Songwriter Advisor Blog

It’s important to train yourself in how to think of a song title; indeed, many good songwriters actually have difficulty writing a song without coming up with the title first!  Experienced songwriters know that by choosing a title first, because of their training and songwriting experience, the song usually writes itself.

This is because a title reveals the angle or the flavor of  what you intend to write about, and it becomes much easier to write your song with a laser-targeted idea or plot.

Therefore, once you have the name of the song in place, listen to the words of the title and start conjuring up images and options of what the song could be about.

For example, if you named your song something simple like, “I Think I Understand,” it could be a song about a lover who believes he or she understands the other doesn’t want them anymore, or it may be a song about finally understanding a big life’s lesson of some sort, etc. – possibilities are many!

Song titles are everywhere; the first thing you need to do is train yourself to listen for a great phrase or line from a variety of the following sources:

Television Shows and Movies

Many hit songs have been inspired from watching a television show and using phrases from their scripts – this is perfectly legit as long as you don’t swipe a few lines, obviously.  Remember, what you’re looking for are phrases (between 2 to 6 words max).

The same goes for the watching movies, which is what I recommend highly.  Here’s a simple one I heard the other day -”You Don’t Have To Do Anything”  – sounds like a great title for a country song to me!  Note this is a simple line we’ve probably heard a few times in our lives, but now, while you’re training your ears to pick out song titles, it sticks out at you for the first time!

Listening Intently To Conversation With Other People

You’ll find them either while you’re  participating or just listening (try not to look like you’re eavesdropping).  This is another great way to find song title gems; someone always says something that’ll cry to be part of a song!

Other Songs

These are also a great source for song titles; try to pick out words in the lines of the songs other than the actual titles themselves.

Books

They are a great resource – this should come easy to you if like to read novels especially, because the words tend to be more colorful.

Finally, make a list on a writing pad or database on your computer (I use a text file) every time you come up with a song title; this way, once you have a fairly long list, you can pick and choose a song title with ease.

The trick to training yourself to pick out song titles is to be in a dormant songwriting mode and be a good listener.  For the first few times, don’t be afraid to shake someone’s hand, have a conversation with them, and in the back of your mind think; c’mon dude, I know you’re about to say something I can use as a song title!  You’ll find one.

While watching TV or movies, sit there waiting for the darn title to pop out!  It gets easier with practice.

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!