“I had a lot of time to myself, and I would listen to a lot of music, mostly music that I knew fairly well and had a relationship with. And I'd think, well, what is it that I've never been able to do that this person or people are able to do with this song? Why haven't I been able to do it, and what can they do that I wish I could do? And then I'd try to do that. I'd start each day getting into the songs, and I'd think about how I might get closer to this music that I love, but haven't been able to make before.” PeopleThinkingWritingTryingWellsPersonsMightAbleSongWishHavensEach DaySongwriting Author:Will Oldham
“You can find me in the melodies, the chord progressions, the song style and structure. The lyrical places you fine me most are in the lyrics that 'show' more than 'tell.' I like to describe what the listener is seeing and let them make up the middle rather than telling them.” WritingShowsSongSeeingMiddleStyleFineStructureMelodySongwritingListenersChordsFind MeProgressionLyrical Author:Kristian Bush
“My biggest lesson ... was to try and create narrators that were believable. ...so the listener becomes really invested in the story or the song.” WritingTryingStoriesSongLessonsSongwritingListenersBelievableNarrators Author:Kristian Bush
“I don't think I ever saw Hank with anybody, say, 'Let's go write a song.' One Sunday morning we left Nashville to go to Birmingham to do a matinee and a night, and he said, 'Hand me that tablet up there.' And he wrote down, 'Hey, good lookin', what you got cookin'' and before we got to Birmingham it was finished.” ThinkingWritingSaidHandsNightSongLeftMorningSawsFinishedHeySundaySongwritingLooking GoodNashvilleTabletsSunday MorningBirmingham Author:Don Helms
“My favorite song he ever wrote was 'Cold Cold Heart.' If you think about it, the lyric to 'Cold Cold Heart,' see how many two syllable words are in that song. Very, very few. ... Verses and the choruses have very few two syllable words. 'I tried so hard my dear to show that you're my everything.' One three-syllable word.” IfsThinkingWritingHeartTwoHardShowsSongThreeColdDearMy FavoriteSongwritingVersesChorusSyllablesFavorite SongCold Heart Author:Don Helms
“The melodies were melodies that anybody could sing or hum or whistle. And the words were just about that simple. I think the stories Hank told in his song fit so many people. Nearly everybody in the audience acted as if Hank were singin to them alone.” PeopleIfsThinkingWritingStoriesSongSimpleAudienceFitMelodySongwriting Author:Don Helms
“When you have that first flash of what you think is going to be a great idea-from the mouth, from the hands-that's an amazing feeling. I don't think anything's quite as good as that.” ThinkingWritingFirstsIdeasFeelingsHandsMouthsSongwritingFlashGreat Idea Author:Daryl Hall
“Not too many songwriters, when they write songs go for broke. When someone does who's really good, it's astonishing. There's a reason a three-minute song can devastate you, or make you get up and dance, stop what you're doing and go, 'What is that?' It just hits you. And it's a very potent thing you're playing around with.” WritingDoeReasonSongThreeMinutesGet UpBrokeSongwritingSongwritersAstonishingPlaying Around Author:Lou Reed
“He felt himself in suspension between the two worlds, the warm, neat civilization behind his back, the cool, dark mystery outside. We all write poems; it is simply that poets are the ones who write in words.” WorldWritingTwoFeltDarkBehindsMysteryPoetCivilizationWarmSongwritingNeatTwo WorldsSuspension Author:John Fowles
“I'm always writing ideas down and then I stick em in my pocket and put em in that folder so I don't lose them. Like, somebody might say something, and I'll go, oh that's a good line, and that goes in the folder, too. It's kind of an ongoing process for me.” WritingKindIdeasMightProcessLosesLinesDown AndSticksPocketsEmsSongwritingOngoingFolders Author:Lucinda Williams
“If you get a song right for its usage at the time, it can be useful to others. ...Those songs are more friendly to other artists looking for material.” IfsWritingArtistSongMaterialsFriendlySongwritingUsage Author:Rodney Crowell
