5 Must Know Methods For Serious Songwriters

How to Write a Song
Techniques From the Hits, Vol. IV

by Anthony Ceseri
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Table of Contents
Introduction…………………………………………………………………...………………… 4
Build Your Skills Before You Even Start………….………………………………… 5
Object Writing…..................................................................................................................... 5
Planning Before You Start………….…………….………….…………………………… 8
Designing Your Song’s Structure........................................................................................... 8
Writing An Intro For Your Song……………….………….…………………………..… 13
How Long Should Your Song’s Intro Be?............................................................................... 13
Lyric Writing………….…………….……………………...……….……………………………15
Writing Lyrics to a Rhythm..................................................................................................... 15
Melody Writing………….……………………………...………….…………………………… 19
Writing Melodies with the Minor Pentatonic & Blues Scales.................................................. 19
Bonus………………………………………………...…………………………..…….........…… 23
Make Your Song Timeless………………………………….……………………………..……..… 23
Final Word………………………………………………………..…………...…...…..……..… 25
5 Must-Know Methods For Serious Songwriters 4
www.SuccessForYourSongs.com
Introduction
There’s no right or wrong in the art of songwriting. However, there are methods you can
use in your writing that can help improve your skill set. Learning these tools can be
beneficial to you, if you’re trying to make money with your music, as a lot of these
techniques have been used in successful songs. But even if songwriting is just your
hobby, learning these tools can give you some new ideas for presenting your ideas to
your listeners. The more common techniques you learn, the better you’ll be able to
express yourself.
In this EBook, we’ll look at five methods you can use to take your song from start to finish,
through articles I’ve written for my website, www.successforyoursongs.com/. Specifically,
we’ll be focusing on skill building, planning, intros, lyric writing and melody writing. Within
these five topics there are many other methods you can learn, but the ones we’ll look at
here will be a great start to get you moving forward with your music.
Build Your Skills Before You Even Start

Working out your songwriting “muscles” through various frequent exercises is a great way
to keep your abilities strong, even when you’re not actually writing a song. This section
will show you one of those exercises to keep your songwriting skills thriving.
Object Writing
Painting a very specific picture with your lyrics is an important skill to develop. A great way
to write detailed lyrics that will pull listeners into your story is to talk to the five senses.
For that reason, Pat Pattison, who has authored several great books on writing lyrics,
developed an exercise called “object writing” to help songwriters sharpen their specificity
skills when writing lyrics. Object writing is a kind of free writing, with a focused purpose.
The idea is simple: set a timer for ten minutes, and write about an object (hence the
phrase “object writing”), while engaging the senses until the timer stops. You can engage
the senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch, as well as the organic and kinesthetic
senses.
Organic sense is your relation to your inner body, like a heartbeat, or the tense muscles
you feel in your forearm when you clench your fist. Kinesthetic sense, on the other hand,
is your relation to the world around you. An astronaut looking down on the earth, or
someone who spins around to see a blurred world has his kinesthetic senses engaged.
Let’s look at an example, so you can get a better feel for this. This is a ten minute object
writing exercise I wrote. The word was “gridlock.” I simply started a timer and wrote for ten
minutes about the senses that came to mind when thinking about gridlock traffic. When
the timer stopped, I was done. This is what I ended up with:
Gridlock – 10:00 Minutes

