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Songwriting

Owned by Nathan Wailes
Last updated: Dec 03, 2019
7 min read

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Summary of Pat Pattison's 'Songwriting: Essential Guide to Rhyming'

Foreword

  • Written by Gary Burr, a very successful songwriter.
  • It took him twenty years of trial-and-error to learn how to write a song he was proud of.
  • This book will help you skip those twenty years of trial-and-error.

Preface

  • This isn't an intro to songwriting.
  • You can go through this entire book in 2-3 sittings.
  • Get The Complete Rhyming Dictionary by Clement Wood.
    • NW: As of 2019.12.03 there is no Kindle edition, but you can find a low-resolution PDF copy online here.

Introduction: Do I have to rhyme?

  • Trying to create a rhyme pushes people to either 1) use unnatural vocabulary/grammar, or 2) use cliche rhymes.
  • As a result, many songwriters go through a phase where they just don't bother trying to make their lines rhyme.
  • But this is a mistake; rhymes are "the ear's road signs" when listening to a song.  Poetry that's meant to be read can get away with not rhyming because the reader can see the line breaks.
    • NW: He doesn't give a great argument IMO, it's just this 'road signs' analogy. It seems ridiculous for him to say spoken poetry always rhymed, given that (for example) Shakespeare used more blank verse than rhyming verse.  I would say: rhyme is naturally aesthetically appealing to people; it tickles their natural pattern-recognition abilities. And by not rhyming you'll lose that aspect of the appeal of music with lyrics. But if you know what you're doing and have some other way of grabbing their interest or don't care about having their interest, then go for it.

1. Rhyme is your friend

  • Rhyme happens at the level of syllables, not at the level of words.
  • A 'perfect rhyme' is when two syllables:
    • begin with different consonant sounds,
    • have the same vowel sounds,
    • and have the same consonant sounds (if any) after their vowel sounds.
  • Rhyme works because the different starting consonant sounds create a tension that is resolved by the matching vowel sounds.
    • NW: I'm very skeptical of this explanation.  I would instead speculate that many times, trailing consonant sounds are more emphasized (sustained longer) than starting consonant sounds, and so if the trailing consonant sounds are different and they're emphasized, it may make the two syllables sound too different to trigger the listener's pattern-recognition.
  • An 'identity' is when two syllables just have the exact same sound; that doesn't result in tension and resolution, and for that reason is not considered rhyme.
    • NW: I wouldn't say "tension and resolution", I would just say that it doesn't tickle people's pattern-recognition in the same way.  It's like the difference between 1) seeing the same person five minutes apart, and 2) seeing one person, and then five minutes later seeing someone who looks and is dressed very similar to that person, but is also clearly a different person.  The first situation is so common as to not warrant special attention, but the second situation is uncommon.
  • Not all syllables can create rhymes on their own; it's the stressed syllables of words that create rhymes.
    • NW: My example: 'her' and 'cupholder' wouldn't be said to rhyme with each other, despite sharing the '-er' sound, because the '-er' in 'cupholder' is unstressed.  Although in rap I do think they could be made to rhyme.
  • Most rhymes are either:
    1. a rhyme on the (stressed) last syllable of a word (a 'masculine' rhyme), or
    2. a rhyme on the (stressed) second-to-last syllable of a word (a 'feminine' rhyme).
      1. In this case, the last syllable is often an unstressed 'identity', e.g. think of rhyming words that share endings like '-ing', '-ed', '-er': 'planter' and 'canter'.
  • The term 'mosaic rhyme' refers to when at least one half of a rhyme pair involves more than one word.
    • For example: 'complicate' rhymes with 'stomp the grate'
  • So if you end a line with a word that has its last syllable stressed more than its second-to-last syllable, your only option is to look for masculine rhymes.
    • NW: If you could tack on another word after it, you could change it to look for feminine rhymes.  For example, "appreciate" has a secondary stress on the last syllable, and so if a line ended with just that word it would require a masculine rhyme, but if you could instead end the line with "appreciate her", you could then rhyme it with a feminine rhyme like "alligator".
      • Basically it seems like he's writing this book for people who will be writing songs rather than rap.
  • Exercise: Buy Wood's rhyming dictionary.
  • Use a rhyming dictionary to look for rhymes.  Looking for rhymes is not the creative part of songwriting, it's the mechanical part.
    • Some artists (mistakenly) think it's cheating/inartistic to use a rhyming dictionary, but then they'll do a mechanical search for rhymes in their heads by thinking of all the one-syllable words that start with a letter of the alphabet and the vowel sound they want to rhyme with: ('all', 'ball', 'call', ...).
    • The 'in-your-head' approach is slower and results in missing certain categories of rhymes:
      • It's hard to think of all the words that begin with more than one consonant ('blue').
      • It's hard to think of all the multisyllable words ('Bonnaroo').
  • The Complete Rhyming Dictionary by Clement Wood is the rhyming dictionary I recommend you use.
    • NW: I suspect Datamuse can be used in the same way Pat uses this dictionary.
  • To use the rhyming dictionary:
    1. first determine whether the word you want to find a rhyme for is masculine or feminine, and go to the corresponding section in Wood's book.
    2. then determine the vowel sound of the syllable you want to find a rhyme for, and go to the corresponding subsection in Wood's book.
    3. then navigate alphabetically to the part of that subsection that corresponds to the consonant-sound following the vowel-sound in the syllable you want to rhyme.
  • Exercise: Use Wood's rhyming dictionary to find rhymes for these ten words: (...).

2. Exchanging business cards

3. Getting references

4. Family friends

5. Friendly relatives

6. Kissin' cousins

7. The fruits of friendship

8. Sonic bonding

9. Craft and rhyme types

Lists of songwriting book recommendations




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