“Every now and then I'll get seduced by the idea of money, and I'll take a stab at that...and I fall flat on my ass. I've never written a lasting song with that mindset. It doesn't work.” WritingIdeasSongFallWrittenMindsetAssFlatsLastingSongwritingNow And Then Author:Rodney Crowell
“So it's not really whether you talk about politics, but how well were you able to do it. Peter Gabriel and Sting get away with it...U2...the examples are there, of people being able to carry these subjects in the music, and the audience is absolutely able to embrace subjects that aren't just the stuff they already know about. And they're actually able to learn stuff.” PeopleKnowsWritingWellsAbleStuffAudienceSubjectsExampleEmbraceGet AwaySongwritingPeterGabriel Author:Jackson Browne
“I find that I end up liking songs if I really have an idea of something I wat to write about-some problem in my life or something I want to work through; if I don't have something like that at the root of the song, then I think I end up not caring about it as much. I gravitate towards some kind of concept or idea or situation that I want to write about. Very often I have to write, rewrite and come at it from an opposite angle...and I end up writing the opposite song that I thought I was going to write.” IfsThinkingWantWritingKindIdeasEndsProblemSongSituationConceptsRootsOppositesCaringSongwritingAngleNot Caring Author:Rivers Cuomo
“I can't write from the subconscious actually, because a lot of the time when I co-write with other people, I'm writing for them as opposed to for myself. When it comes to lyrics, I tend to want to give them their voice, since it's most likely going to be on their record, or somebody else's record. And I find for more commerial-style music, people want simplicity, less vagueness, and less space to fill between the lines, so to speak. So I can't be quite as ethereal and mystical.” PeopleWantGivingWritingI CanSpeakVoiceLinesSpaceRecordsStyleSimplicitySongwritingSubconsciousMysticalEtherealBetween The LinesVagueness Author:Gary Louris
“Every story we remember is a novel. Novels make things more universal.” WritingStoriesRememberNovelUniversalSongwriting Author:Dave Eggers
“Starting is hard so I really need to give myself permission to do a bad job. I always give myself leave to write total nonsense for as long as I need to release the pressure, because it's really hard to start if you feel like that first sentence you write has to actually mean something.” IfsNeedsGivingFeelsWritingFirstsMeanLongHardJobsPressureStartingSentencesReleaseNonsenseSongwritingPermissionBad Jobs Author:Ann Brashares
“There are going to be moments of deep, deep doubts, and you have to have faith that your initial idea was good and just muddle through.” WritingIdeasMomentsDoubtSongwritingHave FaithInitialsMuddle Author:Ann Brashares
“Everyone has his own particular talent, niche and interests. Which isn't to say that you shouldn't try new genres or styles or explore forms other than the ones you're most comfortable with. But you should be willing to recognize that when writers try to make themselves into something they aren't or, more important, don't want to be ... they aren't going to be doing their best work.” WantShouldWritingTryingImportantFormInterestTalentStyleParticularWillingComfortableGenreSongwritingBest WorkNiche Author:Kevin Alexander
“Whether your characters journey daily to a distant moon or just down the street to the corner bar, what matters to the reader is the singular event that distinguishes one such voyage from all the others and makes for a story worth telling.” WritingMatterCharacterStoriesJourneyStreetsEventsReaderMoonCornersBarsSongwritingWhat MattersVoyages Author:Peter Selgin
“How to avoid cliche at the root of conception? Practice sincerity. If we've come by ... material honestly, through our own personal experience or imagination, we may rightly claim it as our own. ... The way to make material your own is to look for it in yourself. ... It should be a story that only you can tell, as only you can tell it.” IfsWayShouldWritingLooksMayStoriesImaginationPracticeMaterialsRootsClaimsHonestlySongwritingConceptionSincerityClichePersonal Experiences Author:Peter Selgin
