Trying (and failing) To Write Lyrics

At the beginning of this project, when discussing how I planned to go forward with my lecturer, I explained that I had never written my own lyrics for my compositions. We decided that it would be good if that could change for this final uni project and I would write all the lyrics. This would hopefully develop my songwriting skills, making me a more well-rounded composer/songwriter. At first I was keen to give it ago because in the last trimester of 3rd year, I had done lyric writing for a module called ‘Creative Practice'. The purpose of this module was to do something creative but differently than you normally would. After completing the one song that I wrote for that module, I didn’t feel as scared as I would have if I hadn’t given lyric writing a try already, so I went into the lyric writing with a reasonably open mind. Since I had already finished writing the foundations of my duet, I thought I would try to write some lyrics for it. This was easier said than done. I spent, in total, about 5-6 hours and only just managed to finish writing the 12 lines that was the first verse and the pre. They were;

Verse 1

She thinks she knows all the colours in the sky

Buy her a rose and watch it die

Wants no one else but herself cause we can’t fly as high

Running in circles for a last goodbye

Pre

I watch the dark turn to light

Turned on my defence and said goodnight

And now when they ask about you

I don’t know why but

I ended up trying to make up a fictional scenario that I could pretend to put myself in, just to get any words out. I felt that even the words I came up with were too metaphoric for the musical theatre style. I returned to my lecturer slightly defeated as I planned to do a lot more than I completed. He gave me another technique to try out, so I went went away, ready to try again. This time I was to write out the rhythm of my melody and just kind of fit words to that rhythm. This was when I realised why I'm not good at lyrics. Once I had separated the lyrics from the music, I realised it was a completely different art form. When I hear music it my head, I can go to a piano and get an immediate response but with lyrics there is nothing but the words in your brain.

I eventually chose to partner up with the wonderful Robyn Smith and have her be my lyricist, which is actually closer to how most musicals are written anyway.

The process for collaborating with my lyricist began after I had completed all the arrangements for my songs. I sent her the audio of the full orchestration as well as the original piano demos for each song. This way, the lyricist was able to hear the melodies from the piano tracks and was also able to have a clear understanding of what the final track would sound like. Then we would meet up and practice the songs, insuring the lyrics, melody and themes fit together and match my vision for each song.

Hopefully she can be the Tim Rice to my … the majority of famous West End composers.