Songwriter Advisor Blog

In Pt 1 of this series, we learned how to construct phrases relating directly to the song’s title in order to create captivating opening lines in our first verses.

As I’ve said before, our favorite songs actually contain much valuable information when it comes to learning the craft of songwriting, so the next method of creating powerful opening lines in your verses probably won’t come as a surprise.

An outstanding way to never run out of ideas is to take the first line or two of every song you’d like to analyze, and make a list, describing what the line is generally saying.

 
Here’s an example taking songs from the current top ten on the Billboard Pop Charts:

 <……………………………from Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl”

The two opening lines make reference to “What I didn’t expect,” because the lines say it wasn’t the way I planned it and it wasn’t my intention (it was totally unexpected).  So, using this idea, if I titled a song, “Leave Me In The Dust,” my opening line could be something like, “The shock of your disappearing act hasn’t sunk in yet.”     

Here’s another example:

<……………………………from Rihanna’s “Take A Bow”

You can categorize these two opening lines as “What does he, she, or they look like?” as it relates to the song’s idea or title.   Well in this song, the guy looks dumb as he’s standing outside her house.

As another example, in George Strait’s country song titled “You Look So Good In Love,”  the first lines are, “Oh how you sparkle, Oh how you shine, That flush on your checks is more than the wine.”   In both songs, the singer is setting up the plot of the song by painting a picture of “What that someone in their song looks like.”

3.  So now we’ve studied two opening lines of songs. 
On a lined sheet of paper, title it “Opening Line Ideas” and start listing the opening line ideas on the top line:

 Let’s continue building this list with the following song’s first two lines:

<…………………………….Miley Cyrus’s “7 Things”

Pretty simple two lines, right?  We can categorize this one as “What happens to me (or you, or them, etc.)” or “What kind of feeling do I get?”

 So, if we continue our Opening Lines Idea sheet it will now look like this:

******You can always substitute the pronouns with other pronouns.  I.e., in “What I didn’t expect” you can use the idea ,”What he didn’t expect, what you didn’t expect, what they didn’t expect, etc.  

 As you can see, the possibilities are endless.  Use this article as your starting point and keep building ideas by studying the first two lines of songs, and you’ll never run out of strong opening line ideas!

By the way, this method often generates great song titles, too!