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nick b
October 30th, 2008, 02:16 AM
well, my plan is to try and write a song a day (we'll see how long that lasts!), and rather than just abuse the heck out of this forum, i figured i'd just keep um all in one thread, if thats ok. here's what i've got for today, it was based off the same...imagery? idea? whatever, as the second song (i made a thread for it), but pretty completely different haha:

Let me tell you of a place

A place of tall tents
bursting at their seams
its a place you can't imagine
farther than the wildest dreams

a place where all people
wear masks to hide
their distored faces
ruined by pride

they play their songs
and brush their teeth
most never find
what sleeps underneath

they all laugh
at each others jokes
tightening their grips
on the tautest of ropes

but a few of us made it
away from that circus
we flew to the mountains
but what lay before us

it was windy and cold
the snow made us shiver
but we forced our way
up the swirling river

we've long since thrown
the masks we once wore
our faces held high
though we sit on the floor

yet we still can't forget
that city of trials
a city of people
that paint on their smiles!



thats it. its really awful, but i can't seem to write anything without rhyming. like it just doesnt flow at all if i try not to rhyme haha. but anyways, i'd very much appreciate any help/critiques/feedback on any and all the songs i'll post here, so feel free! i can take it rough!

lufc71
October 30th, 2008, 10:57 PM
..i can't seem to write anything without rhyming...

Pretty good effort. I used to have the same problem with rhyming everything. Let me give you a simple example of how to change it:-

There once was a man named hollicks,
He walked into the sea,
Up to his knees.

Now, thats called 'prose'.
On the other hand, if he had walked into to the sea another few metres, it woulda been poetry :)

Reags
October 31st, 2008, 12:24 AM
haha, nice lufc71.

The problem with your example is that its still poetry. Its the line breaks that make it that way. If you had written it out all in one block of text it would be prose that happened to rhyme.

I personally think perfect rhymes are over rated in lyrics. Its more about the assonance and internal rhymes, if you can manage it.

TbabyTheWizard
February 5th, 2009, 11:35 PM
thats it. its really awful, but i can't seem to write anything without rhyming. like it just doesnt flow at all if i try not to rhyme haha.
Haha, nice imagery. But if you're having problems with rhyme flexibility you could try making a sort of template for your songs. With a template you can better plan your rhymes and make them correspond better with your melody and chord progressions. One for each of verse, prechorus, and chorus, can make your songs feel much more consistant (and in songwriting that's important). Like so:

____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____
-. . . . . . .-. . . . . . .-. . . . . . . -. . . . . . .-# . . . . . .-. . . . . . .
(....) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(....)
____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____
-. . . . . . .-. . . . . . . -. . . . . . .-. . . . *. . -. . . . . . .-. . . . . . .
(....) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(....)
____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____
-. . . . . . .-. . . . . . . -. . . . . . .- . . . . . . .- . . . . . . - # . . . . .
(....) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(....)
____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____
- . . . . . . - . . . . . . - . . . . . . - * . . . . . - . . . . . . - . . . . . . .
(....) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(....)

(The dots don't mean anything, it just wouldn't let me put a bunch of spaces so I put periods instead.)

Each line is a sylable, each dash is a beat (three per measure in this case), the '( )' are where your chords go, and the '*' and '#' represent different rhymes. See how the rhyming words are not always on the same beat? Just figure out where the words for you melody will be in respects to the beats, and fill in the blanks. By writing lyrics this way you can better fit the words that you want to say, into the melody that you want to put them to. I use this method of writing myself and it has really helped me get what I want with more clarity and with more perfect rhymes. Hope this helped. =^)
-Taylor-

TbabyTheWizard
February 5th, 2009, 11:51 PM
If you want a really good book on songwriting you should check out Tunesmith by Jimmy Webb. I've never seen a better book on songwriting, it covers everything from imagery, to rhyme structure, to forming melodies. It's amazing, truely.