How to Write a Song Using Imagery

Hi, I'm Andrea Stolpe. I'm going to talk about how to use imagery in our songwriting. Imagery is when we engage the listener in the song through the use of pictures, showing the listener instead of just telling them all about the song idea or the concept. A lot of songwriting uses imagery.

In some songs it's more obvious than in other songs. Country music, for example, it's often very easy to see the imagery at work, because the listener is engaged in the scene. We know where and when and to whom the song is happening, but in other types of music it's harder to see the imagery.

So I'm going to talk about how we can use more imagery in whatever style of songs we write, whether it's rock or pop or jazz, reggae and see how imagery creates a stronger experience for the listener, engages them, and makes the song altogether more memorable.So let's define first what imagery is and when we use it in daily life, because song lyrics really should be an expression of our own feelings, our own thoughts and with realistic language, language that we use every day.

So when we use imagery in our songs, let's think about how we use imagery in everyday life so we can apply the same idea. A good story needs small detail. A small moment is when we engage the listener with a specific point in time in the situation that's going on in that time.

In order to do that, I like to think about a song, or at least the first verse of the song, like a conversation with the listener. If you think about a conversation that you might have with a good friend, not just an acquaintance where you say, hey, how's it going, they say I'm fine, a little stressed lately, but it's OK.

That's surface interaction. That's not really engaging communication between two people. What I'm talking about is in a conversation where we are opening up, we are likely to begin with an introductory sentence or statement, like, gosh, I'm really having a hard time lately. That's telling.

I'm summarizing how I'm feeling, not yet getting into the detail, and then the friend might say, really, what's going on? That's the invitation to get deeper and here's where sensory language starts. I'm going to in my mind, I'm going to think of that specific experience that illustrates what I just said, how things are really difficult and I'm stressed out.

So I'm going to go into that experience, the small moment and describe it. My father died recently. Since that moment, I remember just being in my kitchen and the-- the feeling of that cold tile on my floor and I was staring at the neon glow of my phone and the hot tears are streaming down my cheek and my mom could barely talk and her voice was wavering and I just-- I just-- the world feels different now.

I just don't know how to be. OK, so in what I just told you, I began with-- the big thought was my father passed away, but then I took the listener into the small moment where I received the phone call. The listener was perhaps able to be with me in that moment, and then you might have felt at the end of that-- I drew out again to talk about my own feelings, I don't know how to be, and so when we write with small moments in mind, it's often this feeling of starting on the surface to summarize, and then digging down deep to grab the meat of the situation, and then surfacing again to summarize.

And through that experience, the listener is able to truly engage with us and feel the weight of the song and to write a believable situation to truly engage the listeners emotions to the extent and the depth of the emotion of the situation, I have to be vulnerable. I have to show, instead of tell, in the lyric.

So how do we use imagery in our own songs, really apply this to the writing process? One way to think about it is that the verse tells the story. It carries the detail, the small moment, and the chorus carries the big message. So the small moment illustrates why that big message is true.

The small moment needs to come before the big message or the big message doesn't carry the believability that it should. One way to approach using imagery is to understand that in the verse we're trying to answer some questions. We can think about a song in terms of where we use imagery.

The verse section tends to use a lot of that showing detail. It carries the story. The chorus section summarizes the main message. So just knowing that can help us determine where to put the sensory language, where to put the imagery. In a verse-- let's say I'm writing a song about a truck, an old truck.

The verse section might describe that truck in the sense of the vinyl seats. Maybe they're ripped. Maybe the clutch is stuck sometimes. Maybe there's no power steering, so it's taking me some effort to get where I want to go. Maybe I'm describing the feeling of driving over jagged, rocky, dusty ground maybe, the cap on the dash, the money jingling around and making a sound every time wheels bump over big rocks.

I'm describing to you a scene that you may or may not have experienced, but the beauty of that is you might make some assumptions, relate to it in the sense that you could understand my lifestyle, the way I might feel and think based on that experience. So I'm setting up a scene to help you to understand and engage with me.

It doesn't matter if we're writing in I, first person point of view. It doesn't matter if that scene is happening to me or to a main character, like a he, she, but you will understand the character's point of view, the character's life and experience through that scene I'm setting up and that's the verse.

