Music Composition - Make your own Song

Choosing the Right Words: Finding the Perfect Text for Your Song

Lesson 2: Choosing Song Lyrics
How to Find the Perfect Text for Your Song with Matthias Kadar

What makes a text worth turning into a song?

In this lesson, Matthias Kadar explores one of the most personal stages of songwriting: finding words that genuinely inspire music. Whether you choose an existing poem or write your own lyrics, you'll learn how to recognize texts that naturally invite melody and emotional expression.

Through examples from celebrated poets including Robert Burns, Victor Hugo, Derek Walcott, and Paul Celan, Matthias demonstrates how different styles of writing create different musical possibilities. He explains why some texts sing effortlessly while others remain purely informative, and how punctuation, rhythm, and emotional intent influence the music hidden inside every sentence.

You'll also discover a practical technique for writing your own lyrics by starting with something deeply personal: a simple letter to someone who matters to you. By keeping your sentences short, honest, and expressive, you'll create a natural foundation for songwriting.

The lesson concludes with creative exercises that help you explore how punctuation changes the melody of spoken language and prepares your own words to become music.

In this lesson you'll learn:

How to choose a poem or text that naturally inspires music
The difference between informative writing and lyrical writing
Why short, authentic sentences often make stronger lyrics
How punctuation influences rhythm, phrasing, and melody
A simple technique for writing your own lyrics
How to trust your own emotional response when choosing words
Practical exercises to develop expressive reading and musical listening

By the end of this lesson, you'll have your own text—or the perfect poem—to serve as the emotional foundation of your first original song.