Deconstruction of Writing Lyrics Guitar Lesson

Chapter 1: (7:26) Understanding Lyrics Writing lyrics can be one of the most fulfilling parts of the songwriting process and is, perhaps, the ultimate tool of expression for the aspiring writer. Finding the perfect words to articulate a particular emotion or experience or even just the simplicity of a summer sunset can be the “coup de grace’ or the finishing blow to a poignant and painstaking musical composition. But how does one unearth those ever-elusive words? How can experiences be translated and transmogrified into the simplicity and limiting nature of the English language? (or French, Spanish, Croatian etc. Etc. etc). One way to compose meaningful lyric is to adhere to the myriad different techniques and tactics employed by countless brilliant poets who have lived and died by the power of the pen for thousands of years, from Plato and Aristotle to Shakespeare, Emily Dickenson to T.S. Eliot and to our modern day poets.

The late great American poet Ezra Pound was a master at extracting and conveying images to his readers from what many would see as commonplace and pedestrian situations. He often took people or circumstances that he found in day-to-day culture and compared their characteristics, either in the form of comparisons using the words "like" or "as" (simile) or expressing images as if they were actual parts of nature (metaphor). He strove for clarity, precision and economy of language which is evident in the sparseness and concision of his work. Pound was also the founder of what was known as the "Imagist" movement in poetry which was well known for its flexibility and experimentation with various and esoteric verse forms, especially Japanese and Chinese poetry. He had a remarkable knack at grasping the simplicity of images and expressing them metaphorically as in his most renown poem:

In a Station of the Metro
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
petals on a wet, black bough.

Ezra Pound
When asked about the nature of the cryptic poem Pound remarked "In a poem of this sort, one is trying to record the precise instant when a thing outward and objective transforms itself, or darts into a thing inward and subjective" (Ezra Pound, "Vorticism", in The Fortnightly Review, Sept. 1, 1914). Using Pound's quote as a jumping-off point, let's take his insightful and profound words and apply his brilliance to the composition of song lyrics.

The Evolution of Decision
Of course the starting point to any song and its ultimate origin is a decision, or decisions as it were. Shall I write about the stars or Star Jones, about the love of a woman or the love of a fine cigar, about the ocean or a sea of possibilities and change? Obviously, your choices are almost endless and within decisions there are more decisions! Should I write about my own experiences or tell a story of another's? Shall I speak from first person perspective or third person (we'll talk more about perspective later)? What type of language should I use: expletive, fancy, old, simple, complex, loud, sexy, nonsensical, metaphorical, topical, political? You see that there are a number of ways that one might go about composing lyrics and inevitably the decisions are yours.

Thankfully, some of the above choices will come to you as you begin writing. Most people write from their own experiences rather than telling stories of another although, even when recounting the plight of another you will still be incorporating your own perspectives and experiences into your lyrics. The type of language that you employ in your lyrics is also reflective of your day-to-day use of the language (unless you opt to "speak" in another voice) and most people tend to write as they speak. Subsequently, most of the choices that you will be required to make as you compose lyrics will happen naturally and may require little thought on your part at all. Many of the most important decisions will evolve and present themselves to you as you go through the process of writing.

So how do we begin the arduous (it need not be) and challenging process of writing lyrics? Looking back at the words of Ezra Pound, to begin we need to find and "record the precise instant when a thing outward and objective transforms itself, or darts into a thing inward and subjective." What does this passage mean to you? To me it means that as lyricists we need to give facets of the environment a life of their own via description, emotion, metaphor. We need to develop the tiniest and often unnoticed details of our world and describe them for others to experience them as we have. But how do we do this you might be asking? Ahhhhhh…… Chapter 2: (07:19) Deconstruction Deconstruction
Simply stated, deconstruction is the process of tearing apart a particular facet or idea and reducing it to its smallest components. This can be done by close scrutiny and examination of your idea from every perspective possible. What does that "thing" (thing in this case could be love or a cloud or...) look like from your eyes, from your sister's eyes, from a murderer's eyes, from a dog's eyes, a bug’s eyes, from the ground, or from the eyes of the pilot flying 200 feet overhead? Let’s pick a topic to use as an example, how about, hmmmm...love! Watch as we deconstruct the abstract notion of love and attempt, and I do mean attempt, to look at it from as many different perspectives as we can.