The chorus then culminates in why is that scene valuable, what do I want to say through that example, that situation.So the verse expressed what's happening, who it's happening to, when it's happening, because that's that small moment. Me driving the truck is the small moment.

The where was only in that truck. I didn't go other places, I didn't park somewhere and get out and go mail something, I didn't-- it's only that truck. So the who, the where, and the what and the when are all established in the verse section of highly visual lyrics, but the why, that comes in the chorus and the why expresses what is valuable, what is thought and felt, what is the meaning behind the experience and so that's what our choruses tend to do.

So how do we come up with good imagery for songs? There are some wonderful techniques that we writers can make daily habits in order to generate a lot of sensory material and these techniques can also train us to really not experience writer's block ever again and to be able to come up with good, original weighty song material on demand, whether you feel inspired or not.

One of the bottom foundational exercises is to do daily sensory writing. You might have heard this called object writing or destination writing, but really what it is is focusing in on your senses as you write. Our senses are taste, touch, sight, sound, smell, and then adding in movement and awareness of good verbs.

So the process would go like this, you might find a quiet place, either in the morning, the afternoon, or the night, whenever you feel like you can have some space for yourself and you also might try doing this, not by writing or typing necessarily, but maybe it's talking into your phone. Whatever way you feel that you're able to relax and let your ideas flow would be how I might suggest going about it.

So when you sit down to do this writing, the basic idea is to stay focused on your senses. You might have done some meditation or mindfulness training. When we do this, there's this process of allowing thoughts to surface and having a non judging attitude. The same is true when we do sensory writing.

Treat what rises to the surface regarding taste, touch, sight, sound, smell, and movement as simply thoughts, simply ideas. They're not useful or useless, good or bad, because they're out of context of a lyric. They have no purpose except just that's what's happening for you at the moment.

We're writing in paragraph form two or maybe a list. We're not trying to complete sentences, certainly not trying to suddenly be good spellers or good at grammar. We're just letting the thoughts rise. The way to begin could be to choose an object, like a coffee cup or glasses or running water, and then you begin to sensory write, focused on that object.

But another way to approach this would be to try choosing a where, a sense of where something is happening, because I find, in many songs, the sense of where it's happening is where the first verse begins and so sometimes it's easier to see how that particular paragraph of sensory writing can lead directly into a song if we choose or where.

So for example, a location or where could be at the airport or in the lobby waiting at the gate, perhaps, of the airport, waiting for my flight at my gate two hours before the flight leaves at the airport. The more specific I'm getting, perhaps the more ideas that are coming to me. We can also do this with a sense of when.

When we choose a time frame, it can bring ideas to the surface. So for example, 2 a.m., OK, 2 a.m. in an alley in New York City. That gets a little more specific now. That might be a different song than 2 a.m. leaving a nightclub, 2 a.m. in a laundromat. When you attach a time to a location, it's easier to come up with ideas.

Ideas surface, and then you begin doing your sensory writing. What do you taste, what do you smell, what do you see, what do you hear, what is moving around you, and when telling language that sort of journaling, ranting, and raving our thoughts and feelings start to seep into the writing like it typically does when we're just simply writing lyrics or journaling.

Don't judge it, don't be a critic yet. It's not time to criticize. It's just time to brainstorm. So you pat that little idea on the head. You say thanks for arriving, and then you move back to sensory detail. Doing this kind of writing for five minutes, maybe 10 minutes a day is a beautiful way to engage your senses, become skilled at writing any time of day or night and any idea, and it generates a lot of material.

If you do this for a month and you look back over the amount of material that you've amassed, you will find lots of songs begun within those sensory writing. [MUSIC PLAYING] We don't have to stop there with our writing, just using sensory writing or destination writing or object writing as simply a brainstorming tool.

We can actually use the material we come up with and those paragraphs or lists of sensory writing as song lyrics. This process is going to allow you to come up with song lyrics anytime, anywhere, and have lots of material hanging around to use and so when you then decide to sit down and write a song or collaborate and need material to bring to a collaboration or even write with another artist who has their ideas of what they want to say, this process is going to give you tons of material so you always feel prepared.

And again, you do not need to worry about writers block, because there are so many ideas that you already have waiting to be formed. [MUSIC PLAYING] When we're writing with sensory language, we're digging into a specific situation. Because it's a specific situation, the amount of time that goes by in that situation might often be very small.

