That's what I'd like to know, have I nothing to say? I sit down with my guitar, bust out a nice riff, sing a pretty little melody over it, doo-doo-doo style. Ok, that's good, now I want lyrics, not just words, but something I'd like to scream from the rooftops with a megaphone. Problem is, I'm not sure what I'd want to scream on rooftops. If I was put in front of a microphone, on a stage, and a million people were there, a huge crowd, waiting for me to say something, what would I say? "Listen, I'm sorry for the inconvenience but, because I'm such an apathetic loser, I have nothing to say to you people, except maybe that you shouldn't have wasted your time coming here. Next time you'll know better." Geez. That's great. I did write three verses; they're disjointed and they don't convey anything, really, they're just words that fit the music.
If ever all the stars in the sky
start to fall down in a gentle rain.
Tell me this, tell me why
Take your blank stare elsewhere;
You won't have to take the train
to go home, you're already there.
Si jamais toutes les étoiles dans le ciel
Tombe comme une pluie éternel
Dit moi, dit moi pourquoi
Tes yeux tournent autour de moi aujourd'hui
Mon esprit est crevé, parce-que je manque d'air
Seul en enfer.
Here's the song: Si Jamais
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2 comments:
Practice adapting very concrete, simple ideas to music. The ideas, which you'll represent through description or images of things you see in everyday life should fit in logically together to form a sort of story. It sounds easier than it is, but if you practice, you'll succeed.
Start simple. The simplest idea you can muster. And don't be negative, in sound or lyric, it isn't pleasant to listen to. Heavy minors and sluggish melodies that don't lilt are negative. Depressing thoughts expressed through heavy imagery is negative. You can be negative when you're skilled enough to express yourself freely in a craft.
And it's up to you to figure out what I mean by heavy and negative, what I mean by description, by concrete, by light and by free. For me, free is when you're gradually uninhibited by your lack of skill in a craft, or your increasing growth of skill in it, and learn to experiment and push barriers you never thought were there. You have your own aesthetic understanding of music, your own inner critic.
For the moment, stay with stuff so simple that you won't have to be negative OR positive about it, preferrably description. You're still learning, which means you need to hone your skills. Try a song about a guy who in the middle of the night jumps out of his window and roams through the city looking into people's windows, because he's curious and then finds a roof to be closer to the stars, and falls asleep there, while dawn breaks and the city wakes.
Don't go into details, just tell the story as I told it. You can adopt a point of view if you like. You can be the moon or a star in the sky while telling this story if you like. Or you can be the roof the guy found, or the street he walked on, or the city he's in. Explore different ways to tell the story and find one you're comfortable with, then be as linear as you can, and don't sell out on meaning for anything, not for melody, not for rhythm, because those are things that you can change, meaning cannot change. What you say means something or it doesn't. Period.
So use pure description. If you can tell that story, in any form, you'll be one step closer to your goal. All it takes is an idea, and the inner integrity and aesthetic conscience that'll stop you from writing disconnected, abstract drivel.
I love you and good luck. It's a fun journey.
Also, one more thing. ANY story can be told.
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