#st8.1

I will be reporting on ‘5 Steps to Start Writing Lyrics’ by Andrea Stolpe. In her work on Berklee Online, Stolpe gives five very useful pieces on advice for budding songwriters but it her tips are useful for writers of any level.

How easy to read and understand? This article is very easy to read and understand. Stolpe takes her own advice when she says, “Write like you speak.”. The text is also laid out in a helpful format with a four to seven-word brief at the head of each sections which describes the section’s content.

What knowledge is needed to interpret it? Other than knowing which section of a song is which (verse, chorus etc), no specialist knowledge is needed to understand this text. As this is intended to be help guide for beginners, making it unassay to have specialised knowledge is a very good thing.

Something you learned, and could apply to your own song writing. While I am familiar with the song writing process, I have never tried reading another writer’s lyrics without listening to the song first. This is something that I think could be a useful technique.

How relevant is it to your song writing, and why? These tips are useful to me as I have only every considered my own song writing process at a basic level. Reading this made a realise how useful it can to get an insight into some other writer’s process. I will move forward by reading other articles and help guides in order to improve my own writing.

Link to ‘5 Steps to Start Writing Lyrics’ below.