The sound of horns honking penetrates my windshield. Muffled because I have the
windows rolled up, tight. I can even hear someone behind me yelling, faintly. I sit here
calmly. My heart beat slows. Realizing there’s nothing I can do. My hands at rest on
the wheel. A moist sweaty spot where my hand has been in the same spot on the
leather steering wheel for too long while the sun beats in. I can see the two different
color shades on the back of my hand as it sits on the wheel. From my knuckles up to
my fingers is a brighter, almost white texture as the sun paints my skin. All the skin
from my knuckles down is much darker in the shade. I can tell without even looking at
my hand where the line is. I can feel the heat baking my skin above the knuckles.
I run my hand from side to side on the steering wheel now. A moist residue leaves its
mark as I move my hand. I find a new warm spot on the wheel to put my hand. I
stretch and push my arms out towards the wheel. I feel like a black cat arching its
back. I feel the resistance of the wheel against my body as I push forward.
Feeling sweat beads form on my forehead, I turn the air conditioning on low. There’s
a dusty smell that shoots from the vents when I first turn it on. Now I feel the cool air
washing against my skin. Whisking away the heat. I feel some excitement coarse
through me as I see brake lights go on ahead of me. Their bright red glow against the
dusky sky.
I hear my car crunch as I put it in gear. My calf muscle tenses as it pushes up against
the brake pedal, and then releases as I start moving forward. Inching only so slowly.
The squeaky sound of my wheels as I have to ride my brakes at first. The pulsing of
my car as I stop and start.
You can see this paragraph is very sense bound. Lines like “Their bright red glow against
the dusky sky” are visually descriptive. We can easily “see” what’s happening.
On the other hand, a line like “The squeaky sound of my wheels as I have to ride my
brakes at first” let’s you easily hear what’s going on in the scene. At the same time the
idea of the driver’s heartbeat slowing at the beginning engages the organic sense.
Take another look at the “gridlock” example, above. This time look specifically for lines
that talk to the seven senses we discussed. This is how you’ll be writing when you do this
yourself.
Do this exercise every day. Pick an object to write about, and write about it for ten
minutes, while engaging the senses. Don’t worry about grammar. Just write. And if you
stray from the original subject as you’re writing, that’s okay. What’s important is that you
keep engaging the senses the whole time.
Set a timer when you do this. When the timer sounds after ten minutes, stop what you’re
doing right away. You’re done. Once you get the hang of it, you can work in some five
minute versions of the exercise. You’ll realize with the shorter versions, you’ll be forced to
engage the senses much quicker. Just remember to focus your writing on the seven
senses we discussed. I usually like to write them out at the top of my page as a quick
reminder, in case I need them while I’m writing.
It’s best to do this exercise first thing when you wake up. Aside from “getting it out of the
way,” early in your day, you’ll also keep thinking about more things you could have written
as you go about your day. That happens because you stopped writing so abruptly when
your timer went off in the morning. Doing it this way will help get your creative juices
flowing as you go about your day.
Also, when you do this exercise every day, you’ll start to get faster and faster with
engaging the senses. Then when you sit down to write the lyrics to an actual song, it’ll
come easily and writing detailed lyrics will be much more natural for you.
If you need a new word to write about each day you can get it from this site:
http://objectwriting.com/. They post a new object to write about every day. You can even
post your work on the site, and review and comment on what others have written. It’s a
great way to help you improve with your object writing and in turn, your lyrics.
Planning Before You Start

Before you sit down to write a song, there are a few aspects of your song that you can
plan out, even before you have anything specific worked out. One of those aspects is your
song structure, or at least having a basic idea of how you want your song to be laid out.
We’ll talk about that in-depth here.
Designing Your Song’s Structure

When I first started writing songs, I went through a phase where I had no regard for song
structure. I thought to myself “Everyone writes a verse then a chorus, then another verse
and another chorus. That’s so bland. I want to be different!”
So I wrote a few songs that would start with one section, then go to new section, then a
third new section, then a fourth and so on. You couldn’t even label these sections as
verses or choruses because they’d show up once and be gone from the song after that.
What I didn’t realize at the time, was my songs were chaotic. And as a result no one
wanted to hear them again after the first time. There was nothing to pull them in. There
weren’t memorable.
Song structure is important because it organizes our songs. You don’t have to reinvent
the wheel in order to be creative. Think of the most common types of song structures as
universally agreed upon roadmaps for your songs. They tell us where the song is going.
We’ve heard the most common structures so many times that we’re practically trained to
know what section is coming next. While that might seem like a bad thing, it’s not because
it brings a familiarity to our music which makes people want to hear it. It does that from
the very first time we hear a song with a common structure.
The Most Common Structures

With that in mind, let’s look at the most commonly used song structures in popular music,
so you can use them to plan out your own songs.
Verse / Chorus / Verse / Chorus / Bridge / Chorus

This one’s also known as an ABABCB structure, where A is the verse, B is the chorus
and C is the bridge. This one’s extremely popular. Radiohead’s “High and Dry” is a
good example of this song structure.
Verse / Pre-Chorus / Chorus / Verse / Pre-Chorus / Chorus / Bridge / Chorus

This one’s a slight variation of the first structure we looked at. The only difference
here is the addition of a pre-chorus which shows up before the choruses. A good
example of this structure is Katy Perry’s “Firework.” The part that starts on the words
“You just gotta ignite the light…” is the Pre-Chorus.
In both of these song structures it’s fairly common for the chorus to be repeated a
second time at the very end of the song, to really drive the hook of the song home to
the listeners.
Verse / Verse / Bridge / Verse

