There are some songs that appear to be written right out of someone’s soul. As soon as you hear them, you understand that there is no doubt about the fact that the author of such songs is expressing their feelings rather than creating something out of thin air. This is precisely what blues songwriting stands for. It is neither a rule nor a strategy – it is an expression of your deep feelings in words and music which other people can then share with you. Regardless of whether you are holding a pen in your hands for the first time or you have been writing songs for many years, you will never be able to write any song without knowing this about blues lyrics.
Why Blues Songwriting Feels Different From Everything Else
Enter any room and start to play the blues. People will exhibit certain reactions. They will slow down. They will be listening. They will seem to know what is going on although they might never have heard that specific song before. It happens because blues songwriting deals in universal human experiences: heartbreak, loneliness, hard times, and the strange hope that somehow survives all of them.
Entertainment is the goal of most music. But the goal of blues is connection. This is where they differ greatly. A blues song doesn’t attempt to distract you from your troubles. It simply sits at your side and tells you that it gets you. It is this quality which makes a well-written blues song unique among all others. The wonderful thing is that this trait is not something you must be born with; it can be developed through telling the truth in your writing.
Songwriting Inspiration Starts With What You Have Already Lived
There is one common mistake that many young songwriters make: they tend to look for dramatic elements while composing a piece. In their opinion, the story should be something unique and special in order to be worth mentioning in a song. However, Blues shows otherwise each time. The strongest and most influential songs in Blues are about those simplest moments in people’s lives: a person who disappeared, a job that is gone, a feeling of loneliness in an indifferent city.
Your life is full of songwriting inspiration that you might be overlooking because it feels too small or too personal. It is not. The more personal the lyrics are in blues, the more universal they become. The reason why people can relate to the lyrics when you describe a particular experience is that the listener finds himself or herself in the story you tell even though it is not the same experience he or she had. Start with yourself. Start from your experiences. Start from pain.
Understanding Blues Song Structure Before You Write
Before you put words on the page, it helps to understand how a blues song is built. Blues song structure is one of the most reliable and time-tested frameworks in all of music. It provides your writing with the natural structure even when everything else is uncertain.
The most popular structure is 12-bar blues – a structure consisting of twelve measures and creating an effect of question and answer for the listener. In such a musical framework, there is always an AAB structure in the lyrics. The first line describes the situation. The second one is the repetition of the same idea with minor additions or changes. And finally, the third line provides the listener with the solution – the final point of the situation described in the first two lines. Such a framework may be very simple, but at the same time it is never boring because it allows the listener to hear something new after repetitions.
Blues Songwriting Techniques That Make Lyrics Land
Knowing the structure is one thing. Filling it with words that actually move people is another. Blues songwriting techniques are less about clever rhymes and more about honest, simple language that clearly communicates its meaning and purpose without dressing up in literary flourishes. These are the elements that distinguish an easily forgotten blues lyric from one that will remain memorable for years to come:
- Specify — “my old truck broke down on Highway 61” rings truer than “things went wrong”
- Repetition should serve a purpose – repeated lines carry more impact when used correctly
- Avoid pretentious language — blues lyrics are direct in language and simple in structure
- Evoke a vivid image – the emotion will naturally follow the clear picture
- Write the third line last – the climactic line must be earned; write it last
Simple though these techniques may be, they demand sincerity. The instant a blues lyric begins to attempt to sound more impressive rather than more sincere, it fails in all that makes blues lyrics unique.
Storytelling in Blues Music: Every Song Needs a Through Line
Great blues songs are not just collections of emotional lines thrown together. The best ones tell a story even when that story is only three verses long. Storytelling in blues music follows a simple path. Some action took place. This is how it went down. This is the way it stands. Even when this process is condensed to a couple of minutes, there is still something to follow through and something to remember after the song has ended.
Think about the message you want to get through with this song. Who are the characters involved? What happened? Where did it all take place? It is not necessary to have all the answers before starting to write, but you should always have something to focus on. The most effective blues songs resemble films — everything that happens inside is easy to imagine because the author knew all the details before writing it down. Try to do the same.
Blues Lyrics Meaning: Saying the Hard Thing Out Loud
One of the reasons blues lyrics meaning goes so deep for listeners is that blues has always been willing to say the things most people only think. It does not euphemize the pain through decorum. It calls it out. It looks into it head-on. This takes a great deal of courage, especially in the writer’s room, when the emotions involved come from inside of us and are very close to the surface. But it is this courage that sets apart the song that people like from the one they will never forget.
Emotional songwriting techniques in blues are really just different ways of giving yourself permission to be fully honest on the page. Allow yourself to write the first draft such that it is awkward and blunt and even a little bit crude. Polish it later. What is important is that you capture the truth in the first draft. Polishing is something you do in the second and third drafts.
How to Write a Blues Song: A Practical Starting Point
If you find yourself facing a blank page and not knowing how to start, there is a way that will work for you. Choose one emotion any emotion at all. Not an entire event or even a relationship; just an emotion. Anger. Loneliness. Joy. Write that one word at the top of your page and then spend five minutes writing down everything you can think of about that emotion.
How to write a blues song from that list is easier than it sounds. Find the most tangible image in your writing an image that can be seen, heard, or touched and base your opening line on that. After that, just follow the AAB structure and let your creativity flow through it. The music will eventually emerge from your words. Blues music and blues lyrics have always evolved side by side, and neither precedes the other.
Learn From Michigan Mick: Writing Blues That Feels Real
One of the best ways to improve your own blues songwriting is to study artists who do it well. Michigan Mick – the blues rock musician hailing from Detroit – writes and plays with precisely the sort of emotional truth that we’ve talked about on this blog. His songs are authentic because they come from authentic places, authentic experiences, and an authentic link to the tradition of the blues that has been developing for well over a hundred years now.
It can be a very valuable lesson in songwriting to pay attention to how someone like Michigan Mick constructs his lyrics, hits home with phrases, and lets a guitar riff bring to completion something that had begun with words. Go to michiganmick.com and hear for yourself what we mean by these above-mentioned techniques.
Conclusion
There was never any blues song that ever touched someone’s heart that did not start with an individual expressing what was on his mind. Blues songwriting is not the domain of the greats or those who are formally educated in music. It is meant for any individual who takes a seat, is true to himself, and writes what he feels deep within him.
Learn the structure. Employ the tools. Tell the truth. And write on, regardless of how raw your first attempts at it may be. With every line, your voice will emerge, and that voice, when genuine, is precisely what blues has been seeking all along. Check out Michigan Mick and hear how blues still matters and how yours does too.