This can be a great way to deconstruct an idea and look at it from a number of different perspectives.

Mapping can help to visualize an abstract concept, like love, and help to gain a clearer perspective:

Forgive me if I've left out any other types of love but this is a rather broad topic, also, the types of love are not arranged in any particular order and in no way are depicting the importance of one type of love over another. These are obviously very brief and subjective definitions of the different types of love and a number of them overlap as I'm sure you'll notice.

Once you've mapped out your idea you may want to define each perspective:

Self love- self-esteem, self-worth, recognizing one's value and importance to the world/others

Sibling- love, respect, mutual recognition between brothers and sisters.

Maternal- the love of a mother for her child, children

Paternal-the love of a father for his child, children

Procreational-the love between a man and a woman that may result in the conception of a child

Recreational-love between any two (or more) people that may result in sexual relations not intended to result in the conception of a child

Conditional-love felt for another but contingent upon the other's changing, often to the whim's and wishes of the initial lover

Unconditional-love felt for another regardless of any physical, mental or emotional character "flaws"

Object-extreme fondness for a particular object; many would disagree that this is indeed love at all

God-piety, reverence for a being or being one deems to be his or her "God", penitence before a greater being

Altruistic-benevolent, utterly unselfish and non-self-serving concern for other beings

Spiritual-? This is a tough one but as I see it (I know I'll be hearing from some of you on this one!) spiritual love is finding spirit, religion, God in oneself. Remember that this is a subjective issue please!!!

Pet-the love of an endeared pet or animal, often is synonymous with altruistic love

Sexual-closeness, fondness, intimacy found through sexual contact with another

Perverse-this category is extremely subjective especially from culture to culture and I will therefore leave this blank and for the reader to define for oneself.

Unrequited-one-sided love, love from one to another who does not reciprocate

Once again, these definitions are simply for the illustration of my point that it can be helpful to "map" out an idea. Each one of these types of love are obviously multifaceted and could be explored in great depth but...we'll save that process for you and your search for the ultimate and most expressive lyrics.

Now, to continue the process of deconstruction, we need to narrow down our search for which "type" of love that we're going to write about. The most common love topic is probably unrequited love or conditional love that has led to a rift between two people or more commonly known as...the break-up. Let's use this as our topic shall we?

So we've decided to write a song about an experience concerning love lost in a break-up, right?

To do so, we'll need to continue with the process of deconstruction. More questions need to be answered including who are the people involved, who broke it off with who and why, what were the events preceding the inevitable break-up, what were the words used to end the engagement? These are just a small sample of questions that can help you to understand the figures involved and the content of your lyrics. Understanding individual's perspectives can be an integral tool as this will give you an angle at which you can approach the song. Inevitably, each person in the relationship sees that their behavior and actions were "right" hence you'll probably need to take one side or another unless you're writing about someone else's relationship. Fortunately, most of us have some experience in the area of break-ups and are at least a little more wise and prepared to write about it. Once you've established some of the basic details of the actions preceding the break-up you would be best advised to get more and more invested in the minute details of the individuals' involved. These details might include such facets as the color of her eyes, the loudness and sound of voices, the smell in the air, the time of year and the season, the weather at the time of the break-up, what she said, what he said etc. etc. etc. Keep in mind that you will likely not be using all of the information that you are recording on the details of this particular separation but rather using this process to find ideas, concepts, themes that you might write about. Chapter 3: (03:33) Using the Metaphor Metaphor
Metaphor is defined as "a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them." (Merriam Webster, 10th ed., 1993. Springfield, Mass p. 730.) This figure of speech is widely used by poets and song writers as well and is a powerful vehicle of expression. Take another look at Ezra Pound's poem at the beginning of this lesson and pay particular attention to his use of words. The title of the poem tells us that he is a traveler in a subway station, simply stated. We don't know anything more about his predicament other than that. Pound then sets the scene with the words "the apparition of these faces in the crowd" which might imply a haunting, horrific, ghostly scene in which faces come at him mockingly, questioningly. My perception is that he is afraid, alienated and perhaps even terrorized by the people around him. He then follows that line with the seemingly incongruent conclusion "petals on a wet, black, bough." Pound effectively creates a scene of terror and fear and then through the use of metaphor shows us the image that he foresaw in the subway within the confines and simplicity of nature. He avoids making a direct comparison between the phantasmagoric faces in the crowd and the flower petals but rather introduces a frightening image to us and then allows our imaginations to do the rest. We can do the same in lyric composition. Chapter 4: (05:31) Looking at the Perspective Perspective
Although this term can be defined in a number of different contexts, we are obviously interested in how we can express ourselves in terms of different voices or points of view. In other words, when making decisions as to how we are going to compose lyrics should we speak from our own perspective or another? Are we outside looking in or describing a particular scene from our own eyes, our own experience, our own joy, pain? In literary terms, there are three different points of view:

1.First person-also known as first-person narrative, the story or lyric is narrated by one person who would likely employ words such as "I" or we inviting the listener to share the writer's point of view and insight. This point of view can be very powerful in that it allows the listener to gain insight into the thoughts and feelings of the narrator. Stream of consciousness lyrics work well within this framework. An example of this type of narrative could be "I still haven’t found what I’m looking for"... By U2.

2.Second person-this narrative perspective is not frequently used in literature but is more commonly found in lyric form and is characterized by the use of second person pronouns such as "you." Inclusion of the listener can help to add realism and intensity to your composition and invites the listener into your world. This form could be very powerful in the composition of lyrics concerning our topic of the day, love. An example of this could by "save some face, you know you've only got one" by the Killers in Smile Like You Mean it.

3. Third person-probably the most common type of narrative and is distinct in its use of pronouns such as "he" or "she". There are a number of sub-types of the third person perspective including objective where the narrator does not share thoughts, feelings, and insights. More common is the use of third-person subjective where the narrator shares thoughts and feelings with the listener. An example of this would be "she’s not a girl who misses much, doo doo doo doo doo doo, oh yeah" by the Beatles in Happiness is a Warm Gun.

Note-keep in mind that there aren't any limitations when it comes to composition and there's no reason why you cannot combine different narrative perspectives if you so desire.
Chapter 5: (06:56) Time to Write Lyrics Let’s Write
We'll use the following chords as we create our first set of lyrics about the break-up we discussed. You may want to think about the different details that we discovered about each of the individuals involved, how you might be able to express certain key thoughts in a metaphorical fashion, and also what perspective are you speaking from? Also, bear in mind Ezra Pound's quote from the beginning of this lesson "...record the precise instant when a thing outward and objective transforms itself, or darts into a thing inward and subjective." Play the following chords and try to get a melody in your head first, and then match lyrics to that melody. Watch me in the video for more on this.

Em
E_0_
B_0_
G_0_
D_2_
A_2_
E_0_

C add 9
E_0_
B_3_
G_0_
D_2_
A_3_
E_x_

G major
E_3_
B_0_
G_0_
D_0_
A_2_
E_3_

A major
E_0_
B_2_
G_2_
D_2_
A_0_
E_x_

Strum these chords using the down down-up-down pattern and don't forget to relax and allow the pick to flow gently over the strings. Please refer to my Intro. to Guitar series for a highly effective warm-up that you can do to prepare yourself for strumming the guitar and refer to my Intro. to Voice and guitar for a complete vocal warm-up.

Exercise 1
Create a melody line by humming along with the chords. Refer back to any previous lessons in this series if you need any reminders as to how to pick out individual notes or find a melody line. Keep experimenting with different notes and combinations until you’ve found something that you like or think is "catchy."

Exercise 2
Once you've found a melody for the chords at hand, listen carefully for any similarities your melody might have to actual words. This can be a tricky process and I'll show you how to do this in the video. This process requires concentration, to a certain extent, and most likely a silent area that you can focus. Remember, there are no rules to this so be creative, inventive, even strange if you are compelled to do so. Don’t be afraid to use sounds (onomatopoeia), "yeh, yeh, yehs", or ooooohs, if you feel that those sounds work well with your melody. The sky is the limit here so don’t be afraid to go outside of the box, so to speak.

Exercise 3
Pick some new chords and try this whole process again keeping Pound's words of wisdom in mind as you compose your lyrics.

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