This one’s a bit of a departure from the first two structures we looked at. It’s also
known as an AABA structure. This time A denotes the verse, while B denotes the
bridge. There’s no chorus is this type of structure. Instead, each verse usually ends
(or begins) with a refrain. A refrain is a line or two that repeats throughout the song.
Since it’s usually the title, the words of the refrain usually stay the same, while the
rest of the verse lyrics change.
A lot of times this song structure will have a lot of variation in the verse melody, since
the verses repeat often. It keeps their melody from getting boring during all the
repetition.
The Beatles and Billy Joel have used this song structure a lot. The song “We Can
Work it Out” by the Beatles uses this structure. You can hear that the title line “We
Can Work it Out” is the refrain in the verses. The section starting on “Life is very
short…” is the bridge.
Any of these structures can be modified as appropriate for your song. You may have
noticed that in “We Can Work it Out” the bridge is repeated twice. This is a pretty common
modification of the AABA format since a lot of times a simple verse, verse, bridge, verse
structure often makes for a very short song.
Common Song Structures without Bridges

Those three song structures are the big ones. There are two others that are common as
well, but they’re used less because they don’t have a bridge.
Verse / Chorus / Verse / Chorus

Also know as an ABAB structure, this one is a simplified version of the ABABCB
structure, with the bridge omitted.
Verse / Verse / Verse

This one’s also know as an AAA structure. It’s not used often because it’s hard to
keep things interesting if all you have is one section being repeated. Like the AABA
structure, this one also makes use of a refrain in the verses, as the central focus. Bob
Dylan uses this song form in “Tangled Up in Blue.” Take note of the variation in the
melodies through a typical verse. It’s crucial in a song with this structure in order to
keep the melody interesting.
A bridge helps to change up the sound of a song and keep it interesting. It prevents a
song from simply being a repetition of one or two sections. That’s why these two song
structures don’t show up as much as the first three we looked at. But you should know
that they do exist in songwriting.
The Role of Each Section

Song structure is a bit more than arranging a song’s sections in a certain way. It’s also
important to understand that each section typically has a role to fulfill. If you know the role
of each section in your song, you’ll be better prepared to modify a song structure, as you
see fit.
Verse
Lyrically, the verses of your song will move your story forward. The chorus or refrain
is likely to have the same words each time, so the verse is your chance to keep your
ideas moving along.
Chorus
Think of your chorus as the big idea for what your song’s all about. That’s partly why
your title is most likely to show up in your chorus. Your title also sums up what the
song’s about. Melodically, the chorus will be the catchiest part of your song. This is
what people will have stuck in their head long after your song is over. That’s another
reason it’s good to have your title in the chorus. When people get your chorus stuck
in their head, they’ll easily know what your song is called and can find it later when
they want to hear it again.
Pre-Chorus
The pre-chorus is an add-on before the chorus. It usually repeats the same lyrics
each time, the same way a chorus does. Musically, a lot of times it creates a nice
build-up to what’s coming in the chorus. Katy Perry’s “Firework” is a good example of
that, as I mentioned before.
Bridge
The bridge is a departure from what we’ve heard in a song, previously. This goes for
both the lyrics and the music. Lyrically it’s an opportunity for a new perspective.
Musically, it’s a chance to offer the listener something they haven’t heard before to
keep the song interesting.
Refrain
In the AABA, or AAA structures, the refrain is the line that draws all the attention in
your verses. It’s usually at the beginning or end of each verse and is often the title of
the song.
Hook
The hook doesn’t necessarily refer to a specific section of a song, except to say it’s
the catchiest part of a song. Most of the time, it will be your chorus, if your song has
one. If your song doesn’t have a chorus, your hook will most likely be your refrain. As
hit songwriter, Clay Drayton, says “A fish knows the hook… Once it’s in you, it’s hard
to get it out.”
Those are the basics of song structure. You can modify the common song structure to fit
your song as you see fit, but it’s good to know what they are so you can use them as a
starting point for planning out your song. Not only will they bring familiarity to your music,
but they’ll give you a good guide on how to lay out your music.
Writing An Intro For Your Song

Even if you know exactly what you want your song to do, you may not know how you want
your song to start. This section should help you out with that.
How Long Should Your Song’s Intro Be?

