Friday, October 26, 2012

Stammering Lyrics in Songwriting

"THEY SAY (whoeverest "they" may be)  that the  longer you know someone, the  easier it is for you to know where their sentence is going and you impatiently wait for them to finish speaking -- or you just jump in  and finish their sentence so you can quickly move to the next point.  (And yup,  I know the grammar is wrong 3x,  but do you really want a "his or her" and "him or her"  instead?  Ya know where I'm going faster!   Point  illustrated!
        The same impatience happens when people listen to your song   if you're not careful:  And if you're brave enough to laugh at yourself,  it really is  FUN  to look for old awkwardnesses in earlier songs!  But here are some hints to raise your awareness if you haven't already noticed in other people's songs:

EXAMPLES:
1.    Let's say you have a long common word like "Yesterday" in your lyrics.  People will know what your word will be by the time they hear syllable "ter".... After all, how many English words start even with "Yes"?
        So if it's a slow song,  they're aching to get past that 3rd count so they can hear the REST of what you're saying in your song that interests them.
2.    Or perhaps one line for your lyrics is "I hope you will come"  (which is already rather blah.  Anyway...)  The listener in English has probably caught your song pattern by now and knows the next line will rhyme with "come"So the moment you sing the sound "Inv",   the listener is waiting for you to finish the word Invitation.

ONE  EASY  FIX:
Simply avoid a full count per syllable.
Put one of the syllables on the "and" of the measure's count.  Which one?
(1) Just listen and follow what sounds best to YOU, the artist.
(2) Follow the natural accents of the word.
          IN__  vi__  TA-tion   _ _  is 1_2_3 + 4_.
(3) When the natural accents don't change, such as ENDLESSLY,
      match the meaning of the word:   END sounds long-- full count.
(4) IMPORTANT:  SING your song aloud.  One of my earlier blogs speaks from experience of the danger -- and humor!-- of getting to your recording studio without practicing the song at tempo!
        Give full counts to the syllables where you need to get a complete consonant sound at the end of the syllable -- like getting that  at the end of END  is more important than the S on -LESS.

UNIQUITIES**:
        But of course, this hint does not apply to ALL many-syllabled words.  For example, in my rather slow song "Building Cathedrals"  I kept a full count per syllable on the key title word because a cathedral is a stately building that just "seems" to deserve slow, deliberate notes per syllable.
        Hey, that's why you and I call our songs "art" -- We
use the instincts that make our music unique from other songs and other lyrics in this vast world of sound!
May you have much joy developing your own splashes and wave-pounding sounds!
     **  By the way, there's no law against having fun using odd words either... your own uniquities in lyrics design.  As long as the listener knows what you mean!
©2012 DianaDee Osborne;  all rights reserved