The Secret Lyric Writing Technique That Pros Use (and you should too!)
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- Опубліковано 6 лют 2025
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Great lyric writers know that half the work is not what you say, but how you say it. In this video, I take you through a simple but powerful lyric writing technique that is amazing for both exploring ideas when you don't have many - but equally for finding the 'how' when you know what you want to say.
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WHO AM I?
We are Keppie Coutts, and Ben Romalis, two professional songwriters, performing artists and teachers with over 40 years of collective experience in the music industry.
We have studied and taught at some of the best contemporary music colleges in the world including Berklee College of Music, Sydney Conservatorium, the Australian College of the Arts, the Australian Institute of Music, the LA School of Songwriting and JMC Academy.
Our goal is to help people write better songs! Our belief, having worked with thousands of songwriters (many going on to find careers and success in music), is that your songwriting, like all things, can get better with meaningful and deliberate practice. Our intention is to share the skills, knowledge and ideas that we've had the privilege of gathering with others who embrace the art and craft of songwriting.
Love this technique! Here’s my first go at it;
The sadness pooling in her eyes
The light inside that slowly died
An angel weeping, softly cries;
Nothing lies like memory
Great hookline
I really like the last line. Impressive!
It all made sense and sounded like a good technique, but once I heard the actual examples I was blown away! I wasn't prepared for how good it would turn out. It really does feel like magic.
Reading comments waiting for adds to clear I clicked the wrong video and thought this was dual of fates sm64 sound font and this was a confusing comment
LOL
@@FosukeLordOfError
... yeah!
Can't start a fire without a spark, even if we're just dancing in the dark.
Instead of ‘Spark’, the Boss could have used ‘Prancing’… which would have elegantly aligned with Courtney Cox’s career breaking moves in the video…
Great point about surprising the listener with unexpected familiarity. By the same principle, I love it when an album isn't named after one of the song titles (gives that one song too much power and makes the others seem inferior) but after one phrase in a verse. That tiny moment of recognition just before you get the chorus (extra points if it's the second chorus and you were already anticipating familiarity - but it comes one line sooner than expected) is almost like that snapping-into-place feeling of solving a riddle
yeah, its like finding the title of the book while your reading
I like title tracks, but they definitely give it more power and make the other songs sound inferior. This is why on my first two albums, the title tracks are both one-minute instrumentals that open the album and set up motifs that come later in the album, which makes them a bit redundant. They still add to the album, but this reduces their power and draws your attention more to the other tracks.
@@TheRealJoeNathan That's a great use of track/album title, too. I was gonna correct myself that it CAN make one song too important and hurt the others but I guess I was thinking of a case where that song is already the most famous/catchy one. One of my favorite albums is The Soul Cages by Sting and that's also the title of a song on it. But it's one of the less catchy songs, I kinda had to work a little and give it a few tries before I liked it. In that case it was cool that the album title was pushing me to give it another listen. It's also repeated in at least one other song on the same album and two more on a later one.
I love when that happens! Reminds me of Ceremonials by Florence and the Machine. It feels so special when the title drops during the opening track.
Selfish Machines and The Sky Under The Sea by Pierce the Veil (very close at least)
Introduction and Overview - 00:00:00
Sonic Targeting Technique Introduction - 00:00:31
Creating a Title and Example: Dancing with Fire in the Dark - 00:01:05
Traditional Rhyming vs. Sonic Targeting - 00:02:12
Constructing Lyrics with Sonic Targeting - 00:03:30
Exploring Meaning through Sonic Targeting - 00:04:14
Example of Sonic Targeting in a Song: Bruno Major - 00:05:38
Breakdown of Bruno Major's Lyrics - 00:06:17
Summarizing the Sonic Targeting Process - 00:07:03
Steps for Using Sonic Targeting - 00:07:50
Reverse Engineering the Lyrics - 00:08:57
Conclusion and Additional Resources - 00:09:38
The core truth you mention around the halfway part also applies to rhythm, as well as in your case, rhyme. With rhythm we establish a basic, straight beat for the "comfort of familiarity" and then use syncopation to "delight with surprise."
Or place familiar rhythmic figures in varied ways, starting on different beats to keep things fresh while familiar.
