Words and Music

I belong to a wonderful Facebook group called GYAWS - Get Your A$$ Writing Songs. It's just about the most supportive and fun group I belong to, although I have to admit that FAWM comes a close second. Each week the group writes to a theme which has been selected by a group poll.  We don't critique each others work, unless someone asks something specifically.  We encourage each other to actually write and record every week, which is the purpose of the group. GYAWS has it's own SoundCloud account, called GYAWS Music .  Every week, I compile a GYAWS SoundCloud Parade playlist of the songs submitted that week, and that the writers have agreed can go 'public'.  It's an eclectic and interesting playlist each week, with amazingly high standards, considering that these are not finished projects, and often just recorded as a one take into a phone ! So this week I decided to include the playlist in a blog post, as the theme was a favourite subject of mine 'Oc...

When you are working on your lyrics, have you ever wondered why it's so hard to think of a good way to say what you want to say, without it sounding boring or clunky or awkward ? Are you sometimes not happy with the lines you have written, and would like to say the same thing only in a more powerful or unusual way ? I think all songwriters and lyricists come against this from time to time, and as a friend recently asked me for help with some lines he wasn't happy with, I thought that I would share the way that I personally try and overcome this when it happens. It's pretty simple, I brainstorm, with myself, alone, on paper.  Yes I know, I'm old fashioned. How I brainstorm: *   I write the offending line, or pair of lines, at the top of the page. *   I then write every conceivable variation of how I could write the same thing using different words and phrases, that I can think of.  No matter how silly, daft, weird or over the top sounding they may be. ...