Songwriting Guides
How songs are actually put together. These are about the craft rather than about the tools, and they are worth reading whether or not you ever use the generator.
Verse, Chorus, Bridge: What Each Part Actually Does
A verse carries the detail and moves the story. A chorus carries the feeling and repeats. A bridge appears once and changes the angle. Everything else in a song is a variation on those three jobs.
How to Write a Chorus People Remember
A memorable chorus uses fewer words than you think, repeats more than feels comfortable, and lands on vowels a voice can hold. Cleverness is what makes a chorus forgettable.
Rhyme Schemes Explained: AABB, ABAB, Internal and Multisyllabic
A rhyme scheme is the pattern of which lines rhyme with which, written as letters. AABB means the first two lines rhyme and so do the next two. ABAB alternates. Everything else is a variation on those.
Writing Country Lyrics: The Story Structure That Works
A country song is a story told in order, and the last verse turns it. Verse one sets the scene, verse two complicates it, and verse three reveals something that changes what the first two meant.
Drill, Trap and Boom Bap: The Lyrical Differences
Boom bap packs the bar and lands on the beat. Trap uses triplets and a chanted hook. Drill takes syllables out and sits behind the beat, deadpan. The differences are rhythmic before they are anything else.
How to Write a Love Song Without Clichés
Most love songs fail because they are about love. The ones that work are about a mug, a route home, a habit. Shrink the subject and the clichés have nowhere to go.
Turning a Real Memory Into a Song
A memory becomes a song when you pick one moment out of it, describe what was physically there, and cut every line that explains why it mattered.
Editing Your Lyrics: What to Cut First
Cut the lines that explain, then the second-best image in every verse, then anything that only exists because it rhymed. Almost every first draft is twenty per cent too long.