“Rhyme is an important structural and sonic element of great lyrics. When used well, rhyme helps us to control the pace of the lyric, where the listener feels conclusion of our thoughts, and distinguishes song sections from each other through contrasting schemes.” -Andrea Stolpe, “Rhyme More Naturally”
A paradox of songwriting: we rhyme intentionally, but strive to make the rhymes sound incidental. The concepts must fit together as well as the sounds.
Andrea Stolpe offers a technique for consistently finding natural, relevant rhymes–within a few minutes. To paraphrase:
1. Freewrite. Try ten minutes writing about anything you like. Don’t stop moving that pen, and pay attention to all your senses. Describe sensations, sounds, sights, smells, and tastes. It only takes ten minutes, and might earn you a new song-in-progress. Go.
2. Review. Look over what you’ve written and make several short lists of words that share vowel sounds–words that might pair well together. Try not to miss any! See Stolpe’s article, below, for an example.
Rhyme More Naturally
by Andrea Stolpe on Berkleemusic
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You’ve excerpted some good advice, though it looks like the link is messed up. All it loads is “Bad Request – Invalid URL.”
Thanks, Andrew!
Fixed the link.
Good seeing you at Open Mic. Cheers!