Writing a love song has to be one of the most romantic ways of letting your lover know just how you feel about them. For thousands of years, Romeo’s have swept their lady-loves off their feet through the time-honored tradition of the serenade. Today, of course, love songs are written and performed by both men and women.
Still, it isn’t easy to write a love song. Your love song must be inspired and authentic. It must evoke strong emotions and empathy in the listener. It must have a catchy chorus and a sweet melody. In a word, it must be memorable.
So if you wondering how to write a love song, here are some guidelines.
Write a song title that ignites the imagination
Think of Toni Braxton’s “Unbreak my Heart” or Elvis Presley’s “You’re Always on My Mind .”Just seeing the title brings the tune to life. In most love songs, the title is taken from the chorus. Alternatively, the chorus expands on the title. So, think about the title when you craft the chorus.
Inspiring topics
You’ll need to find an inspiring topic before you start creating your love song. There are various themes that you can choose from. It may seem that all these topics have been well used before, but there is a reason for that. These are popular themes that everyone can relate to. Your job is to take an old theme and add some inspiration to it.
- Seduction, desire
- First love
- Love from a distance
- Jealousy
- Breakups or divorce
- Forbidden love, loneliness
Once you’ve chosen your topic, you can begin to expand on it. Find powerful and emotional keywords that speak to your topic. List them, and then start to cut them back so that you’re left with a list of the best words to use in your lyrics.
A good songwriter continually collects ideas. These may be snippets of conversation, thoughts, or inspiring lines from songs. They store their inspiring work in a single place so that when they sit down to write the song, they have easy access to all their ideas.
Structure and Lyrics
Most love songs have a similar arrangement. They have two to three choruses, a similar number of verses, and a bridge.
Verses typically consist of four to six long lines or eight to ten short lines. The chorus has four to six lines. Most love songs have a bridge of two lines. The bridge usually follows the chorus just before the third verse. The bridge provides the songwriter a chance to change the pace of the song. It offers variety, making the song a little less predictable.
The chorus
You have two rhyming choices in writing the chorus. You can couple up the first two and the last two lines to rhyme, or you can alternate rhyming pairs. Either way, your chorus must be catchy. It repeats throughout the song so look for something memorable.
The chorus is central to the lyrics, and it should contain the hook. The hook is the musical phrase that keeps appearing in the chorus. It’s a powerful tool that should help people to remember your song. It is often the song title, and it distinguishes your song from others.
The verses
In a love song, the verses tell the story. They build on and lead into the chorus.
Before writing the verses, pick a subject for each. This will help you to avoid repetition in the choruses. Each verse should stand alone and must have its own unique content. Your love song should have a start, a middle, and an end. Use alternating rhyming lines throughout the verses.
The bridge
The bridge of two lines should rhyme with one another. If you’re looking for inspiration, find a dictionary of rhyming words on the internet.
Feeling the emotions
Love songs with well-crafted lyrics and catchy tunes can create strong emotions for the listener. Only a deep and emotional experience of love can evoke such feelings from the audience.
Before you start to work on your love song, spend time thinking about how your partner makes you feel. Write about the qualities that make them special. Use a combination of those qualities to draw a picture that will convince the audience that your song and your feelings are authentic.
Love songs are popular because music is an excellent emotional channel. When you write a love song, you have to feel the emotions and convey them to the outside world. This can be a raw emotional experience.
Romantic love is vibrant and exciting, and loss of love is heart-wrenching. Somehow you have to bring these larger-than-life emotions into your words and music with no cliches or pick-up lines.
If you want success, you must write from your own experience, from your heart, so to speak. You can’t rehash something that has already been done; popular love songs are as distinctive as the people who sing them.
Use your emotions to put together simple lyrics. Once you have the lyrics, it’s time to add the tune. There is no cast in stone method; some songwriters start with the melody. Then they write the lyrics, so do what inspires you most.
How to write the lyrics
Writing a good love song starts with listening to other love songs. This is the only way to explore the music and the lyrics that speak to you. You may spend hours listening to music before you find your inspiration.
Most songwriters will start with the chorus. The chorus gives life to the song. If your chorus is good, your love song should be a winner. As much as the chorus is the focus of the song, the verses should support it.
Don’t place too much emphasis on the wording when you first draft your lyrics. The first draft should create a concept. You’ll still have lots of work to do editing, writing, and rewriting your song before you have lyrics that speak to your audience.
You’ll have to refine every section of your lyrics before it’s ready for publication and pay special attention to the title, the chorus, and the hook.
Pay special attention to the flow and the cadence of the words when writing your lyrics. Each line should have the same beat and number of syllables as the one that preceded it.
A good song, like a good story, should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Make sure that all the sections of your lyrics work together and on their own.
Choose your instrument and write the melody
The piano and the guitar are two of the most popular instruments amongst songwriters. If you don’t play a musical instrument, you can also use track apps to play your tune. You can choose almost any instrument, from percussion, to keyboards, stringed instruments, and more.
The simplest melodies are often the easiest to remember and sing along with. Songs with tunes as simple as a nursery rhyme are often the most memorable. If you play a musical instrument, it often helps to play chord progressions for tuneful inspiration.
If you don’t play, you could try to rope in a musician to help with this. Alternatively, find a chord progression loop online. A complex melody isn’t necessarily the most effective so keep it simple.
You’re ready to play
In songwriting, there is no “one size fits all .”This isn’t a linear process. You may start with a melody and then write the lyrics or vice versa. The most important part of the process is the love song that results from it.
The best love songs are simple and emotive. They are distinctive and authentic, and the sweet melodic tones linger long after the song has ended.
