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Trevor Dimoff

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Using Your Musical Skills For Lyric Writingsing Your Musical Skills For Lyric Writing 5 Ideas for Songwriting Inspiration That Always Work: You
don’t have songwriter’s block... you need to learn how to find
The last part of this article focuses on how you can use your great ideas for your songs! (epicsongwriting.com)
musical skills to understand and write lyrics. You’ll learn to
write lyrics faster than someone without musical training… you How Do I Start Writing Lyrics? Start with Inspiration, Message
already have the self-discipline to practice and you can and Story to write your songs, includes: a Basic Lyric Writing
connect your musical knowledge to the new lyric writing Process so you can write verses and a chorus to create a basic
concepts you’re practicing. song structure. Write Away, p15, January 2019Write Away, p15, January 2019.

Songwriting is creating and controlling patterns, the more you How Do I Write a Bridge? Learn to write a bridge for your song.
know about music and music theory the easier it is to identify, What is a bridge in a song? When do I write one and what do I
create and manipulate musical and lyrics patterns. This includes write about in the bridge? Write Away, p4, March 2019Write Away, p4, March 2019.
insight into the connections between lyrics and melody, your
awareness of the rhythmic accent patterns in lyrics, and how How Do I Write a Pre-Chorus? Learn to write a Pre-Chorus
lyrics fit into the repeating patterns of chord progressions. in your song. What is a Pre-Chorus? When do I use one in my
song and what do I write it about? Write Away, p8, May 2019Write Away, p8, May 2019.
As a performer, you have a better understanding of songs
because you’ve reproduced them in performance. You’ve played How To Write A Finished Song Lyric Building a song structure:
songs and felt the patterns through your instrument and with Basic Principles of Song Structure so you know how to write a
your voice. complete song. Write Away, p6, June 2019Write Away, p6, June 2019.

Singing lyrics makes you aware of the connections between Lyric Writing Reference Tracks Understand the subtleties of
lyrics and melody, making it easier to write lyrics that are songs and songwriting in any genre by studying the songs you
singable and easy to set to a melody. You’ll quickly figure out love. Write Away, p8, July 2019Write Away, p8, July 2019.
which words you should cut out and which phrases won’t sing
well before you even try to set them to a melody.
Trevor Dimoff is a songwriter and
You can also write the music to the song and use this to inspire songwriting teacher specializing in
lyric ideas. One of my favourite “get unstuck” tricks is to write
a line then a chord progression. Then I sing or speak the line transforming musicians into
while playing chords and I improvise lyrics to find the next line. songwriters at epicsongwriting.com.
You can write the music before the lyrics if you wish. You can
write the lyrics and music to the chorus before you write any of To learn a simple songwriting process
the verse.
to write the lyrics, melody and music
A
Alternate Approaches to Lyric Writinglternate Approaches to Lyric Writing
to a song chorus
You don’t have to write lyrics first. As long as you finish the click here to enter your email address
song, whatever approach you use to write it is valid.

You can write a chord progression (or adapt one from another
song) then add lyrics.

You can write a melody then add lyrics.

Co-write: write music to someone else’s lyrics, check out the
“Poets Seeking Lyricist/Musician” section, new in this issue...

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Conclusions onclusions
Take your time and enjoy your songwriting journey, instead of
stressing yourself out. Write who you are right now. Set realistic
expectations and never compare yourself to professional
songwriters. Every professional songwriter has a collection of
songs the world will never hear, because those songs aren’t very
good. They were how they learned to write songs professionally!

Additional Resources:dditional Resources:
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Brainstorming: how to create more ideas than you need for a
song (epicsongwriting.com)

www.writeawaymag.co.uk 05