How do you write down your lyrics?

Dan-O from Five-O · Post by **Dan-O from Five-O** » Fri May 05, 2006 10:44 am

I'm curious how people write down their lyrics. I use a pen and paper initially, maybe I'll type them out later. But mostly I have these tablets of lyrics in various states of completion lying around. It seems pretty antiquated and since a lot of folks are recording on their computers, I was wondering if they just type them out or what. Also, do you use a recorder of some sort for ideas when you're away from your normal method? If you have a specific process that you follow each time, let's hear about that too.

mkilly · Post by **mkilly** » Fri May 05, 2006 11:20 am

I always just throw my Notepad equivalent up and then type stuff out, usually around the same time I'm figuring out the music. I guess usually lyrics follow music for me (which itself is a question often asked of musicians, that of which comes first).

At SongFight Live! 2004 I wrote the words to my Please the Pig on the back of a Dr. Pepper box, to the tune of Ken's Space Cadet. I then gave this signed original to Erik's brother-in-law's wife but I guess she lost it. Oh, well.

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Fri May 05, 2006 11:33 am

They always end up on my website, so I voted computer. If I'm at home when I start a song, I just edit lyrics via MovableType on the song page. This is in "rough" status so it isn't a public page until finished. I link rough mix MP3s so that I'll have access whenever needed, and also to share with collaborators I just send them a link to the private page for lyrics and MP3. Once it's done, I update to link the final MP3 and change catagory to Music and it updates on my site, and also feeds the local and iTunes podcasts automatically.

Example: Galaxies Floating on a Dark Matter Stream which never quite got finished. But I plan on releasing it under another title to somesongs.

I sometimes capture ideas into my phone's recorder, and scribble on paper. Whatever's needed.

jimtyrrell · Post by **jimtyrrell** » Fri May 05, 2006 11:55 am

Almost always on the computer. Sometimes I'll use pencil/paper, but it's pretty rare.

Tonamel · Post by **Tonamel** » Fri May 05, 2006 1:10 pm

Hipster PDA, since I'm generally not at the computer when I get an idea.

catch · Post by **catch** » Fri May 05, 2006 1:16 pm

Ideas go in pocket notepads, drafts go in various notebooks, final lyrics get typed out on the PC.

I want to get a little tape recorder for humming melodies on the go, but haven't gotten around to it, yet.

Kill Me Sarah · Post by **Kill Me Sarah** » Fri May 05, 2006 2:22 pm

Pretty much allways pen (black ink) and paper. My music usually comes before the lyrics, and I like to have it on paper so I can use my recording software w/out having to switch to Notepad or somesuch, since I have a hard time remembering my lyrics.

Reist · Post by **Reist** » Fri May 05, 2006 2:33 pm

I write my music and lyrics at the same time on lined paper with a black pen. If I don't write them that way, I can never get music to the lyrics or lyrics to the music. It has to be spontaneous though for me. I can't really spend a long time writing the song, otherwise it gets boring for me. I can edit some chords and lyrics afterwards, but I have to write quick or I lose it.

Caravan Ray · Post by **Caravan Ray** » Fri May 05, 2006 3:09 pm

I use my hand to smear them on the wall with my own faeces

catch · Post by **catch** » Fri May 05, 2006 3:15 pm

You could've just said, "Other."

king_arthur · Post by **king_arthur** » Fri May 05, 2006 3:47 pm

Paper and pen, almost always, but then once I've made some revisions and know roughly how I want them to go on the song, I'll type them in and pin them to the wall while recording vocals. For songfight songs, my usual working method is to come up with the basic lyric while out walking the dogs in the early morning; anything I can't remember long enough to write down when I get back home probably wasn't up to my impeccably high standards anyway...

I've tried singing from handwritten pages like this, and it's generally quicker to take the time to type in the fixed-up lyric and print it out...

By the way, I've probably mentioned this before, but the originals all get scanned in and integrated into an HTML-based system I have for cataloging all my songs... even if the lyric was written on the computer (which I do once in a while) I'll grab a screen shot or something, or scan in the printed version where I made changes.

Charles (KA)

c.layne · Post by **c.layne** » Fri May 05, 2006 3:54 pm

couldn't find a pen, i had to think of a new trick. this one i wrote in cold blood with a toothpick.

jute gyte · Post by **jute gyte** » Fri May 05, 2006 4:08 pm

I have some notebooks with lyrics, as well as several .txt files. My most recent Songfight entries were all typed in Notepad, but besides those 4 they're all on paper.

Mogosagatai · Post by **Mogosagatai** » Fri May 05, 2006 6:50 pm

Sometimes pen/paper, sometimes Word or Notepad, so I said "Other".

Dan-O from Five-O · Post by **Dan-O from Five-O** » Fri May 05, 2006 7:02 pm

Oops. See below.

jack · Post by **jack** » Fri May 05, 2006 7:09 pm

always pen and paper.

and i think i keep everything i write, in case i ever get rich and famous and then i can sell it on ebay or something.

Dan-O from Five-O · Post by **Dan-O from Five-O** » Fri May 05, 2006 7:30 pm

Awesome example of what a hand written page can look like K.A.! But mine are always annotated with chord progressions, notes about the type of beat and feel that I'm looking for and such.

I love the fact that you scan and archive that all of it too. I've seen pictures of stuff like Lennon & McCartney notes and it always made me think "See, that's what the creative process looks like".

Bjam · Post by **Bjam** » Fri May 05, 2006 8:59 pm

I write out my lyrics in black pen, I then revise in a different colour(usually red), then I sharpie pen in chords in the margin. Then I'll type it all up and make it look pretty.

And sometimes I just make them up.

rone rivendale · Post by **rone rivendale** » Fri May 05, 2006 8:59 pm

Computer definatly. Usually notepad. I do all the music on the computer so there's no reason to waste trees writing on paper.

john m · Post by **john m** » Fri May 05, 2006 10:00 pm

Notepad, always. Typically 20 minutes before deadline.

anti-m · Post by **anti-m** » Fri May 05, 2006 11:28 pm

Definitely pen and paper!

Here's my own wacky process:

1. Write a long blathering stream of consciousness on the subject â€“ with no concern for rhyme, rhythm, meter, grammar, or cohesiveness.

2. Decide how I want the song to sound. (Sometimes 2 precedes 1.)

3. Edit stream of blather to reintroduce all those critical bits ignored in round 1 â€“ I also tend to cut lots of stuff out at this stage. Extra words, extra verses, clunky ideasâ€¦ anything not quite working for me gets the axe.

Iâ€™ll post a pic of one of my illegible chicken-scrawled sheets when Iâ€™m back at work.

Rabid Garfunkel · Post by **Rabid Garfunkel** » Sat May 06, 2006 1:00 am

Pen and paper, mos' def. Music gets one or more tab sheets. Yes, the top half was scribbles for Rate of Decay (which never got done).

And the poor little notebook that gets carried around everywhere gets lyrical, intrumentation, and verse structure notes scribbled in over the course of the week. Then the lyrics get rewritten onto a single sheet, tacked up on the wall in the closet for the vocal mutillations.

Unfortunately all I've got on me at work is for the next fight... not that my handwriting is all that legible, heh.

So that's my brain laid out for all to see.

Now just to finish the damned thing.

-edit- Crap, this thread is for lyric writing only. Well, for me, the lyrics help to write the music, and the music helps to write the lyrics. It's just the way I write all these winning songs

How do you write down your lyrics?

How do write down your lyrics?

How do you write down your lyrics?