How Do I Describe What I Want in a Custom Song?
The brief is the most important part of getting a personalized song you actually love. The good news: writing a great brief is not a writing exercise. It's a remembering exercise. You already know everything you need. Here's how to put it into the form.
Start with the person, not the song
The most common mistake is trying to describe the song you want (genre, tempo, mood). Skip that. Start with the person. The song will follow from who they are.
Write a sentence like a close friend describing them to another close friend: "Sarah is my older sister, she's an ER nurse with two kids and the driest sense of humor in our family." That sentence alone gives a songwriter (or an automated service) more material than three paragraphs of vibe descriptors.
The five specific things to include
Lyrics live on specific details. Generic input produces generic output. Include each of these:
1. Their full name and what you actually call them
If her name is Margaret but you call her Maggie, the song should say Maggie. Names land harder when they're the ones the person actually answers to.
2. Two or three real memories
Not "our wedding day" in the abstract. The specific moment. "The night before our wedding, she made me promise we'd never go to bed angry. We've broken that promise twice in nine years." That kind of detail makes the song unmistakably theirs.
3. A phrase they actually say
Every relationship has them. The thing your mom says when you call her. The line your husband uses when he's teasing you. The two-word saying your best friend has been repeating since college. Drop one in. It will become the line they quote back to you when they hear the song.
4. One small, weird, specific detail
The thing only you would know. He alphabetizes his spices. She cries at insurance commercials. They named their dog after a band you've never heard of. These details are the difference between a song that could be about anyone and a song that is unmistakably about them.
5. The feeling you want them to leave with
One word is enough. Loved. Celebrated. Seen. Missed. Forgiven. Proud. The lyrics will pull the listener toward that feeling.
What to skip
- Adjective stacks. "Beautiful, kind, smart, funny, generous" is the lyrical equivalent of beige. Pick one specific thing instead.
- Their resume. Job titles and accomplishments rarely make good lyrics unless the song is specifically about their career.
- The exact lyrics you want. If you have a phrase you want included, name it. But don't write the whole song. That defeats the point.
- Comparisons to other songs. "Make it sound like Ed Sheeran" tends to produce knockoffs. Describe the feeling instead.
The five-minute brief template
If you want a simple structure, fill in this:
- Who: [Name, your relationship, one sentence about who they are]
- Why: [Occasion or reason for the song]
- Memory 1: [One specific moment, with the year if you know it]
- Memory 2: [A second moment that shows a different side of them]
- Their phrase: [Something they actually say]
- The weird detail: [Something only you would know]
- The feeling: [One word]
An example brief that works
"For my dad, Tom, on his 65th. He worked nights at the post office for thirty years so we could afford college. The memory that always comes back is sitting in his pickup at five in the morning waiting for my school bus, the radio on the news station, him handing me a thermos of coffee even though I was nine. He says 'keep it moving' when anyone's upset. He bought a metal detector last year and uses it on his vacations. I want him to feel proud."
That brief took ninety seconds to write. It contains a name, a relationship, a setting, a specific moment, a phrase, a weird detail, and a feeling. It will produce a song that's unmistakably about Tom.