It's pretty much the formula for making art that is interesting but accessible. It can be applied to pretty much any aspect of creating music, stories, etc.
But yeah, using it to spice up the rhythm is certainly one of my favorite applications. I tend to have a hard time getting into music that doesn't do that.
It also doesn't necessarily have to be a "basic beat" vs "syncopation" thing. It's just as effective to play a syncopated rhythm by default (even if it's unusual, repitition will make it familiar), and then suddenly hit on the beat. Or even just changing the dynamics, playing a different parts of the kit, etc. Again, it's *really* general in its potential applications.
There’s so much content on youtube about how to write the music, but so little about how to write the lyrics. That’s what makes this channel so useful to me. I’ve grown so much as a music maker but I struggle with making a system for writing lyrics in a structured manner
this comment will probably sound super dumb, but your channel is the only place i've found that tells you how to write songs and not just how to make music. So refreshing.
Interesting stuff, I'll definitely keep it in mind for the stuff I'm working on now. I still have a small section ending the verses in my current project that could be better, and another song where I need to actually finish the lyrics. I was debating whether I should make it an instrumental, but this might be a good exercise to use on this one.
I feel like the way I could tell this was an amazing technique, is that, during the example of "Places we won't walk", my mind immediately went to "places" and started coming up with ideas.
A technique so simple, intuitive, and yet effective, that even a total beginner like me started to pick up on it after hearing it explained once.
this is such an amazing tip, i've always really struggled with lyric writing and have tried many methods that i feel haven't helped me very much, but this one seems so promising, especially since it focuses on exercising creativity and thinking outside the box of what would be expected already, so it may help think of better words to implement into a set of lyrics. i thought back to some of my favorite songs while watching this and realized that a lot of those songs do this method too. i'm super excited to try it out
You're an amazing teacher, this has me excited to write something, I've ever been stuck rhyming last words, you just opened another door I didn't know existed... thank you! ❤️
Wonderful lesson! It's already opened up a few more avenues between brain cells in this worn out grey mass in my skull. Glad I found your channel! Looking forward to future exercises that will challenge me. Much Peace.
You sing so beautifully !!!!! 👏👏👏
Thank you! This just helped get over a block..
What a technique!!! I never paid attention to this method, this deep. Thanks a lot:)
i think you have one of the most beautiful voices I've ever heard.❤
I have to agree. Wonderful timbre!
I had an idea for a doing today around the line: Everything Magic is Cursed. So, I'm going to try this technique with that
Once again, Keppie, you totally stimulated (and overturned my preconceptions) my desire to write lyrics that are more interesting using this Sonic Targeting technique.
... Got me in those trances
like im gazing at the stars
When everythings endless, cold and stark
We're stiiiill
dancing with fire in the dark
Thanks for this! Also, you HAVE to finish and release that "dancing with fire in the dark" snippet!!
I absolutely LOVE this technique 🤗 I’ve used it without trying it’s great to actually dissect it. Your videos are AWESOME!
Great. Really love this channel. Tons of work and care goes into each of these. Massive appreciation for all that.
You teach with clarity and empathy. Thank you.
7:31
Sonic Targeting lyric writing exercise
Step 1
Pick a compelling title that is worth repeating through the song that is 6 to 8 words with three strong different vowel sounds
Step 2
Pick the one of the vowel sounds that is not at the end of the line to rhyme with
Step 3
Generate a list of rhymes including slant rhymes which are matching vowel sounds
Thanks!
Thank you Kelsey ;)
I didn't go looking for this, but I've always wanted to write songs, and felt like I wasn't "getting" it. This is amazing information!
I'm somebody who always writes melody first, so my issue with lyric writing is fitting them into that melodic structure. I find I always fall for the trap of counting syllables, but realising when it comes to sing it that the stress of the words don't fall in song the same way they do in speech.
Bad examples I'd like to avoid are Katy Perry singing "Uncondi-TION-ally" instead of "uncon-DI-tionally", or the Disney song Lava they sing "VOL-cano" instead of "vol-CAN-o"
That’s the graft of lyric-writing, Charles. Yes…counting syllables is important. But not near as important as prosody. Sheila Davis has some excellent books on crafting lyrics where she explains word and syllable stress. Well worth checking out if you haven’t already!
