No matter what your walk of life is, chances are a song has spoken to you. Whether it was a top-40 earworm or a sentimental slowjam, if you’re ready to start creating music of your own, this is the place to start!
Basic Structure
You may already know the name of the basic parts of a song. There’s the verse, which has different words each time, the chorus, which is the same in each repetition, and the bridge, which is unique and only appears once.
The most common structure is as follows:
Verse
Chorus
Verse
Chorus
Bridge
Chorus
Prosody
Prosody is a fancy work for the theory and patterns of poetry and language. It is the equivalent of music theory but for lyrics instead of composition. Since this is our very first song, we are only going to introduce one element - Syllabic Prosody, sometimes called The Rule of 3.
Syllabic prosody means that each line of one part of your song should contain a consistent number of syllables in each line. However, it does not have to be exactly the same. Generally as long as the variance between lines is 3 syllables or less, the song can still flow properly, hence The Rule of 3.
Don’t stifle your creativity too much with prosody, this can be something that you check in your second or third revision of the lyrics. Additionally, your syllabic prosody doesn’t have to be consistent through the song - Your verse, chorus, and bridge can all have different syllable counts, as long as they are internally consistent.
Theme
A good set of lyrics should be fairly simple in that most songs are really only about one thing. Pick a theme for your song, and then one or two adjectives that clarify it further. For example, say that you start with the incredibly common theme of love. From there, your two adjectives will really help focus your tone. Is your song about sorrowful, unrequited love? Or dancey, childlike love? You can start with your theme and just start listing adjectives until you find two that suit the story and mood you want to emanate.
Write!
I know, I know, it sounds so easy and yet simultaneously impossible, but I believe in you! Sit down, set aside some time where the only thing you do is write, and try to get rid of all distractions. Set a timer and work in half hour increments with regular breaks if that’s helpful to you. Remember, in your first draft, all that matters is that you got enough words on the page to make a complete product. From there, you can refine and enhance through your editing process.
For now though, focus on the success of having completed your first draft! Hopefully you’re already humming a tune in your head and are excited to get started on your composition!