“Something like going to get the newspaper can increase your writing efficiency by taking you away from the material. When I'm doing other things, writing stuff will be swirling around in my head, and sometimes I'll see a new way into the material.” WayWritingSometimesStuffMaterialsIncreaseNewspapersSongwritingNew WaysEfficiency Author:Nathaniel Philbrick
“People think I live here on Nantucket and just gaze at the ocean, getting my inspiration. Not so. I work in my basement and gaze out onto a single window that shows me a cement wall. This is a profession, and it's important to have professionalism about the writing.” PeopleThinkingWritingImportantShowsInspirationWallOceanWindowProfessionSongwritingShow MeProfessionalismBasementsCementNantucket Author:Nathaniel Philbrick
“Enthusiasm is big. When I write a book, it's a three-year commitment. Toward the end, I'm writing seven days a week, and it's exhausting but thrilling. The only hope is to have some real enthusiasm for the book. ... Above all, you need some strong emotional or personal connection to your material.” NeedsWritingYearsBookRealEndsBigsThreeStrongWeekEmotionalMaterialsCommitmentConnectionsSevenEnthusiasmSongwritingThree YearsThrillingExhaustingSeven DaysPersonal ConnectionStrong Emotional Author:Nathaniel Philbrick
“All songs are already perfectly written. It is the writer's job to find it and get it on paper.” WritingJobsSongWrittenPaperSongwriting Author:Beth Nielsen Chapman
“When I began writing, it was a cosmic thing: Inspiration! Wham! Short spurts of time when I felt out of touch with reality, temporarily insane and the result: a song!” WritingRealityInspirationSongFeltResultsInsaneSongwritingCosmic Author:Ann Reed
“This is also an execellent time to ask this question: Did I get lazy and go for a quick rhyme?” WritingAsksLazySongwritingRhyme Author:Ann Reed
“What's interesting about songs where the writer is genuinely in love with words is that it's easy to read the lyrics like a poem.” WritingSongEasyInterestingSongwriting Author:Ann Reed
“Writing a song isn't that hard. Writing a good song is difficult. Let's face it, we're faced with taking a complex feeling or event, making words rhyme and saying exactly what we want them to say in a short amount of time. ...the primary reason for keeping it short and to the point is to be certain that you're not boring your audience.” WantWritingHardReasonFeelingsFacesCertainSongDifficultAudienceEventsAmountComplexesBoringPrimariesSongwritingRhyme Author:Ann Reed
“Besides my fast and slooow songs, I further divide my work into three main song types: the ballad or story song, the variation on a theme (saying the same thing over and over and over again) song, and the weird song. It's important to have weird songs, but I find that a little weirdness goes a long way.” WayWritingLittlesLongImportantStoriesSongThreeTypeThemeSongwritingDividesLong WayVariationWeirdnessBalladsSaying The Same Thing Over And Over Author:David Massengill
“I admire the ballad form most of all. Stories are irresistible. I've always had a passion for stories, the endings being of particular importance.” WritingStoriesFormPassionParticularImportanceAdmireSongwritingIrresistibleBallads Author:David Massengill
“Stories were primarily verbal to begin with. Before there were cave paintings, stories were told over generations. We tell each other thousands of stories in the course of everyday life.” WritingStoriesCoursesGenerationsPaintingEverydaySongwritingEveryday LifeCavesCave Paintings Author:David Massengill
“I use three main tools in writing: instinct, hard work and dumb luck. Dumb luck is missing a train and, while you wait for the next one, writing a key word, line or verse. When this happens often enough you begin to believe in Fate.” WritingBelieveHardEnoughUseHappensThreeNextWaitingLinesFateMissingHard WorkKeysToolsLuckTrainInstinctDumbSongwritingVersesThe Next OneDumb Luck Author:David Massengill
