Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Lyrics 101 - Where to put word?

You've got a great melody, cool chords, cool lyrics ideas to plug into the melody. What next?
WHERE YOU PUT WORDS will change your song's sound and meaning! People hear the emphasis of the keyboardist... so that's where important words fit well. (Notice that the drummer is often on alternate counts - like 2 and 4 in 4/4 time).

3/4 time is easy... start the word on count 1. If it has more than one syllable, put the emphasized syllable on count 1. Example: REFLECTIONS would put RE on count 3 of the previous measure and FLECT on count 1 and IONS on count 2. Little words and syllables are best on count 3.

6/8 is similar except there is a bit less emphasis on count 4 (123456) than on the count 3's (123123). This works well for SHUFFLE patterns to avoid dotted notes. (If you don't understand that, you'll enjoy using 6/8 for irregular shuffle beats.

4/4 time - Impt words still start on 1, and there's a slight emphasis on count 3.
2/4 time - Impt words start on 1, and every other syllable is getting emphasis.
HAVE FUN! More hints at DianaDeeOsborne.com/Resources