The smaller the time frame or the shorter the time, the more detail we can dig down into. The longer the time frame, the less detail, the more surface we tend to be. [MUSIC PLAYING] When we write a song, we often find that the verse starts at the height of the emotion, the moment that describes the intensity of the problem, or the most elevated feeling of joy.

That's where we tend to start. We capture the moment that holds the strongest emotion and so it can be more effective in a verse section to describe a single moment, instead of a string of moments. If you look at some of the songs you've written, you might notice that they're describing a lot more string of moments, so in other words, a lot of plot, rather than one moment in great detail.

[MUSIC PLAYING] So for example, the difference would be like this, when we met, we walked hand in hand. Things were great back then. The trees lost their leaves and winter came and that's when it all fell apart. Do you notice how much time passed in that section of lyric that I expressed? We met, things were great, we fell apart.

In just five or six lines, I managed to tell an entire song. The emotion you felt was probably next to nothing, because I didn't allow you into the experience. Let's contrast that with using a single moment. [MUSIC PLAYING] A single moment in this verse might be expressed this way, there was cotton from Cottonwood trees floating on the breeze.

There were children playing and I heard their laughter like it was my own and I saw you walking 10 feet in front and I thought to myself, what a beautiful world. The idea that I can put, set a mood, and express a feeling through the details that I choose to show helps the message in the course to feel true, feel real and so the small moment is often much more effective at getting the listener to believe and feel than a string of moments that stay on the outside of the surface of the experience.

So choosing a small moment in time can be much more effective than trying to describe a string of moments where a lot of time goes by. [MUSIC PLAYING] So let's dig into how we can actually use imagery to write a verse section. One of the ways we can prepare to use imagery in our verses is to understand how the music of a verse is structured.

Let's dig in the melody for a moment and see how a four line or a six line verse section can show us how we could write lyric for a four or six line section. [MUSIC PLAYING] Melody in a four line verse section, which is a very typical structure, at least in commercial music we can hear that very clearly defined.

The melody is often where we see a melodic motif, which is a small musical sentence that is kind of like a fingerprint of the song. We can identify that melodic rhythm and pitch of the first line of a verse as indicating and we can identify that song, what that sounds like and that melody often repeats.

So in a four line section, we hear that repeating. Either the melody in line one is also repeated in line two, in line three, maybe even again in line four, but sometimes we hear a different structure, but still there's repetition where in line one and line three that melodic motif repeats. So the rhyme scheme of a lyric of a four line verse section is often something like X A X A and that means that lines one and three don't rhyme with anything else or each other, but lines two and four rhyme with each other and therefore they're the same letter, A.

We can notice, well, that's interesting, we have two groups of two lines. So the verse is almost like two lines, and then it's mirrored again, repeated, those two lines. So we can see, well, what does that tell me about how a lyric might be structured, and what that says is line one and line two often complete a thought.

Lines three and line four often complete a sentence. So I call that topic movement, this idea of being able to see how the content of a lyric might be structured based on what the musical structure is. So in lines one and two, we might establish a sense of, so I'm driving on Interstate 85 and I'm thinking about the past.

Maybe that's lines one and two and then lines three and four are, and outside the blur of the telephone lines get me lost, lost, lost. So that's a second thought. They're related. I'm driving still. There's that small moment, but first I talked about where I am. I'm driving interstate 85.

Then I talk about the telephone lines blurring by. So they're kind of two separate thoughts. They're certainly related, but they're organized according to what the musical structure is doing. You probably do this very naturally, but it helps sometimes to think about how is this music structured so I can deliver my content at a pace that appropriately matches the music and gets me where I want to go in the main message of the course.

[MUSIC PLAYING] In a six line section, we tend to hear two groups of three. So the rhyme scheme is usually something like X X A, X X A. So lines three and six rhyme, creates conclusion for the section there or cadence where the harmony cadences at the end of a section. That's where we feel the rhyme closing down the lyric.

So in a six line section, we hear the same idea with structure. If you think about harmonically what might be the chord progression of a six line section of verse, often we hear it broken up into two groups of three. So the lyric of the first three lines sings over perhaps an eight bar harmonic progression or chord progression, and then that eight bar progression repeats under lines four through six of the lyric and we often hear cadence too.