“I give myself the luxury of time in shaping a song. It's very common for me to work three months or more on a single song. Plotting takes time and effort, for there are many false turns. I fill up pages and pages with my mistakes, thereby eliminating them. Eventually a trail is broken through this mountain of mistakes. Sometimes it's as easy as putting eggs in a basket; other times it's like trying to pound a ton of sand into a diamond.” GivingWritingTryingSometimesSongTurnsThreeEasyCommonEffortMistakeBrokenMonthsMountainPagesLuxurySandPoundsEggsSongwritingDiamondTake TimeTrailsBasketsThree MonthsMy MistakesEliminating Author:David Massengill
“These days I keep a journal, so I'm constantly sketching down my thoughts, or lines that come to me...ideas for songs. And then when I have a moment to myself, I'll sit down with my guitar and open my journal, and start kind of massaging things together, and see if a song takes shape. Or sometimes, I'll just be hanging out with my guitar and come up with a chord progression or a lick, and that'll sort of sit around for a while waiting to marry itself to some words. So it's sort of haphazard and it's like...junk culture. I go around finding shiny objects and I glue them together laughs.” IfsWritingKindIdeasSometimesMomentsTogetherSongCultureWaitingLinesLaughingObjectsShapesFindingsGuitarCome UpThese DaysHanging OutSongwritingJournalMy ThoughtsChordsJunkProgressionGlueSketchingHaphazard Author:Ani DiFranco
“These days, I find I'm applying a little more patience to my process. If I look back on my work, I can see those songs I bailed on could have been better, that had those great two verses and then I kind of coasted from there. These days, if a song is giving me trouble, I put it aside and pick it up later, and keep doing that, for a year if I have to, until it takes shape.” IfsGivingWritingYearsLooksKindLittlesHas BeensI CanTwoSongProcessTroubleShapesPicksThese DaysSongwritingVersesCould Have Been Author:Ani DiFranco
“My writing just kind of exists out there in the air-it's all sort of intended as spoken, or sung, word. So, to commit them to the page...that way was kind of intimidating to me, yet intriguing, to try to reflect the rhythms and connotations and emotions that you can deliver, speaking-wise, on a page.” WayWritingTryingKindEmotionWiseAirPagesCommitRhythmSongwritingIntimidatingIntriguingConnotation Author:Ani DiFranco
“I noticed with older songs that I perform that I'm coming from a different place with them now...it mutates the vibe and even the meaning of the same words when you have a different spirit, if the person singing is different. I like that, to be able to sing an emotionally wrought song from a more centered place, or to sing an eager, youthful song from a more experienced place. It kind of colors the songs differently, and it keeps them fresh.” IfsWritingKindPersonsDifferentAbleSpiritSongColorSingingSongwritingDifferent Place Author:Ani DiFranco
“Lyrically, 'less words mean more' is a pretty good rule of thumb. Try to cut out the fat and get to the meat of what you're saying.” WritingTryingMeanCuttingFatsMeatSongwritingThumbs Author:Chris Stapleton
“For me, a song doesn't really take flight until it has a lyric on it. ...Without a lyric that I'm happy with, it could be the greatest song ever melodically or arrangement-wise, but it doesn't have any resonance.” WritingSongWiseFlightSongwritingArrangementsResonanceGreatest Song Author:Ben Gibbard
“I want to write songs with complete sentences. I almos have this obsession with short-changing words. I would never be so pretentious to say that my lyrics are poetry. ... Poems are poems. Song lyrics are for songs.” WantWritingSongSentencesObsessionSongwritingPretentious Author:Ben Gibbard
“More times than not, it's a failed endeavor. You will fail more times than you succeed. But I think you need those failed endeavors.” ThinkingNeedsWritingFailingSucceedSongwritingMore TimeEndeavor Author:Ben Gibbard
