JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Why don't Lyricists learn an Instrument?

@Roy:

Opps, I hope you did not missunderstand me my friend.

I was just saying. A Country or Pop tune needs two things, from a creative point of view. A lyric and the melody/chords. When you give a lyric I can compose the music to it. That´s a 50/50 collaboration. We were equal, everyone of us did the same wordload, we both wrote. You wrote the lyrics, I wrote the music (writing music is a creative work).

But then I (as the composer) have to produce the whole song as well. That means, I have to arrange it, have to play the instruments, have to sing it (or have to look for someone who can sing it), mix it, master it and send it over to you in a sweet and nice mp3 Form, so that everyone can listen to it. Because no one is interessted in reading sharp notes and the lyrics. They want to hear the song.

Then the workload is no longer shared equally because you wrote the lyrics, I wrote the music, I produced the whole song. I hope you see my point, do you? Just imagine I would do this.. let´s say with Tammy. She would write me a lyric, I would write the music. Then we could find an aggreement: “Ok girl, I play the instruments, you sing the song” J. See my point?

And – hey, I just said you CAN write a lyric in 10 minutes. OK, this was not realistic. I wrote some songs (words and music) in 10 minutes. For example – this year I wrote one of my best songs in 10 minutes. A publisher liked it, the song will be released by an English Indie-Label Artist next year. I have some songs I am working on for years.. I know, writing a lyric can be hard work too, when you are playing around with words. But composing the write music to it is also not simple work. Prodeucing a tune is a heck of work and many times it happend that the lyrics writer does not know HOW much work it.

Another reason why lyrics-only writers should learn an instrument is:
Many Lyric writers don´t know how to write a Lyric for an existing tune. Sometimes I have a melody, produce the track and need lyrics for it. Or I have a German song and need English lyrics for this. Many don´t know how to count sylbs and follow a given structure. This is something you learn when you are a bit into music.

Hope you see my point? J

Peace

@Donna: Yeah I knowI write lyrics in German, I know how much work it is or can be


p.s.: Looks like everyone around here has good arrguments