A lot of songwriters don’t know how long to make the intro to their song. Ultimately, it
depends on what you’re trying to accomplish with your song. If you just write for yourself
and think really long intros are cool, then by all means go for it. On the other hand, if
you’re trying to sell your songs, or get any kind of significant airplay with them, you’d
probably increase your odds of that happening if your song has a short intro.
The main reason for that is a lot of times when you submit your song to a music industry
professional, they don’t listen to the whole track. In fact, if you don’t engage them right
away, they’re moving on. It’s sad but true. They’re busy people and they usually don’t
have the time to give every random song submitted to them a fair listen. So they make it
easy on themselves but judging songs very quickly.
According to author Jay Frank, who’s written a couple great songwriting books including
Future Hit DNA and Hack Your Hit, you have about ten seconds to engage your listener.
Ten seconds before they have that burning desire to flip to another song, if they’re not
engaged with yours.
Also consider that with it being the digital age, it’s easier than ever to listen the beginning
of a song before quickly moving on to the next one. All it takes is the press of a button to
immediately be listening to the next track, whether it’s online or on a CD. It’s not like the
old days with cassette tapes, where it would probably be easier to just listen to a whole
song than to try and find the next one you want to hear. As great as technology is, a lot of
times it plays into the typically short attention spans humans have. This can work against
you if you’re looking for someone to give your song a fair shot.
In addition to that, even if you did rope them in early on with a strong start, the next
“check-out” point will be at about the two-minute mark. So being past your second chorus,
with a new melody and chords (in your bridge) at that point is usually a good idea for a
catchy pop song. But that’s a little beyond what we’re talking about here in regard to song
introductions.
I don’t necessarily advocate making any cookie cutter moves. However, if your music is
really good (after all, having a short intro is clearly not the only thing a music industry
professional will be looking for) and you want to increase the chances of it getting heard, a
short intro is often a good idea. I know there are a lot of examples of hit songs with long
intros (especially in classic rock songs), but it’s just not the norm these days.
A lot of times it’s even a good idea to put a catchy little piece of melody as your intro
before your verse starts. You can use the intro as a way to pull the listener in, as opposed
to something they just have to sit through. It can even be something as simplistic as the
intro to Pink’s “So What.” It’s just a repetition of a nonsense syllable on the word “nah,”
after a guitar riff that played the same melody. It’s simple, but it’s catchy and holds you in
until the verse starts.
Think about ways to make your intro as catchy as possible, as opposed to just being a
repetition of the verse chords you’re about to play when you start singing. A catchy little
guitar lick, or nonsensical piece of melody can go a long way when trying to rope your
listeners in. Your intro is a great chance for you to have fun with coming up with some
new, fun, catchy (and quick!) ideas to pull people into your song. So enjoy the process!
Lyric Writing
There are plenty of things to know when it comes to writing great lyrics. In this section,
we’ll look at one of my favorite subtopics regarding lyric writing, which is writing your lyrics
to a rhythm. This is important because it’ll help your words fit in your song, without them
sounding awkward against the music.
Writing Lyrics to a Rhythm

Being music-minded when you’re writing lyrics can prevent them from sounding wordy.
Wordy lyrics can negatively affect your melody. For that reason, I want to address how
you can write lyrics that can easily being sung in a melody.
The Spoken Rhythm

