According to Sheree Spoltore (Video) http://www.nashvillesongwriters.com/

1. According to Sheree Spoltore (Video)http://www.nashvillesongwriters.com/ • Unnecessary Words: • Being concise with song lyrics

2. Avoiding unnecessary words:Well, That, But, Really, Those, So, Just, There, And.-

3. Hit songs that break the rule? Then: The Trashmen- Surfin’ Bird Now: Dierks Bentley – Am I The Only One What do you think???

4. Lyrics: Am I The Only One? Dierks BentleyWell it was Friday in the p.m. Andjust like every weekend I was ready to throw down Yeah get a little tore up So I call my bros up to meet me out on the town Well wild man Willy said I'd like to reallyBut Idol was on TV and Ray had a date withhis wife and Nate quit drinking but he didnt tell me

5. Other Examples:Lee Ann Rimes - But I Do Love Youhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmfls25wVrg Duffy: - Well, Well, Well http://www.directlyrics.com/duffy-well-well-well-lyrics.html#video

6. Being concise with song lyrics. • Brevity usually is best. • Fewer well-chosen words are easier for the audience to absorb. • Less really is more, most of the time.

7. Simple images cut deep like a sharp knife. • One of the most common mistakes made by beginning songwriters is trying to say too much. • The simplest songs are usually the most powerful.

8. Example of a co-write (a religious song): • Once I was a desperate frightened fugitive • I was running away from the light • Hurting and hopeless and wounded by my sin • I was stumbling through the cold dark night • It was such a tragedy • I could see no hope for me

9. Re-write • Desperate fugitive • Running from the Light • Wounded by sin • Stumbling through the night • Tragedy • No hope for me

10. A current billboard song. Concise or not? Take a Back Road: Rodney Atkins

11. Exercise (Four Steps)

12. 1 Begin by writing down the story your song tells in narrative form. It doesn't have to rhyme or be poetic just yet - write the details down as you would read it in a newspaper or journal. For example, if your story is about getting dumped after taking a girl to a dance you could write this: He went to the dance with a girl in a red dress. She was wearing red lipstick. They danced for 10 minutes. He went to the bathroom and when he came back she was leaving with another man.

13. 2 • Take your story and remove all articles, prepositions, pronouns and other words that don't convey information. Words like "a", "the", "for", "with" and even words like "I", "he" or "she" can be erased. Words that can be kept will be nouns and verbs. In our example, this leaves us with: • Dance girl red dress. Red lipstick. 10 minutes. bathroom leaving another man.

14. 3 • Use the thesaurus or your own imagination to look for opportunities to replace words with synonyms with the following conditions: • - Getting two words to rhyme- Getting two words to have assonance (similar vowel sounds - for example "kite" and "mine"- Getting two words to have consonance (similar consonant sounds - for example "cook" and "crack" • In our example I can replace "lipstick" with "kiss" - It gets across the same idea while having consonance with "dress".

15. 4 • Use the final list of words to start writing lyrics. You can add back in any necessary filler words such as "the", "a", "for", etc. • In this example I could write the first part of the song as: • Red dress,With a red kiss,We only danced 10 minutes.

16. Well, the end….