Lyricists

There was a long discussion on a songwriting site recently about people who consider themselves songwriters but only write lyrics. These folks are not musicians for various reasons, but still are moved by music and contribute song lyrics in the hope that someone else will collaborate with them and add the music.

Before I began participating in songwriting forums, I was not really aware that lyricists were common. I knew about songwriting teams like Elton John and Bernie Taupin and Rodgers and Hammerstein, but I thought they were rare and in many cases, were playwrights who needed a spot of music for a Broadway type musical.

It turns out that lyricists outnumber musicians by leaps and bounds in the forum I refer to. The musicians encourage the lyricists to learn the musical side but in many cases they cannot.

I do not have a problem with someone being a lyricist as long as they have a sense of rhythm. A tin ear doesn't really stand in the way of writing lyrics, but a lack of rhythm does. Lyrics must have meter, prosody and rhythm! Some would-be lyricists obviously were not born with rhythm and probably are terrible dancers.

I am working with a couple of lyricists and putting music to their words. It is fun to collaborate because you can bounce ideas off each other.

So if you are "just" a lyricist, I say have fun at what you are doing. But if you can't dance, your words are probably not going to make a good song!