The rhythm of a line happens as a result of a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables
within a phrase. I’ll indicate the unstressed syllables with “ba” and the stressed syllables
with “BUM.” For example, the phrase “Lonely and waiting” has this rhythm: BUM ba ba
BUM ba. Hear that? The syllables “Lone-“ and “Wait-“ are stressed in their respective
words, while “-ly,” and “-ing” are unstressed in those same words. The word “and” is also
unstressed. If you say the phrase out loud, you’ll hear it. The accented syllables are
longer, louder and have a higher pitch. That’s what makes them stressed. The
combination of stressed and unstressed syllables in the phrase “Lonely and waiting” (or in
any phrase) create its natural sonic shape.
If you need to figure out the stresses in a word with more than one syllable, you can
usually hear them by sounding them out. For a word with two or more syllables, like
“lonely” it’s usually best to listen for the accented syllable, and assume the remainder of
the syllables are unaccented.
However, if you need help with this, you can always check a dictionary. It defines which
syllables are stressed and which aren’t when you look up a word with more than one
syllable. For example, when I look up the word “loving,” I’m presented with this
pronunciation: luhv-ing. The stressed syllable is given in bold.
Single syllable words aren’t as easy. Some of them are stressed and some are not. Again,
it’s best to listen to them within a phrase to determine which are accented and which
aren’t, but if you get stuck you can reference this rule of thumb: Assume single syllable
nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are stressed. In other words, words that carry
meaning are accented. Other words are not. You won’t find the answer in a dictionary for
single syllable words
Writing in Rhythms
As you know, music has a rhythm to it. A lot of times the words and phrases we speak
aren’t very rhythmic. But since you know that your music will have a rhythm, you can write
your lyrics to a rhythm, even if you don’t have any music yet. If you take this approach,
you’ll know that what you’re writing will more easily fit into a song.
Let’s look at an example. Let’s say I write two lines of lyric that say this:
Looking out into the sky

The night is so beautiful
If I write those lines out into their rhythmic patterns, I’d end up with this:
LOOK-ing OUT IN-to the SKY

This NIGHT is so BEAU-ti-ful
I highlighting the stressed syllables in bold. We could also take the words out and isolate
the patterns:
BUM ba BUM BUM ba ba BUM

ba BUM ba ba BUM ba ba
The first line doesn’t really have a consistent rhythm. It has a strong stress, then a weak
stress, then two of each before ending on a strong stress. The second line is better and
more organized rhythmically (by having two weak stresses between each strong stress),
but it doesn’t match the first line. That’s not a requirement, but it tends to make things
easier, depending on how your melody will go.
So things might get a little chaotic when we start to put these lines to music, because their
rhythms are random. What if instead we started with a rhythmic pattern, and then
matched our words to that pattern. Writing out your stresses first lends itself well to writing
catchy melodic motifs.
The rhythm of the second line was pretty good, so let’s stick with that and use it twice.
Let’s say we want our lyrics and melody to have this rhythm:
You can see that looks better already. Now we just have to find words that fit that pattern.
We know the second line from our previous example worked, so we’ll keep that. Since we
want to stay with the same lyrical idea, we can try a first line that’s something like this:
The sky is so magical
Which rhythmically works out to be:
The SKY is so MAG-i-cal
or
Now we have two lines with a good, consistent rhythm that match each other. So we
shouldn’t have much of a problem fitting these words to music:
The sky is so magical

The night is so beautiful
or
You can hear the consistency in the rhythm of these lyrics, just by speaking them aloud.
They have a good rhythm that’s the same from line to line, which will make them pretty
easy to put them to a melody.
Last Note
This is an approach you can take whether you have a melody and you want to match your
words to the music, or if you’re writing lyrics first, and you want them to be written
rhythmically before you even develop your melodies. Either way, this approach will help
you organize the stresses of your words to be more rhythmic, and lend themselves to
being placed in music. It may be a little trickier to find the right lyrical phrases you’re
looking for, but your melodies will drastically benefit from this approach.
Melody Writing
There are plenty of things to know when it comes to writing great melodies. In this section,
we’ll look at how you can use a specific set of scales to write melodies for your music.
Writing Melodies With the Minor Pentatonic & Blues Scales

If you’re a songwriter who writes solely from inspiration, you may find it hard to sit down
and write a melody if you haven’t been stricken with any bolts of melodic lightning lately. If
that’s the case, a couple of tools you can use to kick around some new ideas are the
minor pentatonic scale and the minor blues scales. I’ll get to why they’re so awesome in a
second, but first I just want to show you where they’re derived from.
The Minor Pentatonic Scale

If we were to notate the major scale in numbers, it would look like this:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1
So in the key of C, that would be:
C D E F G A B C
Basic enough music theory, right? With that in mind, if we were to relate the minor
pentatonic scale back to the major scale, it would look like this:
1 3♭ 4 5 7♭ 1
So the C minor pentatonic scale would be:
C E♭ F G B♭ C
It only has five notes (hence the “penta-“ prefix) and the third and seventh of the major
scale are flatted. That’s the minor pentatonic scale. Easy enough.
The Minor Blues Scale

