Cheap Advice On Music

I have found that if I can come up with a good title, I can usually come up with a good song to go with it. I think it’s because having a specific title establishes the general subject of the song, freeing me of the “option glut” problem that arises when the new lyrics can be about anything at all. If I’m lucky enough to think of a title like “He Doesn’t Know Her (Like I Do),” as I once did, the song practically writes itself!

There are many sources of possible titles besides staring into space and dreaming them up. One little-known but productive approach is to simply steal the title of some book and use that! You can test this out by strolling through the “Fiction and Literature” section next time you are in Barnes & Noble and scanning the titles of the books. I’d be surprised if you didn’t find at least a few really good prospects!

Of course, you can find endless lists of titles online too, at Amazon or FictionDB or various other places. Here are a few titles I found online under “Romance”:

* A Little Bit Wicked
* Midnight Eyes
* The Trouble With Love
* Love Under Cover

See what I mean? Every one of those titles puts promising melodies into my mind. You too, I’ll bet!

[An expanded version of this Mini-Tip appears in my eBook Cheap Advice On Songwriting.]