RSL – Music Practitioners- Song Writing.
Name:______
Songwriting Ideas Worksheet: Lyrics - Make it Rhyme!
Prior to writing your lyrics- please watch the following youtube clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXv4KVduKjw “swift guitar lessons” 1. Once you have decided on a theme for your song, write it in the first line of the table* 2. Now go back to the section in the video that mentions your chosen theme. The youtuber mentions several songs from each theme- choose one- find it on youtube- to review (analyse) but this time you will only need to review a few points- Complete the points 2-5 in the table. These relate to the song that you are analysing- point 2. 3. Now complete the rest of the table (points 6-9) and the remaining tasks
1.What’s your choice of theme?*
2.What song from the list that the youtuber gives will you listen to analyse?
Title of and weblink to Track and composer/artist:
3.What is the structure of the song you have chosen? 4.What is the time signature of the song?(remember how we did this in class, feel the pulse, count 1,2,3,4 or 1,2,3- which fits?) 5.What is the rhyming scheme of the song you are reviewing? 6.What’s the outline of the story that you might use as stimulus for your lyrics (words)?
7.What words spring to mind that might help you with your lyrics- eg if my theme was “sadness” words might be, tears, cry, sleep, lonely, blue, dark, quiet….
8. What rhyming scheme will you use? (eg- AAAA, ABAB ABBA)theme will you analyse? (Give Title/composer- Artist) 9.What is your “hook” for your song that the youtuber mentions- you’ll need this for the chorus
Structure How the music/song is put together Song Verse and chorus form structure Introduction Opening bars of a piece of music/song- before the (intro) main melody/singer enters Verse Different words/lyrics, same melody- tells the story Pre chorus A link between the verse/chorus Chorus Part of the song that is repeated after a verse (same lyrics each time) Bridge A short section that contrasts the verse and chorus to break up the repetition Middle A section in a pop song that features an instrumental 8/Instrumental solo often replacing a sung verse (but based of the chords that would be used) Outro/coda Closing section of a song/piece of music Fade out The outro repeats and gets quieter as it does so Loop/ostinato Repeated pattern of notes, either a rhythm or rhythm and pitch combined Through When a piece of music is relatively continuous, non- composed sectional, or non-repetitive music. A song is said to be through-composed if it has different music for each stanza of the lyrics.
Time Number of beats per bar signature 4/4 4 crotchet beats in a bar (simple time) 3/4 3 crotchet beats in a bar (simple time) 6/8 2 doted crotchets in a bar- (compound time) 9/8 3 dotted crotchets in a bar- (compound time)
As mentioned above, the words of a song are called ‘lyrics’. Using the words that you wrote above that came to your mind when thinking about your them- try and now rhyme them in pairs. Here are some ideas to help you start writing your own song lyrics for the VERSE:
You could also look at https://www.rhymer.com/ which gives some help with finding rhyming words
Task 1: Rhyming Pairs
Here are some examples – tears- fears; cry- why; blue - clue.)
1. ______
2. ______
3. ______
4. ______
Task 2: Lyrics Now put each word at the end of a short sentence. Remember, if you are writing it in AAAA rhyme, every line will end in the same rhyming sound, if it’s ABAB- alternate lines will rhyme and so on. Write the sentences below.
EXAMPLE: “I feel sad at the end of the DAY” and “I have no place where I can STAY”.
VERSE 1 Lyrics:
1. ______
2. ______
3. ______
4. ______
Task 3 : Repeat points 7-9 from the table above, but this time for the chorus. Then choose more rhyming pairs and write a CHORUS:
Rhyming Pairs:
1. ______
2. ______
3. ______
4. ______
CHORUS Lyrics:
1. ______
2. ______
3. ______
4. ______
Extension:
1. Complete the song creating at least 2 more verses- 2. Create pre-chorus lyrics- these will probably be 2 lines long