At the end of line six we hear some kind of harmonic cadence and that's why it feels so natural to rhyme line six with line three, where that other harmonic cadence was. So rhyme and topic and structure, content, and structure of the music, they're all interrelated. We hear rhyme where we hear harmonic cadence and we hear the topics change where the harmonic chord progression begins again.

[MUSIC PLAYING] So I'd like to talk about how to actually use imagery to write the real lyric itself. [MUSIC PLAYING] There's a process called toggling. Toggling describes the structure of the content. Toggling describes the movement between showing and telling language in a verse section. A verse section might start out very showing and move into very telling language and so toggling is just describing the way that we move between those two types of language in a verse section.

[MUSIC PLAYING] I'd like to tell you about a technique called toggling that helps to understand where in which lines to use showing language, or imagery, and where to simply tell with summarizing language. When we look at a four line verse, which is really common and effective structure for a verse section, because it falls over, let's say eight, bars of chord progression, we can see that often, that verse ends in more summarizing language, but begins with more showing language, more imagery.

And it makes sense, because if you think about a conversation that you might have with someone where you're telling them a story and you start out maybe by saying, Oh, you'll never believe what happened and they say, really, what, and then you get into the detail. The good story starts with setting the scene.

Well, so I traveled to Germany this summer and I took a flight. It was Lufthansa and we were all set, we had our bags packed. At the airport the flight was canceled. So we're sitting there, we went up to the gate and the flight attendant helped us and rebooked us. We got into the hotel, stayed overnight, nice hotel, no troubles.

The next morning we boarded our flight and I overheard someone say that we could get money back for our flight. All these are details, small details I'm telling. I haven't yet told you the reason why I'm telling you this. That's the punchline. That's the telling language. So the telling language that I would get to is, oh man, in European law is that we get back $600 from our plane tickets for our inconvenience and my friend would say, that's amazing and I was yeah, and so that's the telling language that tends to summarize.

So we start a verse by showing. We end the verse by telling. We start with imagery. We end with summarizing language. [MUSIC PLAYING] So toggling describes that process. So in a four line verse, here's the toggling patterns that we tend to see. We tend to see showing, showing, telling, telling or sometimes, let's say we have an X A X A rhyme scheme, we see showing, telling, showing, telling and it makes sense, because that matches the rhyme scheme.

In six line verses, which is the other very, very common commercial structure, we tend to see rhyme schemes that are X X A, X X A and so a toggling pattern that often goes along with that might be show, show, tell show, show, tell or maybe show, tell, tell show, tell, tell, but using a toggling pattern like those can help to identify sometimes where to go with your lyric.

It can help establish a good pace and make sure that you are using enough sensory language to draw the listener into the experience and enough telling language to show the listener why that sensory language matters. [MUSIC PLAYING] So I'd like to talk about a technique that is really helpful when we're trying to write happy songs.

Songs where there's no inherent problem can be difficult to write, because it feels almost as if the entire lyric tends toward telling language and a lot of the language then that comes out tends to be a little surface and if you think about it, it's hard to express a feeling without imagery in a unique and interesting way.

I feel happy. My feet are light. I'm walking on air. My heart is filled with joy. It's difficult to grab language that feels unique and new and innovative that really engages the listener without sounding cliche. So a technique that I find really helpful is writing through the lens of something else.

[MUSIC PLAYING] So let's say I'm going to write about this feeling of being happy, about how someone else makes me feel. If I just write about that in and of itself, the song lyric might sag a little and for a song that's driven by a great groove, maybe that's not a problem. Maybe the lyric isn't front and center, but let's say the song really is carried by the lyric, not the groove, and so the lyric has to have weight to it.

Writing through a lens means that I'm going to write about the concept of how I feel through the lens of an object. The object in this case would be something that seems to stand for the concept. So if I'm going to write about a feeling through a lens, let's say like champagne, then I'm just going to do my sensory writing of taste, touch, sight, sound, smell, and movement around how I feel through the lens of champagne.

So I might make connections here and this is a lot like creating metaphor. I feel thoughts bubbling to the surface. I'm a golden amber everywhere I go, the taste of sweet, an effervescence that takes me through the whole day, it's light, it's flowery, it's-- so I'm going to describe the feeling through the lens of champagne, even the clink of the glass, it kind of sings songs in my hand.

