TinaLou Sings!

Great Song Lyrics:
Do your words have the power to move?

October 23, 2012

Due to some technical difficulties today’s show was broadcast at 11:30am PST instead of our usual 10am time slot. Tomorrow we definitely plan to broadcast the show during our normal time 10am – 11:30am PST. Every Tuesday we focus on the Art & Craft of Songwriting and today we talked about writing and appreciating great song lyrics.

Today’s Playlist Title: Poetry in Motion

All of the show’s topics and music selections are chosen specifically each day to illustrate a point I like to call:

The CRUX of the BIZkit:

Words have power to create emotional experiences, spend your words wisely.

Why do we like to hear certain songs over and over again? They can take us to an emotional place and recreate an experience that we want to have. Setting words to music compounds their power by locking them into our memory with rhythm and melody.

• What emotional experience do you want to cause for your listener?
  How do you want your listeners to feel when they hear your song? If you can create an emotionally truthful experience for your  listener they’ll want to keep listening over and over again. You may be inspired to write a song because you hear a phrase that sounds like a great song lyric, or maybe you have an idea that you think should be expressed in a song; or maybe there’s a story you want to tell. Underneath it all there’s going to be an emotion you want to express. Get in touch with the essence of your song and write from that feeling place.
• Choose a compelling song title
  Your song title should be attention grabbing – hopefully unique and perhaps raise questions in the mind of your listeners to get them interested to keep listening. Often but not always, your song title becomes the lyric to the chorus of your song.
• Paint pictures by using imagery
  You capture the attention of your listener when you put their imagination to work. Remember a picture is worth a thousand words – so the more images your put into your lyrics – the fewer words you’ll need. Use metaphors like “Life is a highway” or similes like “Smells like Teen Spirit.”
• There’s more than one way to rhyme
  You don’t always have to rhyme perfectly – meaning all consonant and vowel sounds match as well as the number of syllables. Perhaps just the vowel sounds are the same, or the consonant sounds, or maybe just the number of syllables. Mixing up your rhyming pattern is a great way to surprise your listener and keep them listening!
• Avoid cliches – say it YOUR way
  Cliche’s are overly used phrases that have been used so much that they no longer command attention – and most times listeners tune out. Unless you can use a common cliche in a new, interesting, or unexpected way try to avoid them. For example: “I will always love you,” or “Love is Blind.”  For example, instead of “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” Canadian rock group Len came up with “Steal my Sunshine.”

Artist Spotlight

Today we shine the spotlight on Grammy award winning singer and songwriter Pink. She projects an image of a sassy outspoken pop singer – and is known for being particularly blunt to the point of offensive in order to express that emotional truth. Today we played two of her hits – the first “Blow Me (one last kiss) and then “God is a DJ” (for DJ TinaLou’s daily ego boost).

Parting Words of Wisdom

“Music does bring people together. It allows us to experience the same emotions. People everywhere are the same in heart and spirit. No matter what language we speak, what color we are, the form of our politics or the expression of our love and our faith, music proves: We are the same.”
~ John Denver ~

Use your words carefully and deliberately – remember your listeners want you to move them!

You can do it!

Your MidDay Muse,

TinaLou

Songwriting Resources

• Writing Better Song Lyrics (book)
• Popular Lyric Writing (book)
• Hit Songs Deconstructed
• Lyric Ideas for Songwriters
• Songwriting Lab

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TUNE IN

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