Connecting the Pulse of a Lyric to the Shape of a Melody

Try this little experiment for getting your lyric and melody to work well together.
___________

It’s an interesting exercise to read a well-known lyric without trying to think of the melody it belongs to. Try it — you’ll likely find yourself putting the same pauses and pulses of the melody into what you’re reading. It reminds us of just how important it is to think about the natural pulse of your song’s text. As much as possible, you want the stresses and pulses of your words to happen naturally. For example, stressed syllables will (most of the time) get longer time values.

But pulsing of words also relates to the actual notes of a melody, and you can make your melodies better and more effective if you always think about which syllable gets the stress.

_____________

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-Ebook Bundle. 11 Songwriting Principles That Will Turn Your Writing Around – Guaranteed.
_____________

As a good example, think about the expert way that the words of Paul McCartney’s “Yesterday” are so perfectly aligned to the melody. Even just the word “yesterday” — how it’s so easy to elongate that last syllable ever so slightly — is all accounted for in the shape of the melody and the rhythmic pattern.

When you create a song lyric, you want to be sure that you’ve experimented a bit with the various ways each line can be brought together with a melody. Try the following:

1. Think about the line, “Running all my dreams together”. Say it to yourself many times, in as many different ways as possible.
2. As you change the way you say the line, with stresses put on different words and/or syllables, think about how the meaning of the line changes.
3. Say the line out loud, and raise your voice to a high pitch in different spots. For example, say “Running” in a high-pitched voice, allowing your voice to fall as it proceeds. (Don’t worry about “real” pitches here — think of this as a kind of gestural exercise.)
4. Now take a bit of lyric that you’re currently working on in one of your own songs, and do the same exercise. Note how the meaning of your lyric changes as the high note moves.

When you do that exercise, be certain that you don’t put an unstressed syllable as a high note. That creates an odd sound, and can make a word hard for listeners to understand.

As you do that with each line of your lyric, you’ll begin to realize how powerful a tool this kind of lyrical exercise can be for extracting meaning, and enhancing subtext. It makes your lyrics stronger, and can create much stronger imagery.

There’s an added bonus: Audiences find that the melodies that have lyrics with a natural feel to the pulse are easier to remember, and that’s alway a good thing!

_________________