Write a Love Song

Throughout history, the love song has been at the top of the list of song topics. There are thousands of songs simply named "I Love You". If you would like to learn how make your own personal song of love, this article is for you. Read on!

Steps

Building the Lyrics

  1. Write about your love. Before you turn your heart into poetry and music, you will want to express yourself without the constraints of meter and rhyme. To do this, describe the person you love, how they make you feel, and how it feels to be together.
    • You can describe their physical attributes, including how they look, how they move, how they love, how they dance—anything that describes them physically.
    • Also describe them emotionally. Are they strong, courageous, and forthright, or perhaps quiet and contemplative. Anything that describes who they are and their personality traits is good to write down.
    • Describe the "us" of your relationship. Talk about the things you do, or don't do. Talk about how you got together, and what your hopes are for the future. Even if you're not actually together with the object of your love, you can imagine what it would be like if you were together.
  2. Create metaphors. This is where your creativity will come in. Extend the story of your love by describing it in ways that are very much not literal. A metaphor, at it's most basic, is describing what something is by using something it is not.
    • For example, you may love her in part because she smells good, which is nice, but doesn't make for a winning line in a love song! Instead, you can write that she is a field of flowers on a warm, fragrant night.
    • Work through your narrative, adding as many metaphors as you can. Some may turn out to be elegant masterpieces, some might be as fragrant as the city dump. At this point, the goal is simply to explore what you can say about your love.
  3. Embellish your narrative with similes. Like metaphors, similes are ways of describing your love by using something symbolic. However, a simile suggests only that one thing is like another.
    • Again using your sweetheart's smell as an example, you could say she's like a field of flowers. However, without saying why she's like that, you leave the listener hanging: is she like a field of flowers because she's colorful, or smells good, or attracts men like bees to nectar? All are possibilities, so make sure you complete the description!
  4. Find your image. Once you've filled in the narrative, and have a clearer idea of both the object of your desire, and how you are given to describe them, you can start to figure out how your song is going to work. To give your lyrics form, create an overall image space for the lyrics to fill.
    • Using the above example, you may decide to use the overall image of a garden. You already have the flowers in there. Perhaps you can use the roots, or the honeybees, or other garden parts to build your lyrics.
  5. Build a word list. To create new associations out of your narrative, use your image and a thesaurus to create a word list that you can draw from.
    • For example, from "garden," you might list words like "growth," or "flower," "tending," or maybe "hothouse" for a steamier image!
  6. Find some rhymes. Using the word list you create from your image, use a rhyming dictionary to find the best rhyming word or words for each image word you created. Some might be easier than others!
    • For example, words like "flower" lend themselves easily to rhymes: "shower," "bower," and "power," while others are more of a challenge, like "growth." You can use this rhyming list to narrow down the words that will work by eliminating those that are either awkward, or won't work at all.
  7. Define the arc of your song. Now that you have an idea how you're going to frame your ode to your love, sketch out what you want to say, and how you want to say it. A typical format for love songs is "verse, verse, chorus, verse, chorus."
    • Each verse says something new about the subject, and the chorus ties it all together. Sketch out what you want each section to say.
    • For example, verse 1 may talk about how you see your love; the second verse, how she makes you feel; and the third verse could describe how you envision the future.
    • The chorus can do a number of things: you could as the place to bring it all back to the garden where your love grows; or use it to lament how all these things come to nothing outside the garden of your imagination. It all can be drawn from the narrative you created!

Putting Your Song To Music

  1. Think freely. Before you actually commit words to melody, you have to come up with the basic idea for the melody. Many times as you are writing, this will happen spontaneously. If so, consider yourself fortunate! However, there will be times when the muse fails you, and you have to develop a melody.
    • Start by turning on your recording device. Whether it's as simple as a cassette deck, or as involved as a ProTools rig, the idea is the same: keep track of your ideas.
    • Using your lyrics as a metric aid, start humming melodies that occur to you. If you wish, you can use the actual words to help develop the melody, or you can do like artists such as Peter Gabriel do, and sing nonsense syllables just to get a sense of the melody.
    • Do this for about a half an hour, then let it rest. Take a break, walk the dog, watch your favorite TV show—it doesn't matter what, as long as you clear your head and ears of your song for about an hour.
  2. Listen to what you recorded. Sit down with pen and paper, and listen to your recording. You may find sections that thrill you, and some that put you right to sleep. Make note of the ones that move you, and use those to develop your melody.
    • As you develop your melodic ideas, transfer them to your guitar or piano to play. If you're like many, and don't have a trained voice, playing the melody on the piano or guitar will really help you focus the song.
  3. Add harmony. As you created your melody, it's likely you implied the harmonies that you will use. Sing through your song, working out the basic chord structure. This doesn't have to be involved or fancy—melodies can be reharmonized later, for added interest or even a different flavor.
    • It's equally valid to begin with a harmonic structure, and work out the melody based on the chords, rather than the other way around. In fact, you can even create the lyrics after you've created the musical backing. Some people find one approach easier than the others. If one way doesn't work for you, try the others instead.
  4. Put it all together. Once you have the words, the melody, and the harmony worked out, play it! Using your recording device, record a few variations of your song, then let it sit overnight. The next day, listen back to what you recorded, and pick the best parts of each variation, and use that to polish your song.
    • Repeat this process until you are satisfied with how your song sounds. When you are done, find your love, and sing your song!

Tips

  • Make sure it came from your heart.
  • Even if it's a crush or one you're already with, don't be afraid to pour your heart out.
  • Write what you really feel for someone.
  • Put emotion into your lyrics and make them heartfelt.
  • Think about how you feel about that person to make the song sound better.
  • Make sure it comes from your heart while writing and singing it.
  • Try to let that person feel singled out. Add lyrics that let them know it's about them without anyone else knowing. It's a lot more romantic that way. Everyone else sees it as a pretty song, but they will know it's just for them.
  • Have fun and don't let anxiety be a barrier to your creativity.
  • Don't be scared to say how you really feel.
  • Don't be afraid to show your true colors and show your determination.
  • Express your feelings to him or her.
  • If you don't want that person to know it's about them just say "you" or "him" or something like that. Then it could be about anyone!
  • The more you write, the easier it will become.
  • Don't be nervous to put your voice out there if you want to sing it to him/her!
  • Don't be scared, just go for it.
  • Power Tab, Guitar Pro, Garage Band and other music recording apps are great for writing songs.
  • Don't overuse the word "love"! Try to say what you feel for him/her without saying "love", "baby", and other clichéd words.
  • Don't be afraid to mess up things. Just be yourself and write whatever lyrics you want to. make sure it describes what you like about the person and use some metaphors.

Things You'll Need

  • Paper and pencil or a computer
  • An Instrument

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Sources and Citations

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