@@mdmorris6193 I have not checked them out. Thank you for the recommendation. I hope on the first pages she tells me what prosody means
Sorry, mate. Prosody is what you alluded to in your post. It’s the pattern of stressed-unstressed syllables in the way we speak. Volcano goes “da-DUM-da” stress on middle syllable. The way Disney did it is a bit off, but not nearly the Katy Perry howler. My gold standard for prosody is how Freddie Mercury sang “Another one bites the dust”…it’s exactly as you would speak it!
@@mdmorris6193 Nice. I will strive to pay more attention to lyrics. They’re always an afterthought to me.
I think actually the Disney one is VOL-ca-NO so it actually stresses both the unstressed syllables and vice versa
Amazing technique! Thanks so much for share it :D
The melody in the example was waoh!❤
Thank you Keppie. I love writing AABA structure. This technique will work brilliantly.
I quite enjoyed this, thank you!
It's like finding a superpower, to find a great lyric writing technique
Thank You for sharing this lyric writing technique! I have several songs I’m going to rework with sonic targeting in mind! I love Paul Simon, too ☮️
Thank u very much ma'am.
Because of you everytime when I write the lyrics I don't feel cringe by the lines .Hence I am also getting creative now.I want to know if you have any other book than the one online.I am looking forward for a new song from you .
THis is such a great tool! Thank you
Bruno Major is the truth. Thank you for this technique. I will incorporate it into my next song…hopefully lol
You have such a great voice and inspiring style.
Interesting. I realized I had used this technique in a song I wrote for a musical and thinking I had jumped the rhyme and broken some rule. There was some discussion about it - shouldn't it be the last word that rhymes? I won and it stayed 'wrong' as I'd written it. But there was a different and more fundamental issue in the song. I had a great metaphor but I had shoe-horned it into a narrative that it didn't quite match. Audiences loved the song but I've always had this niggling sense that I'd used the wrong image for this moment in the character's life. So, I ran the exercise as you prompted and came up with a much better storyline - one that doesn't fit the musical at all but makes the metaphors shine in a much more relevant context. It's now a story about three characters who all had bad beginnings but different paths forward. The story structure is like Bonnie Rait'ts 'Nick of Time.' And I'm definitely keeping the sonic cue. Thank you!!
This and the lady herself are so cool
Surprise is entertainment ! Brilliant insight and we've seen it but maybe didn't realize what we were seeing? I love the nutz and boltz of these lessons. Thank you Keppie.
Songs I am writing feel more like stories, thank you for your help😊. Now I have to revisit them and change them around a bit.
My goal this year is to write 40 songs, and most so far have been in English. So, I decided to try this exercise on the second language I want to write in professionally, which usually takes much longer. However, this tip has revolutionized that. It makes it go so much faster and the lyrics already sound so much better! Thank you for saving my New Year’s resolution 😂
Great lesson from a gifted teacher. Thank you. 🙏
Good stuff now if I can get that into my thick head and use it wow ,just think of the possibilities. Thank you
5:05 the ideal version of this is when it is totally unexpected, but inevitable when it occurs, like a whodunnit - everyones a suspect, but no one fits the bill - until the least likely becomes the most convincing, the actual culprit.
Really fun, interesting and educational video. Your videos are always "must see" for me and they always motivate!
Thanks, John
Gig Harbor, WA
Thank you so much for this! I just wrote something that was so good it made me openly weep as I wrote it. I’d love to share it here but for the reasons of copy protection I may need to keep it to myself. You’ve earned yourself a new subscriber today!
The examples… well the formula makes sense *thx this is helpful i need videos about writing song lyrics*
I've recently discovered your channel and honestly you're helping me a lot. Would love to see you break down the songwriting style of Louis Tomlinson, who is a brilliant songwriter in my opinion. Both of his albums, Walls and Faith in the future are filled with lyrical masterpieces 💙
Yes, a Louie here, he is an excellent songwriter,and lyricist.
That would be great review!🤘
Thank you for this well put lesson.🙏
Great thumbnail. Other than that, the resolution was always wildly dissatisfying. So without other examples, I would only use it like he did. Using a dissatifying resolve was perfect for flipping the Chorus to tell the story.
