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In my opinion, this is one of the most important things to learn about the craft of songwriting. Contemporary songwriting style is about being “conversational”, which essentially means to use language that is contemporary and common. For example, we no longer speak as Shakespeare did: “Alas, to write or not to write. Whether ‘tis nobler to write Country or Americana with thy quill…..” (You get the idea) No one speaks like that, so songwriters don’t write like that either. If you use flowery or archaic language, you’re lyric will be…well, too “lyrical”. If it reads more like a poem you would hear presented in a campus coffee house, then it’s probably a poem.
One element that often leads to sounding less conversational is going for a rhyme instead of following the concept of the rhyme serves the line. Many times writers force themselves into a rhyme or twist a phrase in order to make it rhyme when it might serve to maintain a more conversational tone by writing what you want to say and then work on finding a rhyme later.
A great piece of advice I received from a hit writer was his comment that so many times songwriters will tell a story, and it’s beautiful. But as soon as they pick up a pen, they think to themselves “How should I write this?’ and then ruin it by trying to write it instead of writing what they just said.
A method you can try is to write your lyric like writing a letter to a friend. Sometimes this helps the flow and conversational tone. It can also keep you focused on providing detail from sentence to sentence.
Another technique is to imagine that a friend is sitting across the table from you, and you’re going to tell him/her about this thing that happened. You tell stories to people every day: coworkers, family, friends, telemarketers…
We know that we need to use conversational language. As the writer, we know what we want to say. We know what we’re trying to say. We know the back-story because we made it up, but remember our listeners don’t know anything. One of the more common mistakes writers make is they assume a line says what they mean when it really doesn’t.
Tom T. Hall has a great story in his book, “The Songwriter Handbook” about how he was in the army and had to write a letter to a general to inform him that the runway at their base was too small for the General’s plane to land. Tom starts off with “Dear Esteemed General, I am writing to inform you that due to the ……”
Finally, Tom sent a note that simply said “Runway too short”
In the end, keep it real and just say it.
Article: © SongwriterPro.com Kelly Dunn - All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
