Tip: Writing Your Title vs. Titling Your Lyric
Recently, I posed this question to members of our Songwriting Workshop at Southbrook (SWS): "Do you 'write your title' or 'title your lyric'?" Some of the responses agree with other professionals' admonitions to always work on the basis of "title first". Assuming that your title is your hook, writing your title keeps you focused on the main lyric idea and keeps your lyric from straying off into neverland. Moreover, a memorable title is intimately tied to the musical idea. Think about it; what comes to mind when you read the title "Jingle Bells"? (Well, it IS the Holiday Season!) On the other hand, it is also possible to come up with a memorable title for a finished lyric (think "Annie's Song" by John Denver, for one). Many writers (myself included) do both, depending on the requirements of each song's creative process.
SWS Blue Diamond Award-winning songwriter Dick Plunk says: "I always write to the hook when my song is lyric based (99 % of the time). Every now and then I'll come up with something musical which needs lyrics, but that's rare. I can't remember ever writing something and then having to ceate a hook for it."
SWS 2004 Songwriter of the Year and Blue Diamond Award-winning songwriter Dave Blowers says: "I would have to go with ‘write your title’. I’m a huge Beatles fan. Back when I bought my first Beatles album, I actually did it because I was intrigued by the all the interesting song titles. Things like Strawberry Fields’, ‘I Am The Walrus’, ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’, ‘Yellow Submarine’, etc. I learned a great lesson from that. By the time I was writing songs of my own I would spend hours just dreaming up flowery song titles for imaginary albums I would one day record.
"Early on as a songwriter, I understood the power of a captivating title. I still think that way and always aim to write songs having titles that are unique and memorable on their own. "
Songwriter Kelly Smith says: "I wonder if the two options are limiting. I think it's possible to develop a concept without an absolute hook and find the hook in the writing, which isn't necessarily titling the lyrics.
"I've started with story ideas, knowing where I wanted the song to start and finish, without having a true hook in mind. Other times I've had some nice opening lines without the rest of the story. In both situations I've been able to find solid hooks in the writing. It's more of a discovery process than writing
to fit.
"Of course, writing to a hook/title can be easier, and searching for a line that sounds like a hook in lyrics more convenient, but discovering a song/title is just
as viable in the creative process. I've heard that Dave Mathews writes that way."
SWS Coordinator and Blue-Diamond Award-winning songwriter Greg Althammer says: "I tend to agree with Kelly. It's a great way to write and I do write like that a lot. But I think some of my best songs have come out of the idea and not the hook first. I find the hook later in the process.
"I don't think there's a "write" or wrong :)"
SWS Training Coordinator and Blue-Diamond Award-winning songwriter Jim Melko says: "Ditto. 'Wasted Paper' is an example of that. The hook came when I wrote the lyric, but I had the idea for the song - and knew it was about a trash can - two years before I wrote it."
Nashville songwriter Steve Jones says: "99% of the time my melodies precede both title and lyrics. When a title comes along that fits the mood of a given music structure, lyrics finally drag along. This is only because I have so many unused melodies and grooves. When I lived up north, SWS members frequently came up with better titles than I originally started out with. The new improved hook usually was followed by a nearly total re-write of the lyrics. Since moving to Nashville, with each new song, I have to review comments from previous SWS critiques and ask myself; What would Jim do?"
SWS Blue Diamond Award-winning songwriter Dick Plunk says: "I always write to the hook when my song is lyric based (99 % of the time). Every now and then I'll come up with something musical which needs lyrics, but that's rare. I can't remember ever writing something and then having to ceate a hook for it."
SWS 2004 Songwriter of the Year and Blue Diamond Award-winning songwriter Dave Blowers says: "I would have to go with ‘write your title’. I’m a huge Beatles fan. Back when I bought my first Beatles album, I actually did it because I was intrigued by the all the interesting song titles. Things like Strawberry Fields’, ‘I Am The Walrus’, ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’, ‘Yellow Submarine’, etc. I learned a great lesson from that. By the time I was writing songs of my own I would spend hours just dreaming up flowery song titles for imaginary albums I would one day record.
"Early on as a songwriter, I understood the power of a captivating title. I still think that way and always aim to write songs having titles that are unique and memorable on their own. "
Songwriter Kelly Smith says: "I wonder if the two options are limiting. I think it's possible to develop a concept without an absolute hook and find the hook in the writing, which isn't necessarily titling the lyrics.
"I've started with story ideas, knowing where I wanted the song to start and finish, without having a true hook in mind. Other times I've had some nice opening lines without the rest of the story. In both situations I've been able to find solid hooks in the writing. It's more of a discovery process than writing
to fit.
"Of course, writing to a hook/title can be easier, and searching for a line that sounds like a hook in lyrics more convenient, but discovering a song/title is just
as viable in the creative process. I've heard that Dave Mathews writes that way."
SWS Coordinator and Blue-Diamond Award-winning songwriter Greg Althammer says: "I tend to agree with Kelly. It's a great way to write and I do write like that a lot. But I think some of my best songs have come out of the idea and not the hook first. I find the hook later in the process.
"I don't think there's a "write" or wrong :)"
SWS Training Coordinator and Blue-Diamond Award-winning songwriter Jim Melko says: "Ditto. 'Wasted Paper' is an example of that. The hook came when I wrote the lyric, but I had the idea for the song - and knew it was about a trash can - two years before I wrote it."
Nashville songwriter Steve Jones says: "99% of the time my melodies precede both title and lyrics. When a title comes along that fits the mood of a given music structure, lyrics finally drag along. This is only because I have so many unused melodies and grooves. When I lived up north, SWS members frequently came up with better titles than I originally started out with. The new improved hook usually was followed by a nearly total re-write of the lyrics. Since moving to Nashville, with each new song, I have to review comments from previous SWS critiques and ask myself; What would Jim do?"