09-01-2014, 10:15 AM
On Lyrics, Part II: Theory
This companion to the Lyrics Primer follows the pattern started there. It talks about the composer, then the beat, then structures. But the structures section here is quite long, and necessarily so, as you'll see.
I. The Lyricist's Job
A. The Work Flow
Let's take the most common scenario. The lyricist is also the composer and singer.
Your workflow should be as follows.
1. Be a lyricist. Come up with a clean, serviceable tune. Keep it simple and uncomplicated. Write lyrics to it. Sing through them a few times. Record a sing-through. Edit the words themselves until they're really good and fit the metrical pattern you've established.
2. Be a composer. Fit the lyrics to a tune. Refine that tune.
3. Rewrite the lyrics to fit the tune. Continue refinement.
B. The Work Product
The ideal lyrical output is a set of words with lush verses, simple thematic choruses, and high-contrast bridges. Note, of course, all three segment-types need not be used.
II. Beat Engineering
All verses should match the beat structure of the first verse. This rule can be excepted for effect.
At first, the fact that lyrical meter is imposed by beats may seem like a free ticket. And it is. Once. After that, whatever structure you've laid down, you're stuck with it.
I know an example would be helpful here, but it would be too word-intensive.
III. The Good Part: Structural Logic.
As an editorial aside, this section is what all the reading was for. This is the part where you can start to separate yourself from untrained hacks
I'm leaving through-composition alone, because it's its own little monster. This section deals with strophic forms (also called verse-repeating).
As one final predicate, note that there are only two kinds of lyrical content. Most lyrics attempt to express a universal truth; a minority are merely atmospheric. "Merely atmospheric" lyrics can be extraordinary. The "merely" refers to their lack of any overt effort to express something falsifiable, and not to their relative value.
A. Mechanics
One of the principle luxuries of lyrics is that the chorus can express meaning overtly. Verse poets do not have a mechanism designed principly for that purpose.
This section details how the song parts work together.
Verses are wheels. They carry the majority of the semantic load. Choruses are destinations. They coalesce the meaning developed in the verse into simple expressive statements. Bridges are . . . bridges
They provide a high-contrast counterpoint to the chorus and verse.
What's important to understand is that each of these three foundational elements interact to create semantic dynamics.
(There is one further set of elements: intro's, segues, outros, etc. They should be flagged with brackets as shown in the appendix, but are beyond the scope of this note.)
B. Dynamic Structures
(For brevity, I'm only walking through one structure. By request, I'll go through any others asked for.)
12-Bar Blues is a very basic structure (Example: Elvis' "Hound Dog"). Counterintuitively, 12-Bar Blues IS NOT a sound that comes from the composer. It is a sound THAT COMES FROM THE LYRICIST. And yet, it's not a tune. Remember: lyrics ARE NOT tunes.
Confused? Cool. Because this is the good part:
12-Bar Blues is a lyrical dynamic that necessitates a certain compositional execution. Said differently, it is the presentation of ideas in a dynamic structure that forces the composer to make certain moves. (Conversely, and I admit this grudgingly, a composer writing 12-bar could force the lyricist to arrange ideas in a certain way.)
Specifically, 12-bar blues is two repeating tension lines followed by a resolving line. If the lyricist writes that structure, then the composer is obliged to follow suit.
Is this line 12-bar?: "I'm asleep on a bed this morning while I should be at work / I'm asleep on a bed this morning while I should be at work / You're awake on a plane and the sky is purple."
No. The third line doesn't resolve anything. Therefore, the composer would need to use chords that don't resolve.
What about this: "I can't sleep in this bed. / I can't sleep in this bed / as long as you're away."? No. The resolution is insufficiently tied to the repeaters.
Lastly, try: "I can't sleep in this bed. / I can't sleep in this bed / as long as you're not sleeping next to me."
Yes.
What about the fact that it doesn't fill out the meter? That would be handled by instrumentals. If the composer wrote in any format besides 12-bar blues, the meaning of the lyrics would be obscured.
C. A Final Note: On Titling
In chorus-type songs, it is common to use the title as the chorus. (Example: Kings of Leon's "[This] Sex [is] on Fire"). This particularized feature opens a window on the lyricist-composer relationship. A knowledgeable composer would know that the following is a 12-Bar Blues song and would instantly know how it should be executed:
----
"As Long As You're Not Sleeping Next To Me"
I can't sleep in this bed [x 2]
----
The composer would understand the song to be
----
"As Long As You're Not Sleeping Next To Me"
[Verse]
I can't sleep in this bed,
I can't sleep in this bed,
[Chorus]
As long as you're not sleeping next to me.
----
If, instead, the lyrics read,
----
"Golda's Lament"
[Verse]
I can't sleep in this bed [x 2]
[Chorus]
as long as you're not sleeping next to me.
----
the composer would rightly ask, "Where's the rest? What style is this?"
If the lyricist's intent were to write a 12-Bar song, a subtitle would be mandatory, as in, "Golda's Lament (As Long As You're Not Sleeping Next To Me)".
IV. If Needed . . .
I will revise the above in response to feedback and will paste an appendix below with lyrics exemplars and discussion.
Feel free to repost, revise and re-use! No need to credit author!
