Many songwriters develop ideas in parallel structures without even being fully conscious that they’re doing so. It’s a reaction to one of the most challenging and persistent puzzles of songwriting: how do we write many different lyric lines that fit the same melody? Borrowing part of a previous phrase is an easy, reflexive way of finding a nice fit for a new phrase. And it’s often artistically effective—even Woody Guthrie did it, as emphasized below:
I’ve been hittin’ some hard harvestin’, I thought you knowed
North Dakota to Kansas City, way down the road
Cuttin’ that wheat, stackin’ that hay, and I’m tryin’ make about a dollar a day
And I’ve been havin’ some hard travelin’, lord
Has a nice momentum, doesn’t it? Lots of action-packed verbs.
I put on my best pair of thinking socks this evening (don’t ask), dug out some literary theory books, and thought up six different interesting ways to structure lyric phrases. Many use parallel construction, but they use it to achieve different effects. Try them out!
Phrase Scheme #1: Repeat an idea from another angle.
Different angles can really help you turn a phrase:
This game is over.
I’m over this game.
Phrase Scheme #2: Express ideas in opposition that create suspense, tension, or intrigue.
This structure’s great for creating attention-grabbing openers and section beginnings.
I love him, and so I must leave him…
Suggestive line, no? It practically rolls over and begs for further development.
Phrase Scheme #3: Build up a series of ideas or images, ending in climax.
This works particularly well at the end of a section, where it helps form anticipation for whatever’s next. This is a great structure for pre-choruses and bridges!
On our heads it rained tacks;
Rained nails,
Rained hammers
and drove the cold down into our bones.
Phrase Scheme #4: Build up a series, ending with an anticlimax
Perfect for communicating disappointment, sadness, and tragedy. This has a dramatic (sometimes almost comical) effect.
She gushed about dinner,
danced ’til midnight,
laughed at my jokes
and talked ’til four…then dodged my kiss,
said “goodnight,” shut the door.
Phrase Scheme #5. Create Cross-Parallels.
Build up two different threads in alternation that follow one another, step for step:
She ached to stretch her wings
While I struggled to hold on.
When her heart tore free
She finally soared—
And my heart broke
like a padlock breaks.
Note that above, there are two different struggles happening, and each receives equal treatment: first one line apiece, and then each gets two lines, and there are two outcomes: “her” story is happy; the narrator’s is not.
Phrase Scheme #6: Mosaic.
Try constructing lines that do not necessarily build on one another, but instead carry equal weight. Together, piece by piece, they reveal a scene or idea.
I hope you won’t get the feeling that we’re on a pretentious first date together here if I quote some poetry to illustrate this one:
I sought my death, and found it in my womb,
I looked for life and saw it was a shade,
I trod the earth and knew it was my tomb,
And now I die, and now I was but made;
My glass is full, and now my glass is run,
And now I live, and now my life is done.
The above is the last stanza of a poem called “Elegy: On the Evening of his Execution”, written by Chidiock Tichborne. I like its sad monotony—each line seems to erase the last one without really building on anything, darkening the whole piece with a sense of futility.
Conclusion
I hope this post inspires you to take my geeky love of all things technical and use it to write something cool. Thanks for reading!
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Nicholas Tozier is an independent singer, songwriter, private music instructor, blogger, teacher at Ampersand Academy of Dance & the Performing arts centered in Gardiner, Maine. His first album, A Game with Shifting Mirrors, is slated for self-release in Fall 2010.