Songwriting Blog

Here are two songwriting tips I heard on ‘The Working Songwriter’ Podcast.   The first relates to that all too common situation where you can’t find a rhyme – other than one that is a bit awkward. It’s your ‘last resort’ rhyme; perhaps one you found in the rhyming dictionary. The tip was to switch […]

Here is some advice I gave to a songwriting student – who already has stories to tell but finds it difficult to write lyrics, If you are in the same situation you might find this useful. Regarding lyrics. In your situation – as someone who already has things to say – my suggestion would be […]

In his book, ‘How to write one song’, Jeff Tweedy outlines a useful exercise for finding ‘exciting’ new ways to pair words – to help you be more creative when writing your lyrics. In short, Jeff’s tip for writing better lyrics is to list verbs and nouns and then pair them in unusual ways. I’ll […]

A member of the Songwriting Magic Facebook group posted that she had came up with a song title but was really struggling to get any further. This was my reply. Connect your phrase to what is going on in your life or what has happened in your life. Write that story down. Don’t try to […]

Do you want to know how to write better song lyrics? Don’t you wish there was a simple formula? We all do. In truth, there isn’t a simple formula we can all follow. However, there are things we can do to improve our songwriting (and lyric writing) and one of those is to learn this […]

Often you will be writing a song and you will be thinking, I really should not write this, because my partner will think it’s about them. So you stop writing it. My advice is, don’t stop! You are a creative individual; you make things up; the things you write don’t need to be true. If […]

In this post I reveal how messy my lyric writing process is. We all have a different journey to a finished lyric. By being open about my own messy process – I hope to re-assured you that your own struggles are perfectly valid – no matter how unusual they are. To give you some context. […]

“…inspiration is way more likely to come around when you already have your tools out. A pen on paper, a brush on canvas, a guitar in your hand.” Jeff Tweedy Object writing is a technique outlined in Pat Pattison book, ‘How to write better lyrics’. If you gravitate towards a technical approach to writing lyrics, […]

“The thunderbolt strikes the head, the pen scribbles furiously, and that’s the song,” Mark Ronson on how Amy Winehouse wrote the lyrics to Back to Black (https://tinyurl.com/ybdpumjj). Sometimes words just flow out of you like water from a tap, other times you can’t even get a drip – so to speak. Here are 10 suggestions […]

Unless someone has asked me to write something on a particular topic or I am co-writing, this article describes my songwriting process – most of the time. That’s not to say it the best way or even a good way, it’s just, my way. How do you I choose a topic to write about? I […]

Learn the chords of a song you like and then throw the original words away. Now write your own words and tune. “I used to write extra verses to other people’s songs that I liked. That led to writing my own songs.” Jackson Browne “The teenage Muriel Spark did not just just seek out the […]

Lyrics are not poetry they are not designed to be read from a page or a computer screen; lyrics are for singing. Sing to come up with better lyrics. Every word has a certain shape in your mouth; like a pebble – some words just don’t fit – they feel awkward in your mouth – […]