A lyric workshop in your pocket

Your songs matter.
Prove it.

Six legendary songwriting personas grade your lyrics, line by line, with notes that read like a Pulitzer professor wrote them.

It will not write for you. It will tell you exactly where your song falls apart — and push you to fix it yourself.

6Critics
60Lessons
365Daily prompts
0Words written for you
The Room — six critics
Elias
Elias
Professor of Lyric Craft
A lyric that tries to say everything says nothing. I will tell you exactly where yours goes wrong.
Jules
Jules
Chaser of Feeling
I don’t care if it’s perfect. I care if it makes me feel something I couldn’t name before I heard it.
Marcus
Marcus
Lyric Architect
You’re using twelve words to say what three could carry. Tighten it or it falls apart on the beat.
Jolene
Jolene
The Americana
If I can’t see the place, you haven’t written it yet. A great lyric makes me smell the dirt road.
Arlo
Arlo
Folk Troubadour
The best lyrics aren’t clever. They’re inevitable. Like the words were always there, waiting.
Maren
Maren
The Hit Maker
I don’t care how deep it is if nobody can sing it in the shower. Give me a hook that sticks.
01
Write your lyrics

Paste or type your lyrics into the notepad. Don't clean them up first. Elias reads rough drafts. That's the point.

02
Choose your critic

Elias grades on craft and precision. Jules on feeling and truth. Marcus on density and rhythm. Each one sees something different.

03
Get the score

A grade from 1–10. A marginal note on your weakest line. One question that pushes your next draft. Then you write again.

Example grade

Elias doesn't soften it.

Every grade comes with a specific marginal note — not general feedback, but one line from your song, annotated exactly as a professor would. Ruthless and useful.

“The sting of a 4/10 from Elias changed my whole approach to the bridge. He was right and I knew it.”— Early access user
Songmattersongmatter.com
6
/10
Getting Somewhere
Elias · Draft 2 · Songwriter Standard
This has the bones of something real. The wildflower metaphor earns its keep in the verses but the chorus abandons it entirely. You're reaching for a mantra and landing on a platitude.
Marginal note
‘Find your place and be happy’ — you told me. You didn't show me. This is the weakest line in the song and it lives in the chorus. That's a problem.
songmatter.com · @songmatterapp
From the early room
“I've been writing songs for fifteen years. Elias caught a problem in my second verse that no co-writer ever flagged.”
— Tess K. · Working songwriter, Nashville
“Maren tells me whether the chorus is a hook or a sentence. That's the note I needed and never got.”
— Rio M. · Indie pop artist
“It refuses to write for me. That's why it works. I leave a session knowing exactly what to fix tomorrow.”
— Theo H. · Folk songwriter, Brooklyn
The Daily Practice

Two minutes a day.
Twelve months from now,
you’ll write differently.

Object writing — the practice Pat Pattison taught a generation of songwriters at Berklee. A single prompt. Two minutes on the clock. You write freely. Your coach reads what you wrote and tells you where the image came alive and where it stayed safe.

It is not a brainstorm. It is not a journal. It is a workout for the part of you that finds the line nobody else would write.

1. Specificity
Train the eye to see the rusted mailbox, not just "home."
2. Image bank
Build the vocabulary you'll pull from at 2am with a melody in your head.
3. The unconscious
Find the line that surprises you — that's the one worth keeping.
Today’s prompt is waiting →
Today’s PromptDay 12 · Object
A rusted mailbox at the end of a dirt road
You wrote
The flag bent down like an old man’s thumb. Inside, a card from someone who didn’t live there anymore. The dog smelled it before I did…
Jolene says
“The flag like an old man’s thumb” — that’s a real image. The dog smelling it first is the kind of detail that makes a song believable. Lean further into who didn’t live there anymore.
12day streak
Six courses. Six masters.

Take a course taught by the same critic who’ll grade your work.

Sixty lessons, written by personas who carry the weight of the craft. Each lesson ends with a workshop submission graded by your instructor — not a pass/fail, but a real critique with a score.

First lesson of every course is free.

Lesson 1 free
Elias
Elias
Professor of Lyric Craft
The Craft of the Lyric
“Precision is not the enemy of feeling.”
Sample lessons
  1. 01The Weight of a Word
  2. 02Sonic Architecture
  3. 03Show, Don’t Teach
  4. +seven more
10 lessons · Workshop gradedSession+
Lesson 1 free
Jules
Jules
Chaser of Feeling
Feeling First
“Write what you can’t explain. That’s the whole point.”
Sample lessons
  1. 01Before the Words
  2. 02The Body Knows
  3. 03Fragments Are Enough
  4. +seven more
10 lessons · Workshop gradedSession+
Lesson 1 free
Marcus
Marcus
Lyric Architect
Density & Flow
“Every syllable earns its place or it gets cut.”
Sample lessons
  1. 01Weight Per Syllable
  2. 02Rhythm as Meaning
  3. 03The Internal Rhyme
  4. +seven more
10 lessons · Workshop gradedSession+
Lesson 1 free
Jolene
Jolene
The Americana
Front Porch Songwriting
“If I can’t see the place, you haven’t written it yet.”
Sample lessons
  1. 01Sense of Place
  2. 02Story Songs
  3. 03Conversational Truth
  4. +seven more
10 lessons · Workshop gradedWriters Room+
Lesson 1 free
Arlo
Arlo
The Sage
Folk Truth
“The best lyrics aren’t clever. They’re inevitable.”
Sample lessons
  1. 01Common Words
  2. 02The Quiet Devastation
  3. 03Timelessness
  4. +seven more
10 lessons · Workshop gradedWriters Room+
Lesson 1 free
Maren
Maren
The Hit Maker
Hook Craft
“If nobody’s singing it in the shower, it doesn’t exist.”
Sample lessons
  1. 01The Anatomy of a Hook
  2. 02Melody-Ready Lyrics
  3. 03The Replay Test
  4. +seven more
10 lessons · Workshop gradedWriters Room+
Take the first lesson, free →
The Notebook
Before the room knows your name.
Free
Start Free →
The Session
For the writer who shows up to the page.
$19/mo · $149/yr
Take The Session →
Writers Room
For the writer with a body of work.
$49/mo · $399/yr
Enter the Room →
Meet your critics

Six voices. Zero mercy.

Every critic hears something different. Together, they see your song from every angle.

Elias
Elias
The Professor
Lyric Craft · Literary Rigor
A lyric that tries to say everything says nothing.
Jules
Jules
The Dreamer
Feeling First · Emotional Truth
I care if it makes me feel something I couldn’t name before.
Marcus
Marcus
The Architect
Hip Hop Lineage · Density & Rhythm
You’re using twelve words to say what three could carry.
Writers Room
Jolene
Jolene
The Americana
Nashville Rooms · Front Porch Truth
If I can’t see the place, you haven’t written it yet.
Writers Room
Arlo
Arlo
The Sage
Folk Troubadour · Campfire Philosopher
The best lyrics aren’t clever. They’re inevitable.
Writers Room
Maren
Maren
The Hit Maker
Pop Instinct · Hook Surgeon
I don’t care how deep it is if nobody can sing it in the shower.
The room is open

Bring a verse.
Leave with a song.

Free to start. Three grades a day with Elias, Jules, or Marcus. No credit card. No pretending it’s for you and not for us.

Grade my first song →
Takes about thirty seconds.
A note from A. Clifford
“I built this because nothing like it existed. Every AI writing tool wants to write for you. I don't want that. I want something that makes you better — that tells you the truth about your work the way a great collaborator does. Not a ghostwriter. A mirror. Songmatter is that mirror.”
— A. Clifford · Creator of Songmatter