Lyric guidelines, anyone ?

Renaye from YouthSays asked for guidelines on writing lyrics. I could only give a few tips due to the limited space. After all, I am still learning. I did not give any promises, but I did say that I would put some tips right here on Rapide Indolore in case there are budding lyricists like me, who are aspiring to write really good songs ! Let's all share the love !

1. There are two approaches to writing lyrics :
- first, find the tune, then write the lyrics. I used to use this approach for Kasih, Le Paradoxe, Images and My Bequests, among others. I had the tunes in mind before actually penning the lyrics down on paper.

- second, write the lyrics before finding the tune. Most of my songs use this method. This is the more preferred method because the lyrics determine the mood of the song, and from the lyrics we can tell whether it is happy or sad, and we can develop the tune, the chords and the necessary effects from there.

However, I do not do any recommendations because I dabble in both methods.

2. Writing lyrics is just like writing poems !
I reckon that many of you know this - there are symmetrical poems (the traditional structure) and asymmetrical poems (more often used in post-Romantic era poetry). Symmetrical poems are the ones whose lines end like this - a-b-a-b, a-b-b-a, a-a-b-b, or even a-a-a-a. There is some form of reflection somewhere. Asymmetrical poems, however, have no definite structure.

Think : for Kasih, I got inspired by that form 2 poem called "Mata Ayah" and for Homage to Wordsworth, well... I did get inspired by "Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey" and "Lines Written in Early Spring" - and I wrote in a way which I felt was his style - but truth be told, none of us can ever write as well as Wordsworth could. In comparison, however, writing songs is much more "lenient" in nature than writing poems, shall we say ? - for songs, we can take four approaches - simplistic (with all simple, understandable verbs and shortened forms like gotta, wanna and stuff), poetic, cockney/dialect, or moderate (neither too poetic nor too simplistic). Most songwriters stick with the moderate approach.

3. You could put an existing poem to music.
I did the same with the first section of "Puis qu'en oubli" - the first section is the actual text of a medieval song called "Puis qu'en oubli sui de vous" by Guillaume de Machaut. The original melody was noted in "Music : An Appreciation," Ninth Edition, Roger Kamien, McGraw-Hill International (2008) but I decided not to follow the original because had I done so, the written chorus would be too high for me. Fine, I could train myself, but since it is an adaptation of sorts, the tune may be changed at will !

4. Write about all you can think of !
Consummation, Puis qu'en oubli, Envie d'y croire and My Bequests were written out of sadness, Homage to Wordsworth was written out of awe, Kemerdekaan Sejati, Kasih and Raise Me Up to See Your Eyes were written out of love. If you have a subject in your mind, and you know the flow, why not pen it down for people to have a lasting impression of it ? Experiment with anything and everything. But do note, that if you do intend to sell your stuff in Malaysia, do take note of the things that should not be talked about according to statutes. Whatever is not against the law may be against some parties, and they may take action.

So, anyone up for it ? Think you have a great set of lyrics to share ? Or, have any guidelines to share with me in case I haven't mentioned them ? Leave your comments here.