“Paul Simon once said that a songwriter's supreme challenge was being complex and simple at the same time-writing songs with lasting depth that are also simple enough to be memorable. Jimmy Van Heusen was a master at this kind of song. His music was complex, with deeply rich chord changes any jazzman can embrace, but also possessed catchy, crystalline melodies of exceeding sing-ability. His songs were meant to be sung, not just listened to, and they were sung by the best, with Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby at the top of that list.” WritingKindSaidEnoughSongChallengesSimpleAbilityRichMastersEmbraceComplexesDepthListsSupremeMemorableLastingMelodySongwritingMeant To BeFrankPossessedSongwritersVansChordsJimmyWriting SongsJust ListenWere Meant To BeCatchyCrosby Author:Paul Zollo
“I wanted to be a singer, of course, but there was something about the songwriting, then and now, that is the most important thing. It's how I express myself, how I express how I see things. When I see people struggling with emotions and feelings and don't know how to put it down, I'm able to do that. It's really like a therapy, and it's like a buddy and a friend. It's a way out of a lot of things.” PeopleKnowsWayWritingImportantFeelingsAbleWantedCoursesEmotionKnow HowStruggleImportant ThingsSingersTherapySongwritingBuddy Author:Dolly Parton
“In the early days, Porter Wagoner would not exactly scold me, but he's say, 'You're writing too many damn verses. You're makin' these songs too damn long.' And I'd say, 'Yeah, but I'm tellin' a story. I have a story to tell.' And he'd say, 'Well, you're not going to get it on the radio.' If I start writing a song, I'm writing it for a reason. People would say that I had to have two verses, and a chorus, and a bridge. I tried to learn that formula.” PeopleIfsWritingWellsLongTwoReasonStoriesSongYeahRadioBridgesDamnSongwritingFormulasVersesChorus Author:Dolly Parton
“As a songwriter, you're allowed to write anything, and as a person, I am all colors in the rainbow. I've been through everything, you know, so I can write a positive song like 'Better Get to Livin'' because that's my attitude. But that doesn't mean I'm happy all the time. You can't be a deep and serious songwriter without feelings. You kinda have to live with your feelings out on your sleeve and get hurt more than most people. The fear I might get hurt means I might not be able to write another song.” PeopleKnowsWritingMeanPersonsI CanFeelingsMightAbleSongHurtAttitudeColorSeriousSongwritingRainbowSongwritersSleevesHurt MeMy Attitude Author:Dolly Parton
“Tom [Collins] was a great influence on me. He really pushed me...constantly demanded rewrites. And, as much as I despised them, it was the best thing that could have happened because he just wouldn't settle for less. It had to be right, and it had to be good.” WritingHappenedInfluenceBe GoodBest ThingsSettlingSongwritingTomsDespisedGreat Influence Author:Dean Dillon
“I knew a lot of chords, but they weren't the chords that came with the melody that came with the idea I had for the song. Melodies are simple things. If you see a train wreck, there's a melody. If you see a little daisy blowing in the breeze, there's a melody.” IfsWritingLittlesIdeasSongSimpleTrainMelodySongwritingBreezeChordsWrecksSimple ThingsDaisiesTrain Wrecks Author:Tom T. Hall
“Raksin worked for Alfred Hitchcock, about whom one of the most famous Raksin anecdotes was spoken. The legendary director declared he wanted no music at all for the oceanic Lifeboat, because he felt audiences would wonder where the music was coming from in the middle of the sea. Raksin said, Ask Hitch where the cameras are coming from.” WritingSaidWantedAsksFeltWonderAudienceSeaMiddleDirectorsCamerasSongwritingLegendaryAnecdotesHitchcockLifeboats Author:Paul Zollo
“I typically will work on a lyric in a three-ring binder. On the right side, I'll write the lyric, and on the left side, I put in alternate things...and things that might be alternates or improvements. I'll turn the page and do it again. I'll turn the page and do it again, or incorporate the improvements. Eventually, I end up with some material, and often it needs to be ordered.” NeedsWritingEndsMightTurnsThreeLeftSidesMaterialsPagesImprovementRingsSongwritingBinders Author:James Taylor