Kicking Lines Around with a Theme
Today I was writing with my sister in a rather unconventional method. Rather then going line by line in song format, we were focusing on a theme. The theme was contradictions.
And it didn’t matter whether they were good or crap - we just needed some idea’s of contradictory lines tossed out in the air so we could get inspired to then write some lyrical phrases (ie. verse, chorus, etc) and melodies.
So for example here are a couple that we came out with:
” hate to see the world go hungry but I can’t wait to cook”
” hate royalty but I wanna be treated like a princess”
“have so much time on my hands but I got none to spare”
“There’s no such thing as a ugly person, but my man has to be fine”
As you can see, not the best lines. We had plenty more jargon that we had written down. (of course our best gems won’t be published on this blog for obvious reasons).
As we were doing this, we would talk in between cracking jokes (humor is important in a writing session… to me anyway) and every time we cracked a joke we got a new idea. We would say words and then another contradictory line would stem from that. Writing seemed very easy and almost effortless.
Having said that, perhaps the red Thai curry I cooked before hand had something to do with the mood of the mind.
Never the less, we went from not having a word on paper, to around 15 solid lines we could then edit and format. How cool is that?
It took around 45 mins for this to happen.
It would have happened within 10 mins, but remember we were joking around… AND that was the important part in the session - as I said earlier. For us, the funny chit-chats in-between fueled our inspiration and BAM - we had a theme for a new song.
So why don’t you work on a theme? It could be any theme. It could be irony, pessimism, cynicalism, feel-good, etc.
I just might play on to this way of writing and do it more often. Who knows the magic that it can produce.
Leave your comments. Tell me what you think.
Shamir
PS. I’m going to be holding a Q&A type interview soon. This will be Session Two of the Songwriting Secrets Interview. You’ll get to ask your question, and we’ll answer it for you in depth. This will be for customers of SongwritingTipsOnline only. I’m just in the process of setting this up.
PPS. Don’t post this ‘Q&A’ question in the comments! I’ll contact you about that separately. Please stick to this blog post topic for comments. Cheers
May 23rd, 2007 at 11:03 pm
GREAT idea, Shamir! I’ll give it a try this evening!
Jace
May 23rd, 2007 at 11:07 pm
” hate to see the world go hungry but I can’t wait to cook”
” hate royalty but I wanna be treated like a princess”
“have so much time on my hands but I got none to spare”
“There’s no such thing as a ugly person, but my man has to be fine”
change the last line to “there’s no such thing as an ugly person ,but my man has to be fair” lol makes more sense to me heehee
i write when i just have something on my mind lol
May 24th, 2007 at 12:29 am
Thats cool shamir.
I done that with a song we wrote jus recently with my cousin. Took us all night to write because we couldn’t stop laughing @ stupid lil’ things. We probably was over tired. It was fun anyhow and we manage to get the song finish.
Cheerio Buddy.
Sarah
May 24th, 2007 at 3:09 am
I’m 13 years old I think that is a
great idea for writeing songs.
May 24th, 2007 at 3:40 am
that is a really hot idea im puting it to work like right now thx
May 24th, 2007 at 9:10 am
Great! thnx Shamir!
May 24th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Thanks Shamir!!! Im always looking for new ideas and this one hits the top…
May 24th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
Star, about the line… “There’s no such thing as a ugly person, but my man has to be fine”
….the word ‘fine’ is slang for good looking. Hence the contradiction, ‘ugly’ to ‘fine’.
Many people (gals and guys) say that there are no ugly people in the world, yet their husband/wife or boyfriend/girlfriend must be universally good looking…. or ‘fit’ some say.
Shamir
May 25th, 2007 at 2:40 am
hey shamir! thanks for all the awesome tips i’ve received online..it really helps…
May 25th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
yeah, guess you just gotta laugh every now and then
May 26th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Indeed…. laughing is the only thing you can do sometimes.
What hilarious advice you give to these aspiring song writers. Surely good lyrics come from the heart, from experience, and from taking a good hard look at the world? These forced juxtapositions are a method to avoid actually writing a song with meaning and result in large-scale cringing.
Nice try though, Shammy
May 26th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Tom, yep good lyrics do come from the heart, from experience, and from taking a good hard look at the world.
I wouldn’t deny it.
The intention was to write a song based on a theme of contradictions… but most importantly, I did say our best lines won’t be published on this blog - hence the slight cheesiness with the lines your read
On the flip side, I have many idea’s of what a ‘good lyric’ should entail. And it’s not always about being lyrically clever.
What’s your idea of a good lyric?
Shamir
PS. I love discussions - but I could do with less of the insults
May 26th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
Thats a great idea for coming up wit some slamming lines…I would do it… lol
May 29th, 2007 at 11:46 am
This is an excellent brainstorming idea! larry
May 30th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
Hey Shamir,laughter is the best cure for everything in my books,great Idea Shamir…Zane