What is Song Mapping?
To help you write your very best lyrics
What is Song Mapping?
Here’s how I would describe Song Mapping:
Song Mapping is writing with a development strategy
Song Mapping is all about having a development strategy. A development strategy is writing with a plot, albeit at a high level. Given that we only have a few lines and each section to play with, the more we focus on what an effective plot includes and excludes, the more effective our lyrics will be. The fact that we sometimes only have a few syllables to convey complex movements in the plot is one of the key challenges for us as lyricists.
Writing without disappointing the listener
I remember watching the film A Perfect Storm. It is one of the few movies I will always remember, but for all the wrong reasons. In theory, it should have been amazing—an incredible cast (George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg), spectacular special effects, and a suspense-filled plot based on a true story of a veteran skipper of a fishing boat on a collision course with a massive storm while trawling for swordfish. It has four stars on the iTunes store. It’s a Warner Bros. film. James Horner (one of my all-time favorite composers) wrote the score. Everything was going for it.
But when it ended, I couldn’t have been more disappointed. Basically, after two hours and nine minutes (and that’s after waiting for 4.5 GB to download onto my Apple TV), they all died. That was it. Curtains, finito. Of course, it begs the question: “how did they know what happened in the “true story” if they all died?” Very disappointing.
This is what it’s like when we have a great title, a hooky melody with some edgy harmonies, a fabulous artist, and a great production showcasing the song... but the plot or development of the lyrics lets us down. It’s a perfect storm in more than one way. Not having the right development can let everything down.
Mapping out the flow of ideas
This is why mapping the development of our lyrics is so critical if we want to write the best songs of our careers. When we map the flow of ideas, we ensure we have all the right things in the right place. We plan for success in our writing. This is where Song Maps come to our aid: a development strategy is represented by a Song Map.
If you want to know more, here’s the book.
Hope this helps!
Simon
