Toggling and Song Maps
A Dynamic Duo for Crafting Compelling Lyrics.
Toggling is a great tool, thanks to Berklee Music’s Andrea Stolpe1, who introduced me to this when she told me about her brilliant book, Popular Lyric Writing: 10 Steps to Effective Storytelling.
I’ve used it a lot over the years but didn’t mention it in my two books, “Song Maps” and “The Organized Songwriter" because she articulates this so well in her book. But I thought I should introduce it to you here. Combining the two things—Song Maps and Toggling—creates a dynamic duo for crafting compelling lyrics. This powerful suite of songwriting tools can really help take lyrics from good to great.
Dynamic Duo for Crafting Compelling Lyrics.
If you’ve never heard from it before, it’s well worth taking a look at.
Here is what I’ll be covering:
What is Toggling?
Combining Toggling and Song Maps
How to Get the Dynamic Duo Working Together
Song Maps are great at giving your song ideas structure (see below), turning them into “writable ideas” helping to plot the emotional journey. Even start writing a word. But when you’re there with your writable idea, this is when toggling becomes front stage.
So what is toggling?
What is Toggling?
Toggling is the art of moving between:
“Showing” language - using vivid imagery and sensory details and
“Telling” language - summarizing events or emotions within a section.
Toggling from one kind of language to the other kind helps create a dynamic flow that keeps listeners engaged and helps them connect with your song on a deeper level.
Combining toggling with Song Maps gives you a powerful framework for crafting compelling lyrics that are both well-structured and emotionally resonant.
Toggling is powerful when it’s used properly, because:
It creates an immersive and impactful listening experience. Showing language allows listeners to experience the story alongside the artist, engaging their senses and imagination. Telling language then helps them understand the significance of these experiences, providing context and emotional depth.
It mimics natural storytelling. When you tell a story in a conversation, you naturally move between detailed descriptions and concise summaries. Toggling allows you to replicate this conversational style in your lyrics, making them feel more relatable and engaging for the listener.
It adds variety and keeps listeners engaged. A song with only showing language can become overwhelming with imagery, while a song with only telling language can feel dry and unemotional. Toggling creates a dynamic flow that keeps listeners interested and invested in the story.
It allows for contrast between sections. Toggling patterns can be altered to create contrast between different parts of a song. For example, a verse might start with showing language and end with telling language, while the chorus might do the opposite. This keeps the song fresh and prevents it from becoming too predictable.
It can highlight key ideas. By strategically placing telling language at the end of a verse or section, you can emphasize the emotional impact of the preceding imagery. This technique, known as the "power position," allows you to draw attention to the most important idea in your song.
It offers flexibility in fitting a melody. Switching between showing and telling language can help you manipulate the number of syllables and the rhythm of your lines to fit a melody better.
If you take a look at your favorite music, you can see this technique in many different genres, from pop and country to worship and musicals, demonstrating its versatility and effectiveness.
A good example is Bryan Adam's "Summer of 69".
Showing: "I got my first real six-string / Bought it at the five-and-dime"
Telling: "Played it till my fingers bled / It was the summer of '69"
Notice how the showing language paints a vivid picture in the listener’s mind while the telling language summarizes the emotional significance of those events.
Combining Toggling and Song Maps
Combining toggling and Song Maps is beneficial because it provides a framework for crafting compelling lyrics that are well-structured and emotionally resonant. This approach draws upon the strengths of both techniques to elevate your songwriting.
Song Maps provide structure for toggling: Song Maps are pre-writing tools that act as "templates" to guide the lyrical journey of your song. When applied to the toggling technique, Song Maps can help determine where to incorporate showing language and telling language within specific sections.
Toggling enhances the impact of Song Maps: While Song Maps offer a blueprint for lyrical development, toggling breathes life into the structure by creating dynamic and engaging verses. The interplay of showing and telling adds depth and keeps listeners invested in the story.
Together, they create a seamless narrative: Toggling within the framework of a song map allows you to weave a cohesive and compelling narrative. The structure provided by the map helps you control the flow of information while toggling ensures that the story unfolds naturally and engagingly.
The combination fosters emotional depth: Toggling, with its shift between vivid imagery and emotional summaries, can effectively convey a wide range of feelings. When used alongside Song Maps, this emotional depth is amplified as the structure allows for strategic placement of these impactful moments.
It makes your lyrics more memorable: Well-placed telling language in a toggling pattern, particularly at the end of a verse or section, can emphasize the emotional impact of the preceding imagery. Combining this with the overall structure provided by a song map increases the chances of your song being memorable and leaving a lasting impact on listeners.
For songwriters, using toggling and Song Maps together is like having a roadmap and a paintbrush; the map guides your journey, and the brush allows you to add color and vibrancy to the landscape. This powerful combination can elevate your lyric writing, allowing you to create songs that are both structurally sound and emotionally captivating.
How to Get the Dynamic Duo Working Together
Here are three steps you can follow to create your own toggling and Song Maps system:
Explore the toggling scheme that would work best for your song idea: Toggling is often best used within verse sections, for example:
Showing Language: "The rain was falling hard, each drop exploding on the pavement like a tiny bomb"
Telling Language: "I felt lost and alone as I walked through the storm"
In this example, the first line uses descriptive imagery to show the reader the intensity of the rain, while the second line tells the reader about the speaker's emotional state.
Explore which song map would work best: Song maps guide the flow of your song and can help you develop your ideas more effectively. Here are the 7 universal Song Maps I mentioned in my first book, but there are others which I hope to talk about sometime soon:
Tension/Response
Problem/Declaration
Timezones
Places
Roles
Twist
Literal/Figurative
Bringing them together and combine: Having figured out your toggle and song map system simply draft the lyric, start experimenting with different toggling patterns to see what works with your song idea. Aim for a balance between showing and telling that keeps the listener engaged and moves the story forward.
Remember to experiment and refine your approach to create a system that works best for you. Don't be afraid to try different combinations of toggling and Song Maps until you find a process that helps you write your best lyric.
Summary
Toggling is a powerful tool that can help you craft compelling and engaging lyrics. By combining toggling with Song Maps, you can take your songwriting to the next level.
Click here for more information on pyramiding, another of Andrea’s cool tools. Value-driven songs here are another cool thing to integrate into your songwriting workflow. Also, while this seems to be a little more clinical than just writing from the creative part of your brain, look at writing with raw here.
Questions
Here are a few questions for you to consider:
How can you use toggling to create more dynamic verses in your songs?
Which Song Maps are best suited for using the toggling technique?
What are some examples of toggling in your favorite songs?
Hope this helps!
Simon
Andrea Stolpe is a multiplatinum songwriter, performing artist, and educator. She has worked as a staff writer for EMI, Almo-Irving, and Universal Music Publishing. Her songs have been recorded by artists including Faith Hill, Jimmy Wayne, Julianne Hough, and others. Andrea is the author and instructor of the course Commercial Songwriting Techniques, part of Berklee Online's songwriting program.