The feeling is colored by the object and that can be a beautiful way to give weight to a concept that didn't seem to carry much lyrical weight at first. [MUSIC PLAYING] So we know that the first verse of a song tells the story, often explains a situation that is a good example of the course message, which tells what we've learned or the culmination of the thoughts and feelings that make that song find its purpose, but what do we do with the rest of the song? How do we write the next verse, the verse that comes after the first chorus? [MUSIC PLAYING] A lot of times, that verse doesn't have as much showing language, or sensory language, as the first verse did.

Just like in a conversation, you don't have to remind your partner who you're talking to, by the way, I'm still talking about that time when I. You don't need to, because they know. They're there with you. So in a song, that next verse tends to be where we describe in more detail the concept, why the big message is true and so sometimes that verse, the verse after the first chorus, can get a little washy or lightweight, a little fly away and so to give it weight again, we can go back to our tool of using a little bit of showing language in the first line or first two lines just to nail those stakes in the ground and keep it grounded.

[MUSIC PLAYING] So knowing that the first two lines can set an example, we could choose an object or an image that seems related or in the same color scheme of what we've been talking about. So if my first verse is sort of a city scene, my next verse after the first chorus might hone in on red brick apartment or corner coffee stand.

I might choose a location or an image that is consistent with the character of the rest of the song, and then use that as a leaping off point to tell more about the concept of the song. To be honest, sometimes I don't quite know how that second verse is going to culminate. I use the image to help draw up ideas about how is that image a space in which this concept could become more true, more purposeful, and gain more meaning.

[MUSIC PLAYING] So there's a few polishing techniques that can be really helpful as lyricists to express the song lyric in a way where it's received without the listener having to play detective. [MUSIC PLAYING] One of the things we notice in really concrete literal lyrics or lyrics that use a lot of imagery is sentences are completed.

So when we begin a thought in line one, we complete that thought, usually at least by line three. So it's not a litany of fragments that the listener then has to put together. So a way to determine whether your lyric is reading with good conversational quality is to read it out loud and make sure that there's an agreement between where you're harmonic progression, your cord progressions cadence and the ends of your sentences.

[MUSIC PLAYING] Make sure that you're also adding in words that we use in natural speech to connect ideas, pronouns, prepositions, and conjunctions. You're using and, but, as, with, for, yet, still. Words like that help to clarify our meaning and if you think about it, they really don't take away or add much real estate in terms of the stress pattern over lyric, but they make it really easy for the listener to take in our message.

When you're using imagery, allow your lyric to contain those bits and pieces that help the listener to simply stay in the feeling of the song, rather than pull out and have to do the work of understanding the message before feeling the message. [MUSIC PLAYING] Another easy polishing technique is to try changing the point of view of your song.

So if you wrote the song in I, so where the singer is the main character, try writing the song as directed address, you, you know when, or you do this, you feel that. Sometimes in direct address we can flip over to we in the chorus so that the message becomes universal and it's implied that it pertains to all of us.

Sometimes we can take a lyric that's in I or you and exchange that for he or she and suddenly the lyric takes on a quality that just feels right. Exchanging the point of view from I to you or you to I or to he or she or we in different sections of the song too can be a wonderful polishing technique that can save a song from instant death where you thought it wasn't working and suddenly it is or just simply allow you some insight into how the song seems to connect and engage best with the listener.

Another polishing tool we can easily apply is tense. [MUSIC PLAYING] Tense helps us determine when each section of the song is happening. It can also help us to iron out a melodic motif. So when we add ED at the end of a verb or we take it away, it changes sometimes the number of syllables that we need.

I'm walking, I walked changes the melody itself too. So sometimes we can just simply overlook the tense of the lyric and notice how we can use it to express our melody better, a tighter cleaner melody, and also to keep that tense consistent, just like we do in natural speech. We don't suddenly change from I'm walking, and then I'll see.

It doesn't make any sense, so don't allow those issues to make it into your lyric where you're changing tense and the listeners then focus more on the structure of your lyric instead of really feeling and being in what you're saying. So those are some simple polishing tools of tense and point of view and not allowing your lyric to be fragmented, but help the lyric to keep the listener in the moment instead of on the outside of the experience.