Sonic Targeting – The Secret Technique to Writing Amazing Lyrics
Songwriting is a game of balance. We have to be relatable to our listeners, but also truthful to our story. We have to be interesting, yet also familiar. Although this may sound difficult, it certainly isn’t impossible. In this article, we’ll discuss how to help you achieve that balance using a technique known as sonic targeting.
This article is a summarised transcript of our video “The Secret Lyric Writing Technique that Pros Use (and you should too!)”. Click here to watch the video for more details, explanations and examples.
What is Sonic Targeting?
Sonic targeting is the process of writing your lyrics based around a specific word that you’ve chosen to rhyme with. This technique usually works best when you pick a word from either a title or a line that’s interesting to you and that you know you’ll want to repeat in other song sections.
If you’d like some help with developing your title into a song, download our free Song Map Template now:
How Does Sonic Targeting Work?
By default, we usually choose the last word of a line to rhyme with. For example, in the line “Dancing with fire in the dark”, we would choose the word “dark” to rhyme with. Below is what that would look like:
While this is fine, it also tends to result in lyrics that feel cliché. This is where sonic targeting comes into play.
Sonic targeting is when we target other strong vowel sounds which are in the line but are not the last word. If we use the above example, we can hear that the words “dance” and “fire” are strong vowel sounds. This is what it would look like if we wrote end line rhymes that rhyme with “dance” instead of “fire”:
By doing this, we provide our listeners with familiarity through setting up expectations with rhyme. However, since we’re using an unexpected rhyming pattern, we get to surprise our listener by resolving in an interesting way.
Sonic Targeting in Action
A great lyricist who has made use of sonic targeting before is Bruno Major. In his song “In Places We Won’t Walk”, he uses sonic targeting to set up the title line. For example, this is the verse section where he writes his lines by rhyming them with the word “we”:
It happens again in the chorus. However, this time it’s by rhyming the end of his lines with the word “places”:
A Step-by-Step Summary of Sonic Targeting
To sum things up, sonic targeting consists of a total of 6 steps. They are as follows:
- Decide on a title or repeating line. Try to ensure it’s between 6 to 8 words, and contains at least 3 strong vowel sounds. The vowel sounds also all need to be different. Otherwise, the effect of sonic targeting won’t be noticeable.
- Pick one of the vowel sounds but ensure it’s not the last word of your line.
- Generate a list of rhymes for your chosen word. You should try to make the list as long as possible so that you can have various options to work with. Resources such as Rhymezone.com or a physical rhyming dictionary will be helpful.
- Write a 4 – 6 line section where at least one or two of the words in the other lines in the section rhymes with the word that you are sonic targeting.
Conclusion: Sonic Targeting – The Secret Technique to Writing Amazing Lyrics
As an overall, sonic targeting is a technique that relies on starting with the title. By backwards engineering our lyrics based on the last line of a section, we’re able to write lyrics that both surprise and delight our listeners.
If you would like more details, explanations and examples, then be sure to check out the video now.
