How to Write a Concept Album Part 1

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How To Write A Concept Album Part 1 -
Planning Your Concept

Hopefully you read my introduction to this series, Why Lyric Writing is so tedious, which introduces concept albums as a Superior way to write Lyrics & Music.

Planning Story Web

As you've traveled your journey to becoming a successful musician, you somehow came across the idea that a "Concept" album is the best way write lyrics.

Whether you like the idea of a story, seeing that it is more in-depth than songs by themselves, or are just playing around with the idea, This Series is the place to start.

Planning

You need to do some planning, right? You can't just go into this blindly or you will find your story has plot holes, and eventually will become incoherent, or worse.....boring.

There are a few ways you could go about this. Each idea is more suited to a different type of individual. I suck at art, so I chose the last option, whereas others will be better at #1.

#1 - Story boarding

Use images and captions to create a "Comic book" feel. This is an ideal planning tool for those who are more skilled in Art.

#2 - Brain Web

Have the Center of your web be your main idea. It doesn't have to be a single word or anything, but it does need to capture what you are aiming at.

Have the web branch into Characters, Plot twists, Time lines, Events, Creatures, and other various Ideas.

#3 - Keep A Journal - (I do this)

Every time you think of an idea, write it down. After a few weeks you will start to have an idea developed.

I keep my Journal beside my bed, and try to write at least 1 page worth of ideas before I go to sleep every night. Sometimes I will think of images, and creatures to go along with my story. I do my best to draw them despite my awfully smelly Drawing skills.

Your Choice

Whichever choice you make, you need to make a point to take your time creating your story.

This should take weeks, if not months or years to create, depending on how in-depth you want your story to be.

After you spend the time creating the....background....no....Creating your world, you will be ready to turn it into music.

Of course, this process of creating a world is much more complicated than I am letting on, and I will cover more aspects of it further on in the series.

Until then, I suggest you start working on your concept, refining the different Ideas, and creating a solid base of Characters and events.

If you haven't done so already:

(That's A Clue!)

-Andrew Muller (Monday April 2nd, 2009.)

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