There’s also a variation of this scale you can use called the minor blues scale. It’s the
same scale as the minor pentatonic with one note added. That added note is called the
“blue” note. It’s a flatted fifth of the major scale. So the minor blues scale looks like this (I
put the added blue note in bold):
1 3♭ 4 ♭
5♭ 5 7♭ 1
So the C minor blues scale would be:
C E♭ F ♭
G♭ G B♭ C
The only difference between the C minor pentatonic and the C minor blues is the addition
of that G flat in the minor blues scale.
How to Use Them

Sonically, both of these scales have a blues, rock or R&B feel, which can give your
melody a cool vibe. But that’s not why I’m mentioning them here.
The reason I bring up these scales in particular, is that they almost always sound good
over a major OR minor key, which puts them at an advantage over other scales.
Technically, there are three major modes in music: Ionian (or the major scale), Lydian,
and Mixolydian. There are also three minor modes: Aeolian (the natural minor scale),
Dorian and Phrygian. If that all sounds like a foreign language to you, don’t worry about it.
The point I’m trying to make here, is with the pentatonic scale, you can play it over ANY of
those six modes, major or minor, and it can sound good.
If you wanted to play an Ionian scale, you’d want to play it over an Ionian chord
progression for it to sound good. If you wanted to play and Aeolian scale, you’d play it
over an Aeolian chord progression. But the minor pentatonic and blues scales can sound
good over ANY of those keys. They’re almost universal in that sense.
An easy trick is to assume the first chord in your progression is the key of your song. Then
start playing any of the notes of the minor pentatonic or blues scales in that key and see if
you can come up with any melodies that you like. It’s worth experimenting with. I’ve listed
the notes for all of the minor pentatonic and blues scales on the next page, for your
convenience.
If you’re hard-pressed for melodies AND you don’t know (or care) if your song is in a
major or minor key, the minor pentatonic and minor blues scales are a cool place to start.
Just play a recording of your song’s chord progression, and head on over to your
keyboard or guitar and start tooling around on those scales. See what you come up with.
There’s usually some cool stuff hiding out in those five or six little notes. So have fun
experimenting with them.
These scales will sound better over certain chord progressions and musical styles than
others, but they’re worth trying out if you’re in a rut with coming up with a melody, and you
don’t know where to start. You’re bound to be able to get something from these scales.
They may not be something you want use every single time you write a melody, as your
melodies could potentially start to sound similar, but it’s nice to have them in your back
pocket, if you need them. On the next page are the minor pentatonic and minor blues
scales in each key for your reference.
The Minor Pentatonic & Minor Blues Scales in Each Key
Notes:
1. The first note in the scale indicates the key. Start by assuming the first chord in your
chord progression is the key of your song, and see how the appropriate scale below
sounds over your chords.
2. The scales shown below are minor blues scales. The notes in bold are the blue notes.
If you eliminate the blue note you will have the minor pentatonic scale.
A C D ♭
E♭ E G
B♭ D♭ E♭ E F A♭
B D E F F# A
C E♭ F ♭
G♭ G B♭
C# E F# G G# B
D F G ♭
A♭ A C
E♭ G♭ A♭ A B♭ D♭
E G A ♭
B♭ B D
F A♭ B♭ B C E♭
F# A B C C# E
G B♭ C ♭
D♭ D F
G# B C D D# F#
Bonus
This bonus section will have one more important concept for you to think about when
you’re creating your next song.
Make Your Song Timeless

When you write a song, think of it as something that will last forever. Sure, musical styles
will change over time and that’s okay and expected. However, there are a couple of things
you can avoid that can help preserve your song as time moves along.
Avoid Phrases of the Minute

