writing songs

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i have reached the point in my musical development where i would like to start writing and performing my own material, doing a singer/songwriter type act. however, i have a very hard time writing complete songs... it is very easy for me to write music to somene else's lyrics, and possible but not as easy to write lyrics to existing music, but when i try to do both... zilch. it takes ages and the results never satisfy.

does anyone else have this problem? have you found a way to work around it?

I am a composer (I also have a BA in music and an MA in composition) and I have always been able to compuse music but I just can't do lyrics - at all. And this is despite having studied literature - so the problem is not that I don't have an appreciation of language or verbal expression - I just can't seem to write lyrics!

I guess the only things I can suggest are to either collaborate with someone who is a good lyricist, or to use poetry or other suitable texts and set them to your music (although you would need to get the relevant permissions first).

Good luck!

I can write lyrics (I didn't say great ones) and I can write music but I've never had much luck putting the two together. If I knew the secret I would tell you!

i am through with working with lyricists. i have tried but it just doesn't seem like such a collaboration could possibly work in the long run. i've never been able to complete a full set of ongs with any one lyricist. i had actually written a long rant about every lyricist i've ever tried to work with (emphasis on tried) and deleted it because anyone who took a half hour to read all the way through it would probably start crying .

seriously, though, i've got to work this out on my own... i can't handle the excruciatingly slow pace at which every other musician i've ever worked with does things anymore.