Originally Posted By: Mike Halloran
Quote:
I wouldn’t plan out what you’re writing about…
…and no one is forcing you.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion but some of us have written hundreds of songs by planning the form first, then writing to it. The discipline of knowing what has to go where gives us the freedom to express ourselves.


I couldn't agree more with Mike Halloran on this one. Writing to song form does indeed give you discipline and forces you to be more succinct with your lyrics. It also forces you to focus on writing a "good" hook. I see so many lyrics where they are just rambling and have no connection to an actual melody. Writing music to poetry. The "worst" is when someone wants you to put music to their lyrics. They tend to write way too much, the lyrics are too wordy and can never be sung by an actual singer, they use a lot of simple rhymes at the end of their versus (cat hat, bat, etc....) versus words that can be sung with a rhyming tone (ex: ya telling your girl on the phone; that Marvin says let's get it on; your mama says lord help me please; cause I ain't home yet and it's quarter to three). This snippet written doesn't sound close to rhyming but sung it comes across totally different. Also I differ that if you have good lyrics people will listen. I can only tell you how many songs people sing along with but ONLY KNOW THE HOOK !! Most of them have no idea what the underlying lyrics are saying. Especially dance music. Good lyrics against a crappy melody will not resonate.