A lot of times a phrase comes along that’s somehow really popular in the moment, and
then it’s gone. At the very least, it’s branded as cheesy for the rest of eternity. For
example, in the 90’s there was a certain period of time where it was actually socially
acceptable to say something, and then follow it with “…Not!,” to negate what you just said.
Like, “You’re cool… Not!” As lame as that seems now, there was a time when it was being
said too frequently. We have Wayne’s World to thank for that one.
You may be thinking “I’d never use a phrase that lame in my music,” but you may not
know, because it’s cool now. The rule of thumb is, if something became super popular,
practically overnight, and has (at least) a bit of cheesiness to it already, it probably won’t
stand the test of time.
An example of this happens in the Uncle Kracker song, “Smile.” In the opening verse he
uses the phrase “Cooler than the flip side of my pillow, that’s right.” When the song first
came out it already felt strange that he was copying a phrase of the moment, and it only
gets more awkward sounding as time passes.
Using a phrase of the moment like this could work to your advantage if you’re writing a
super catchy pop song that could be an instant hit, because you’re attaching it to
something that’s popular in the moment. But don’t expect that to last. I also wouldn’t
suggest using that as a strategy when you write.
So try to avoid phrases like that in your songs, if you want your songs to be timeless. After
all, imagine how it would sound if you were still pitching a song that placed “…Not!” after a
line of your lyric. Learn to be a judge of what has legs, and what won’t last. If you avoid
clichés altogether, you won’t even have to worry about this problem at all.
Addressing Dates
The way you address dates and ages can come back to bite you later on too. Let’s say
you have a song about going out into the world. If you used a line like “I was class of ’13,”
that will get old fast. But if you said something like “I graduated last year,” it will last a lot
longer. Granted that line won’t always be factually accurate, but it won’t sound awkward to
someone listening to your song five years after it was written.
Talking about your age can have the same effect. If you say “I’m 28” in a song that stays
with you, when you sing it twenty years later, it could sound funny (unless its inaccuracy
becomes intentional as you age). Instead you can say, “I was born in (insert year here).”
As long as your song’s not about being young, that will carry your age with you as the
years move along.
The easiest way to address moments like these is to simply ask yourself “will this sound
weird if I’m singing this song five, ten or twenty years from now?” If the answer’s yes, you
may want to reword things to be more time-friendly. There’s always a different way to say
something that can give you the results you’re looking for.
Last Note
It’s harder to predict what will or won’t be cool musically later on down the road, except to
say that if you’re copying a sound that’s super catchy and became popular very quickly, it
probably won’t last too long. So the music end of things is hard to predict. But if you follow
the rules of thumb we looked at here, it’s a good start to writing lyrics that can be timeless.
Just trust your gut, and always ask yourself if the lyrics would still apply at a later time.
Then you’ll be on your way.
Final Word
Hopefully after reading this book, you’ll start laying out your songs even more thoughtfully
than you were before. You now have some cool methods to try out in your music.
Additionally, listen to what’s going on in the songs you hear on the radio, and try to apply
what you hear to your own music. You don’t have to follow any particular methods of
songwriting, but it does help to know what those methods are before you stray from them.
Most importantly, have fun and make great tunes!

5 Must Know Methods For Serious Songwriters

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5 Must Know Methods For Serious Songwriters

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How to Write a Song

Techniques From the Hits, Vol. IV

Copyright © 2012 by Success For Your Songs

Build Your Skills Before You Even Start………….………………………………… 5

Planning Before You Start………….…………….………….…………………………… 8

Designing Your Song’s Structure........................................................................................... 8

Writing An Intro For Your Song……………….………….…………………………..… 13

How Long Should Your Song’s Intro Be?............................................................................... 13

Writing Lyrics to a Rhythm..................................................................................................... 15

Writing Melodies with the Minor Pentatonic & Blues Scales.................................................. 19

Make Your Song Timeless………………………………….……………………………..……..… 23

Build Your Skills Before You Even Start

Gridlock – 10:00 Minutes

Planning Before You Start

Designing Your Song’s Structure

The Most Common Structures

Verse / Chorus / Verse / Chorus / Bridge / Chorus

Verse / Pre-Chorus / Chorus / Verse / Pre-Chorus / Chorus / Bridge / Chorus

Verse / Verse / Bridge / Verse

Common Song Structures without Bridges

Verse / Chorus / Verse / Chorus

Verse / Verse / Verse

The Role of Each Section

Writing An Intro For Your Song

How Long Should Your Song’s Intro Be?

Writing Lyrics to a Rhythm

The Spoken Rhythm

Looking out into the sky

LOOK-ing OUT IN-to the SKY

BUM ba BUM BUM ba ba BUM

The sky is so magical

Which rhythmically works out to be:

The SKY is so MAG-i-cal

The sky is so magical

Writing Melodies With the Minor Pentatonic & Blues Scales

The Minor Pentatonic Scale

So in the key of C, that would be:

So the C minor pentatonic scale would be:

The Minor Blues Scale

So the C minor blues scale would be:

How to Use Them

The Minor Pentatonic & Minor Blues Scales in Each Key

Make Your Song Timeless

Avoid Phrases of the Minute

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