Christopher "crow" Youngblood © 2014
This companion to the Lyrics Primer follows the pattern started there. It talks about the composer, then the beat, then structures. But the structures section here is quite long, and necessarily so, as you'll see.
I. The Lyricist's Job
A. The Work Flow
Let's take the most common scenario. The lyricist is also the composer and singer.
Your workflow should be as follows.
1. Be a lyricist. Come up with a clean, serviceable tune. Keep it simple and uncomplicated. Write lyrics to it. Sing through them a few times. Record a sing-through. Edit the words themselves until they're really good and fit the metrical pattern you've established.
2. Be a composer. Fit the lyrics to a tune. Refine that tune.
3. Rewrite the lyrics to fit the tune. Continue refinement.
B. The Work Product
The ideal lyrical output is a set of words with lush verses, simple thematic choruses, and high-contrast bridges. Note, of course, all three segment-types need not be used.
II. Beat Engineering
All verses should match the beat structure of the first verse. This rule can be excepted for effect.
At first, the fact that lyrical meter is imposed by beats may seem like a free ticket. And it is. Once. After that, whatever structure you've laid down, you're stuck with it.
I know an example would be helpful here, but it would be too word-intensive.
III. The Good Part: Structural Logic.
As an editorial aside, this section is what all the reading was for. This is the part where you can start to separate yourself from untrained hacks
I'm leaving through-composition alone, because it's its own little monster. This section deals with strophic forms (also called verse-repeating).
As one final predicate, note that there are only two kinds of lyrical content. Most lyrics attempt to express a universal truth; a minority are merely atmospheric. "Merely atmospheric" lyrics can be extraordinary. The "merely" refers to their lack of any overt effort to express something falsifiable, and not to their relative value.
A. Mechanics
One of the principle luxuries of lyrics is that the chorus can express meaning overtly. Verse poets do not have a mechanism designed principly for that purpose.
This section details how the song parts work together.
Verses are wheels. They carry the majority of the semantic load. Choruses are destinations. They coalesce the meaning developed in the verse into simple expressive statements. Bridges are . . . bridges
They provide a high-contrast counterpoint to the chorus and verse. What's important to understand is that each of these three foundational elements interact to create semantic dynamics.
(There is one further set of elements: intro's, segues, outros, etc. They should be flagged with brackets as shown in the appendix, but are beyond the scope of this note.)
B. Dynamic Structures
(For brevity, I'm only walking through one structure. By request, I'll go through any others asked for.)
12-Bar Blues is a very basic structure (Example: Elvis' "Hound Dog"). Counterintuitively, 12-Bar Blues IS NOT a sound that comes from the composer. It is a sound THAT COMES FROM THE LYRICIST. And yet, it's not a tune. Remember: lyrics ARE NOT tunes.
Confused? Cool. Because this is the good part:
12-Bar Blues is a lyrical dynamic that necessitates a certain compositional execution. Said differently, it is the presentation of ideas in a dynamic structure that forces the composer to make certain moves. (Conversely, and I admit this grudgingly, a composer writing 12-bar could force the lyricist to arrange ideas in a certain way.)
Specifically, 12-bar blues is two repeating tension lines followed by a resolving line. If the lyricist writes that structure, then the composer is obliged to follow suit.
Is this line 12-bar?: "I'm asleep on a bed this morning while I should be at work / I'm asleep on a bed this morning while I should be at work / You're awake on a plane and the sky is purple."
No. The third line doesn't resolve anything. Therefore, the composer would need to use chords that don't resolve.
What about this: "I can't sleep in this bed. / I can't sleep in this bed / as long as you're away."? No. The resolution is insufficiently tied to the repeaters.
Lastly, try: "I can't sleep in this bed. / I can't sleep in this bed / as long as you're not sleeping next to me."
Yes.
What about the fact that it doesn't fill out the meter? That would be handled by instrumentals. If the composer wrote in any format besides 12-bar blues, the meaning of the lyrics would be obscured.
C. A Final Note: On Titling
In chorus-type songs, it is common to use the title as the chorus. (Example: Kings of Leon's "[This] Sex [is] on Fire"). This particularized feature opens a window on the lyricist-composer relationship. A knowledgeable composer would know that the following is a 12-Bar Blues song and would instantly know how it should be executed:
----
"As Long As You're Not Sleeping Next To Me"
I can't sleep in this bed [x 2]
----
The composer would understand the song to be
----
"As Long As You're Not Sleeping Next To Me"
[Verse]
I can't sleep in this bed,
I can't sleep in this bed,
[Chorus]
As long as you're not sleeping next to me.
----
If, instead, the lyrics read,
----
"Golda's Lament"
[Verse]
I can't sleep in this bed [x 2]
[Chorus]
as long as you're not sleeping next to me.
----
the composer would rightly ask, "Where's the rest? What style is this?"
If the lyricist's intent were to write a 12-Bar song, a subtitle would be mandatory, as in, "Golda's Lament (As Long As You're Not Sleeping Next To Me)".
IV. If Needed . . .
I will revise the above in response to feedback and will paste an appendix below with lyrics exemplars and discussion.
Feel free to repost, revise and re-use! No need to credit author!
Christopher "crow" Youngblood © 2014
A yak is normal.