This channel is so great. Thanks for all the tips!!!
I am so grateful for you and your wisdom!
Not sure about all this yak yak but you have a gorgeous voice!
Hi Keppie, thanks for all you do!
Dance and dark have the sound the same in my accent!
That's a really helpful process. Can't wait to try it out. Thank you!!
Randomly stumbled on this video. This will likely be really useful to new songwriters, and this is something most great songwriters I know and I myself do instinctually. Probably because every good songwriter I know is allergic to cliches. Never knew it had a definition so that was interesting to learn. There is an issue with the example lyric that bothers me though... Grammatically it shouldn't be "we're" dancing... Shouldn't be "I'm dancing" because your partner is the "only candle" and thus that means the only light source or fire. Not only does it make more sense grammatically that way, but it also adds a layer of fragility and risk to it because candles can easily be blown out by wind which is created when dancing. So if you are dancing with your only candle... your only light source... It implies that the love is fleeting, fragile, or maybe the partner doesn't have long to live. It then implies throwing caution to the wind and embracing the short lived love in front of you. Carpe diem in a way... Whereas using "we" contradicts the previous line and projects strength and confidence which is far less emotionally compelling in this context. Also as a side note using "I'm dancing" instead of "we're dancing" will also help prevent people from thinking you're ripping off Springsteen. Sorry not meaning to be picky, I am a music producer and can't help myself when I see tiny adjustments to lyrics that can easily benefit them in subtle ways.
Love your voice
Haunting
And deep
Thank you,Maestra⭐🌹⭐
this was really helpful! thanks so much!
I'd argue that in Places We Won't Walk it still uses end rhyme by repeating that line at the end of each verse.
A A A B C C C B D D D B E E E B
It's using that end line repetition to rhyme the stanzas with each other, while using the first 3 lines of each stanza rhyming to make each stanza its own discrete things. Very nice examples. I tend to use variations on old blues formats... line, repeat line with tiny variation, resolution. That's largely an adaptation for me though. Easier to remember the lines. I used to write much more freeform but I found a tighter structure made it easier to remember the lyrics. :p
This is actually good i have learnt one or two things.....Cool
Thanks Keppie! This will definitely help me meet our Sunday songwriting deadline.
This channel is so good 👋
This was a really useful and interesting concept. Can’t wait to give this a go
Sadly, I've been writing like this my entire life and I'm no professional. I always thought of it as alliteration, like in poetry, and I've come to feel like people don't want to hear me repeating vowel sounds and using near-rhymes and internal rhyming. I've been here on UA-cam for almost seven years, and I only have 28 subscribers, so you can see why I might feel this way. I always thought that this was the key to great catchy lyrics, but now I'm having doubts as my listener base remains so small.
It is a good idea, though, and I appreciate you sharing it and validating how I felt about it, it just didn't seem to work out for me. 😢
Do it for yourself, that’s the only way to be truly happy with your art ❤ don’t worry so much if you don’t “blow up”, this world is full of artists and not everyone gets so lucky. Just focus on why you like it and what it does for you as a person!
@@that.neurodivergent Yeah, I know, and thanks, it's just a little discouraging sometimes. It was never meant to be mainstream anyway, it's much too dark.
@@RachaelGrey totally, completely understandable! Just know that this internet stranger is rooting for your happiness 🥰
@@that.neurodivergent Aww, thank you. ❤️
@@that.neurodivergent I enjoyed your videos, why did you stop making them?
Love these … thank you !!
I dident quite understand the similar vowel thing. Any tips on how to find similar words?
Thank you so much! I'm learning a lot from you!
Superb content as usual, really helpful, thanks for sharing. 😎😎😎
Hey Keppie, great lesson, you’re the best!
Great content! Was there a Step 3?
Excellent instruction! It really makes sense. Thank you!
I'd love to hear your thoughts on the lyric writing of Jason Isbell. Thanks for your immensely helpful videos.
He is probably in my top 3 faves of all time.
Great stuff.
Joni Mitchell feel at the start there ;) nice
I feel like ive mastered this technique in my practice.
