Obviously, I’m a big believer in telling one’s story.
It’s what I’m all about.
I tell my stories through fiction, while others tell their stories through sharing personal experiences.
No matter how you do it, sharing a bit of yourself is truly cathartic and makes the world better.
We connect through our stories, and genuine connection is great.
I’ve always shared my thoughts and experiences through words. That makes sense because even as a child I was a storyteller. I loved to write and spin fiction even when I was four.
My wife on the other hand always expressed herself through music.
It was her true medium.
She learned at a young age that music spoke to her in ways words never did. She learned through music and discovered that personal stories in music create deep emotional connections with her listeners.
And that got me thinking about how for many people, music is the way they share emotion and pain and excitement.
That being the case, I figured I would share five different ways we can express our stories through music. I’ll also give a few resources that will help you if you want to explore this storytelling journey further.
1. Lyrics & Songwriting: Telling Your Story with Words
To start, let’s focus on the most obvious: Lyrics.
Lyrics are of course the words of a song, but unlike words in a book or article, lyrics allow you to share personal experiences, emotions, and unique perspectives through poetry that is meant to be performed with music. Lyrics use the same storytelling techniques as any novel writer, like metaphor, symbolism, and direct narration.
Let’s look at a few artists who have taken lyrics to the next level along with examples of their work:
Taylor Swift – “You call me up again just to break me like a promise.” (All Too Well) – Comparing emotional betrayal to breaking a promise.
Bob Dylan – “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” (Subterranean Homesick Blues) – A metaphor for understanding change without being told.
Leonard Cohen – “There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.” (Anthem) – A metaphor for imperfection being necessary for growth.
Hozier – “I fall in love just a little, oh, a little bit every day with someone new.” (Someone New) – A metaphor for fleeting attraction and emotional restlessness.
Florence + The Machine – (a personal favorite of mine) “I’m always dragging that horse around.” (Shake It Out) – A metaphor for carrying past regrets.
Eminem – “His soul’s escaping through this hole that is gaping.” (Lose Yourself) – A metaphor for a fleeting opportunity slipping away.
Billie Eilish – “I wanna be alone, alone with you—does that make sense?” (Hostage) – A metaphor for intense, suffocating love.
Paul Simon – “I am a rock, I am an island.” (I Am a Rock) – A metaphor for emotional isolation and self-protection.
Words are incredibly powerful when merged with music. To share your personal experience through music, start with journaling your thoughts and fears and turning them into song lyrics.
2. Melody: Setting the Emotional Tone
Melodies shape the mood of a song.
Since I’m not a musician, this is where I turn to the experts. I may know a good melody when I hear one, but I’m not going to be able to write one. According to the experts, you can create different emotional impacts by using major vs. minor keys and dissonance vs. consonance. A great example of this is playing the wedding march Here Comes the Bride but in a minor key. Suddenly it sounds like you’re at a funeral for the poor groom.
Experiment with different melodies over the same lyrics to see how the mood changes.
3. Instrumentation & Arrangement: Adding Emotional Depth
Instrument choices also influence emotion (e.g., strings for sadness, acoustic guitar for intimacy).
If you’ve ever heard your favorite pop song performed in a simple acoustic setting, you understand how the tone changes, and how your emotion changes right along with it.
Stripped-down acoustic versions completely alter your experience with the song, while full-production performances allow for nuances in how the instruments blend or conflict.
Choose instruments that match the emotions you want to express in your story. Are you happy, sad, angry? Find the instrument that best conveys that and play around with it. From there, you can build until you have a full band or even an entire orchestra to help deliver your musical story.
4. Tempo: Controlling the Energy of the Story
Tempo affects the urgency or calmness of a song. The tempo is the speed. A Latin rumba will be faster than a European waltz. Tempo influences how a listener perceives the mood, intensity, and movement of the music.
A slower tempo, like in a lover’s ballad, often creates a sense of intimacy, melancholy, or deep reflection. On the other hand, high-energy tempos create feelings of joy, urgency, or excitement like you find in pop or rock music. High tempos also help keep listeners engaged. Mid-tempo songs balance the two and can create a contemplative or exploratory emotion.
The great thing is that you don’t have to be locked into one over the other. You can mix tempo and change how the listener feels with each beat. Try slowing down or speeding up your song to see how it affects the emotional urgency.
5. Performance & Vocal Delivery: Bringing the Story to Life
Vocal tone, dynamics, and phrasing can change a song’s emotional impact. Just like in all other forms of storytelling, authenticity is paramount. You need to always prioritize an authentic performance over technical perfection.
Lots of artists pour raw emotion into their singing or instrumental performances. Think about the music of Adele or Johnny Cash who both bare their soul when they sing. It isn’t about how perfectly they hit the notes, but the sheer emotion behind the words. Listen to Jimmy Hendrix play the guitar and tell me you can’t feel the emotion he’s sharing with the audience
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Record yourself singing with different emotions to find the most authentic expression of your story. Let your feelings guide your performance. The reason you’re performing is to help the audience have an emotional experience. By making your own emotions clear in your vocals, you’ll elicit that same emotion in your listeners.
Music is just another form of storytelling. If it speaks to you, then use it to share your story.
If you’d like tips on how to better learn and perform music as a storytelling medium, talk to my friend Braxton at Boothe Music. He can help you learn even more about the potential for musical storytelling and get you the right instruments for your particular story. CLICK HERE to learn more.
I honestly wish I was a musician. Luckily my wife has done a good job of passing along her talents to my kids, but I’m sort of a lost cause at this point.
I can’t tell stories through music, but you just may be able to.
There are few things more powerful than music, and when tied to emotion and story, they become about the most impactful medium on earth.
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