When You Can't Find The Right Lyrics

I’ve had this sweet guitar riff in my arsenal for a good two months now. It’s a blues progression, busy and up-lifting. I love it, because I naturally gravitate towards minor riffs (what you would call sad or melancholic chords), and this one is in the major key and just sounds breezy without being cheesy.

I have a problem though…

I can’t find any lyrics to fit this damn song.

I tried to write a song about jiu-jitsu, it didn’t really work. Then I thought, “What if I just write it as a pump me up song? The sort one would blast before walking into a cage fight?” It has that vibe to it musically, but that didn’t really work either.

Then, this week, I started writing this song from the perspective of robots who have taken over the world and complain about how inefficient we humans are.

I was onto something, finally.

How did I know this? These lyrics somewhat excited me. I wanted to finish the story.

Even though the lyrics and vibe aren’t what you would expect together, this could make an interesting universe.

Some songs are like this, they take time and work. You need to let them sit for weeks, months, sometimes years. In fact, this is what most of my songwriting looks like; I have a guitar riff or chord arrangement, I try some lyrics, they don’t work, I let the song sit, try other lyrics, still doesn’t work, try again and eventually something opens up.

From time to time, I can get a strong sense of inspiration and can finish song in an hour. These moments are beautiful, but they are rare.

But I don’t wait around for them to come to me. I try to work on something new ever week, just like I go to the gym to maintain my fitness level.

Songwriting is muscle you need to work on every week.

Back to my blues song…

It’s not finished yet, but I have a trail I can follow now. Maybe I’ll finish it this week, or maybe it still won’t sound right, but I will work on it no matter the outcome.

The great thing about lyrics is that you can decide to Frankenstein them onto another song later.

Say I end up feeling like robots and humans at war maybe isn’t the theme I want for this blues rock melody; well, that just means I now have a story I can attach to another melody I have lying around or create new melodies and arrangements to fit the sentiment. Maybe I’ll slow down the pace, pair it with open minor chords and follow the mood that this theme could easily match with.

Here’s a handy tool I use when I need a theme to write a song to. It’s a random word generator. It’s a great way to get unstuck, or simply to start a song with a fresh concept.

In fact, I was able to write a whole song from the word “iceberg” last summer because of this tool, and it made it onto my band’s album which will be released in February! Pretty cool tool.

So, all this to say…

Lyrics are hard. They take work and time. If you’re a musician first and lyricist second, you know how true this is.

Keep chugging away at it, little by little, week by week. It’s a muscle, so do your best to maintain it.

Kim

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