Next target, humility and a lessened need for validation😛
Needing validation really kills your art. Don't go that way
@andrewmc147 Validation is also a tool to stay sane and on track in the world so unless I want to just float in the tranquility of detachment it is a need I have not yet found substitute for. Or maybe the inner peace is all the validation necessary and the external stimuli is just noise to be filtered out. But why then endeavour in artistic expression at all? Any suggestions?
I'll speak from my experience of this so far. But I'll start with your last question. "Why make music at all if not for validation?" Well first let's see if that's true for you. If everyone in the world died and you were the last person to exist, would you still make music? If the answer is no, then that means you are most probably just doing it for validation. If the answer is yes, then that means the motivation to make music is coming from a genuine self interest. I answered "yes", i would still make music if I was the last person on earth. I enjoy the process of it. Validation ofcourse is a vital part of human evolution and existence, but that doesn't mean it needs to be a driving factor, we have evolved past that point and can now choose wether we want to observe our need for validation and where it comes from or not.
I used to have validation as my main driving factor too, and when I think back to those times I can remember how heavy it was. Wanting appreciation from other people instead of giving myself that appreciation, what a difficult place to be.
We can't control wether someone appreciates our art or ever will appreciate it, but I can definitely get to the point where I value more my opinion on my art than others. This might take some questioning at first, to see why it is you need validation of others. Sit with the question and be honest with yourself. You'll soon know why and then when you know why, allow yourself to let it go and begin to give yourself that validation. Then use this approach in all other areas in your life, and your self compassion will flourish like never before :)
Ofcourse, appreciation from others is always nice, but when you value your own opinion of yourself more than others, then their appreciation just becomes a nice cherry on top and not something that you need at all or find necessary for your own well-being.
There is nothing dissociative about any of this, infact, this is pure objective observation and having respect for yourself by being honest with yourself:)
In the end we're all just a bundle of beliefs, and these are beliefs that we didn't even realise we took on. So yeah, if you just try to feel inner peace in order to "feel good", I'd say there's detachment there. But if inner peace comes as a by-product of being honest with your self and uncovering beliefs which drive negative emotions/behaviours then I'd say that's the opposite of detachment/disassociation
@andrewmc147 Thank you for sharing your beliefs and perspectives and with such eloquent language at that.
Whilst I do believe in being something beyond the bundle of beliefs, I have not figured out how to communicate that outside of the realm of beliefs, maybe it cannot be shown but merely perceived by experience. Either way its definitely in the realm of beliefs for me at this moment ,as I write this from the perspective of within my beliefs.
What did you mean by pure objective observation?
Great stuff, as always. Thanks. 🙏❤️😎
I'm so excited! Thank you but i have specific question. Is there an email to ask you?
Brilliant lesson. Thank you!
thanks!
I am very Greatful
Love ur singing voice!
Hello!!! I want that you answer me a question, please!! So, I want to know if it is possible to put more than one syllable on a quarter beat without subdividing the beat.
In other words, can I put two syllable🎵 into a quarter Beat while the beat is not subdivided???
Question what about if I started my song title with something like “this blank Canvas”
ok, this was fun
24K gold. Thank you!
Very interesting! Thank you.
Absolutely brilliant
These are great tips and gave me a lot of food for thought and some ideas on different approaches to lyric writing. Thank you!
Can you write songs without listening to the instrumental ? Without actually singing or rapping out loud. I need ideas off of everything is in your mind while the instrumental is barely on. I’m trying to protect my hearing but I’m tryna remained super skilled af apex
Wait- i write my poems like this😳
John Mayer? I sleep
Bruno Major? I sleep
Paul Simon? Eeeeh
Joni Mitchell??! Yesss I'm interested now!!!
How did you know I was just trying to figure out what to make my A rhyme in my chorus??
Step 5
Make sure your melodies are original!!!
I've been going through these videos that explain how to write songs and/or lyrics, but most of them seem to focus on radio songs, whereas I'm trying to write lyrics for showtunes songs (as in for musicals). Is there any significant difference between writing general songs and writing showtunes?
This is incred, thanks!
Thank you🎼🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻
I didn't understand what I do
And how to write a song
Hook line.
Bridge.
Verse.
Make sentence rhymes problem .
Vocabulary.
Sing good like his.