very very powerful and can help you take any idea that you have and turn it into great lyrics in under 10 minutes and look we might not end up with lyrics like joany Mitchell or Frank Ocean but

[00:47] even better than either of those things is that we're going to end up with lyrics that sound uniquely like us and even better than that is the confidence to know that we can sit down on any day with this exercise and take any idea

[01:01] that we have and turn it into great lyrics and what I'm actually going to do is use the magic of video editing to cut in me playing a section of a song that I wrote using the lyrics that I will come

[01:15] okay so you're going to see me in the future and then you're going to come back to me now in the past SL presentes as I'm actually creating the lyrics but you're going to see the result first so that you can make the connection between

[01:29] how fast this exercise is to do and how quickly it can translate into actual lyric writing and actual songwriting all right so here we right so here we go the sun is still bright at 7

[01:44] p.m. and Christmas lights are strung on my neighbor my neighbor face Halloween candy is started to face Halloween candy is started to melt and somehow the we of gravity

[02:00] it cannot bring me [Music] down the exercise that I'm about to show you is called zooming the lens and it is

[02:13] based on a foundational Concept in great lyric writing which is this that it is the honesty and authenticity of your unique experience and perspective in this life that connects and resonates more with listeners rather than trying

[02:30] to stay in a world of generics and generalities so let's dive into this four-step lyric writing exercise zooming the lens step one is to find an idea or even just a general or generic line so we're looking for a starting point that

[02:46] we're really going to zoom the lens in on in this exercise if you don't have an idea or a line like that that you're currently working with you can actually practice this exercise by just taking any old kind of average or general or

[02:58] generic line or IDE idea and practice zooming the lens in so I'm going to give you a few to work with if you don't have one that Springs to mind so here are some examples of this sort of General line or idea a romantic Friday night

[03:11] line or idea a romantic Friday night with my lover the excesses of wealth Christmas is on its way so any of these things might be something that Sparks the fire of the songwriter but we know that that in itself is not a song and

[03:24] it's such a common frustration to have an idea or a feeling or a memory or a situation that you want to write about but you're just not sure how to get in so what we're going to do is we're going to practice getting in so we've got the

[03:36] general idea and we're going to move on to step two step two is to zoom in on situational specifics in this step what I'm going to do and I'll encourage you

[03:48] to do the same is to set a timer for 6 minutes and in 6 minutes while I'm going minutes and in 6 minutes while I'm going to do is try to replace that line with to do is try to replace that line with as many specific lines that show that

[04:01] thing rather than merely telling that thing so I'm going to think of this like creating little oneline word photographs something that puts an image directly into the mind of a listener and each of these lines is just one little

[04:15] photograph I'm not trying to write a verse section I'm really trying to generate as many of these word photographs as I can to really paint a picture and part of it is for yourself as a songwriter it's to start to access

[04:30] parts of your memory and sense experience of life that are much more sense bound so they rely on the senses and the sensory experience and in that way we're going to start to really like flesh out this idea so I'm going to set

[04:44] a timer for 6 minutes for myself and I've got my computer right W here so I'm going to use the Expression Christmas is on its way and actually as I'm making this video that's true Christmas is on its way the weather is changing here in

[04:59] Sydney Australia and there's always a market for Christmas songs if we're thinking commercially like songwriters so this is a good theme or topic to practice this exercise on Christmas is on its way all right 6 minutes here we

[05:12] go [Music]

[05:32] [Music] okay that is 6 minutes all right I'm Keen to know how you went in 6 minutes so if you are actually following along this video and you've typed out some stuff please feel free to use the

[05:44] comment section to share some of the lines that you came up with even if it's just one line the best line that you came up with that you want to share please stick it in the comments and hopefully some of you also did Christmas

[05:56] is on its way so we can start to see the different word photographs from lives around the world one thing you'll also notice just to elay any confusion is that a lot of my word photographs imply that the weather is getting hotter as we

[06:11] that the weather is getting hotter as we approach summer and that is the case where I am located in Sydney Australia so you know we spend Christmas in bikinis on the beach you know cooking sausages so in step two we have done a

[06:24] sausages so in step two we have done a fast but really rapid fire process of turning something that was General or generic or kind of an abstract idea into specifics and we're really kind of piling on these different word

[06:39] them what you'll see is that some of them will be connected some of them we're going to use that as the basic material for a section of song which brings us to step three so in step three we're going to zoom the lens in again

[06:57] this time we're not just f focused on kind of situational or environment kind of situational or environment details we're really turning the lens internally so we're going to start to enter our mind our thoughts our feelings

[07:10] as we go through these next steps so in step three we are zooming the lens in on how we are feeling so the prompt question for you here is what does it

[07:22] question for you here is what does it feel like what are the feelings and emotions that arise and how do they feel when we think about the picture the scene the situation the memory that we have conjured by bringing out these word

