Lyric Toolkit

Start with the title

The chorus exists to deliver the title. Good pop titles are:

• Short (1–4 words)
• Concrete (something you can picture or feel)
• Good to sing (open vowels like "oh," "ay," "ee" hold well on long notes)

Title brainstorm (write 10, fast, no judging):

1. __________________ 6. __________________
2. __________________ 7. __________________
3. __________________ 8. __________________
4. __________________ 9. __________________
5. __________________ 10. _________________

Chorus vs. verse

Chorus = the big idea. Simple. Repeats. Anyone can sing along.

Verse = the details. Who? Where? What happened? Specific things you can see and hear.

Show, don't tell

• Telling: "I'm nervous."

• Showing: "My hands won't stop shaking on the mic."

• Telling: "I miss my friend."

• Showing: "Your number's still the first one on my phone."

Verses should show.

Object writing (10 minutes)

Pick an object, place, or moment. Write for 10 minutes without stopping. No rhyming. No fixing. Use all seven senses:

1. See — colors, shapes, light
2. Hear — sounds, voices, silence
3. Smell
4. Taste
5. Touch — textures, temperature
6. Body — heartbeat, tired, tense, relaxed
7. Movement — what's moving, how fast

When the timer ends, circle your 3–5 best phrases. Use them in your verses.

(Object writing comes from Pat Pattison of Berklee College of Music, author of "Writing Better Lyrics.")

Rhyme

Perfect rhyme: night / light, go / slow. Clean, but can sound predictable.

Near rhyme: night / mine, home / alone, heart / hard. Used all the time in modern pop. Sounds more natural.

Rhyme schemes (letters show which lines rhyme):

• AABB — lines 1+2 rhyme, lines 3+4 rhyme
• ABAB — lines 1+3 rhyme, lines 2+4 rhyme
• XAXA — only lines 2+4 rhyme (easiest, very common)

Internal rhyme (Level 2): a rhyme inside one line. "I fake a smile, I take the long way home."

Fitting words to the melody

1. Under each note of your melody, draw a dash: —. One dash = one syllable.
2. Fill in the dashes with words.
3. Check the stress. Every word has a loud syllable: to-NIGHT, re-MEM-ber, SUM-mer. The loud syllable should land on a strong beat.
4. If a word sounds wrong when sung, move the word. Don't force it.
5. Too many syllables? Cut one. "Going to" → "gonna" is fine in pop.

Stuck? Topic menu

A place you know really well • the night before something big • a game you love • someone who moved away • a superpower • being misunderstood • a pet's point of view • a secret • the first day of summer • a message you never sent • a silly song about something ordinary

Lyric checklist

• The title is in the chorus (probably more than once)
• The chorus is simple enough to sing along to
• Each verse has at least one thing you can see or hear
• No twisted word order just to rhyme
• Stressed syllables land on strong beats
• Verse 2 moves the story forward