[07:37] photographs I'm going to set a timer for 3 minutes for myself and again I'm just going to try and come up with as many lines also really understanding that I'm not going to censor myself I'm not going to allow thoughts in my head that are

[07:50] saying oh this line isn't any good to interfere with this process at all because often it's about allowing oursel to just get something on the page that makes room for the better stuff to come in so I'm just going to keep going I'm

[08:03] going to turn the volume down on those other voices and just get some things on other voices and just get some things on the page in 3 minutes okay here we the page in 3 minutes okay here we [Music]

[08:27] go okay awesome so for me a really important observation as predicted is that the first couple of things are just getting into the zone and then some interesting stuff happened at the end of that 3 minutes right like

[08:42] I really like the idea of the weight Has Lifted gravity is has less of a drag or is less of a drag time moves more like molasses so there's stuff there to do with time and gravity and lightness and you can also see that for me I lean

[08:58] quite heavily on imagery as well but now we're in the zone of metaphor because when we're using imagery to describe emotion we're really talking in metaphor but that's a beautiful type of writing and a really expressive type of lyric

[09:11] writing so I'm leaning into it and I've got some really interesting emotion type language on the page which means it's now time for us to go to step four so in step four of zooming the lens we are zooming the lens in again and this time

[09:27] what we're kind of doing is shifting the lens up into our heads or our minds and what we're going to do here is focus on thoughts so where step three was really really focused on emotions and feelings even how those feelings feel in our body

[09:43] what we're going to do in this step is really focus on thought so the prompt question for step four is what are the thoughts that come into your mind when you are thinking about the scene situation moment or memory that you are

[09:58] sitting inside of with the original prompt and I'm going to set a timer for 2 minutes this time and in 2 minutes I'm going to just get out any thoughts or ideas that come to mind when I think about Christmas being on its

[10:14] about Christmas being on its

[10:27] each only taking a couple of minutes we have come up with an incredibly rich and diverse palette of lyric material to work with and one of the most important bits of kind of lyric writing magic that I want to show you is how when you

[10:42] combine descriptive lyrics where you're painting a picture of the world with the more internal emotion thought and feeling language the combination is Magic and that's really where connection lives with a listener so what I'm going

[10:57] this material and I'm going to turn it into a lyric going to play it for you and because video editing is a type of time travel going to see me kind of putting the song together a little bit and then I'll play

[11:13] it for you one more time and then after that I'm going to really show you how this plays out in a Joanie Mitchell song and in this Frank Ocean song that we talked about at the beginning of the video writing the song

[11:27] video writing the song [Music] write the song so the first thing I'm going to do is take all these lines into

[11:43] a separate note dock that I've got here and I'm going to kind of pick and choose between them try them out look for rhyme that already exists and just kind of then follow the path that emerges in this Magic Forest okay Christmas life

[12:00] this Magic Forest okay Christmas life and Mt fence P PM fence and Mt are all and Mt fence P PM fence and Mt are all Rhymes Halloween candy the Halloween Rhymes Halloween candy the Halloween candy the sun is still bright at 7

[12:13] candy the sun is still bright at 7 p.m. and Christmas lights are strong on my neighbor face Halloween candy is St and to

[12:25] face Halloween candy is St and to melt somehow the weight of gravity melt somehow the weight of gravity cannot bring me

[12:39] quickly and played for you was modeled on the song The River by Joanie Mitchell now I it is not of the caliber or quality of JY Mitchell's songs or I'm not that's not the point of this the point of this is to really say when you

[12:53] have an idea or a feeling there are things that you can do that we can see every of in these song lyrics that these songwriters have an idea and how do they go about fleshing out the idea they sit inside the memory they draw on their

[13:09] sensory experience and really flesh that stuff out but it's not just about painting the pictures it's also about combining those things with how it feels what are the thoughts or the feelings Associated or attached to that idea the

[13:24] emotion lands in a very very powerful way because we have the connection of details with the connection of the emotion as well let's see the same combination of things at play in the first verse of Super Rich Kids by Frank

[13:39] Ocean you can see for six of the eight lines of the first section of this song that he's really giving us very specific details that show us this world of these

[13:51] super rich kids so he's putting us inside a kind of movie in his own mind and sharing that movie with us and with there we're in it and the last two lines are there reserved for a kind of lyrical Cadence where he gives us the thought

[14:07] attached to the scene he makes statements about what we're looking at which start to give us a sense of what the emotional heart or tone or intention behind this song really is if you are a songwriter who is Keen to write more

[14:23] songs and share them with a community of songwriters from around the world and get other tips ideas Inspirations songwriting prompts and a whole lot of other material and resources from Benny and I you can also join our songwriter

[14:37] community and the link to that is in the notes below see you songw writing soon notes below see you songw writing soon guys bye