Songwriting Without Boundaries (42 page)

I was really curious to see how this could turn around and was startled to see a whole town invite
library book
’s family right into the middle of the square with
borrow, bound, smell of leather, yellowed and peeling,
and
tired eyes droop.
Clare makes me want to become an avid reader of exotic places.

SARAH MOUNT

Linking quality:
Calming

Vacation → Linking quality:
Calming
→ Target idea:
Being held by a lover

Being held by a lover is a vacation.

Being held in the warm tide of my lover’s arms, standing firm as my feet sink slowly into the disappearing ground. I close my eyes as his cheeks kiss me—a cool wind, silencing the background. He speaks sunshine words into my neck, his blue-sky eyes keeping me right here, now, this is the only important thing. The heavy beating of my heart muffled by his whisper “breathe with me”. Our chests rising …

A wonderful intermingling of relatives here. Underline all of Sarah’s
vacation
words and note how friendly they are to her lover. A match made under blue-sky eyes.

A vacation as being held by a lover

The weight of the week finally comes to a close. I see the clouds separate and rays of sunlight enclose me like a lover’s arms. I sip my drink cool as a sweet French kiss, letting my feet be swallowed by soft sand. Closing my eyes to the whisper of waves, a warm breath of wind sends shudders up my spine. I retreat into the sea, stepping all the way in, the salt kissing every inch of my skin—foamy fingerprints I’ll wear like a medal. The water over my head, I breathe with the tide, no footprints to leave behind.

The simile “rays of sunlight enclose me like a lover’s arms” comes racing in to set up the turnaround, followed by the
as
form of the simile, “my drink cool as a sweet French kiss.” Yum.

I love “foamy fingerprints I’ll wear like a medal.” Nicely done.

Your turn. Again, find your two linking qualities and do your usual ten minutes for each one, exploring your target idea through the lens of
vacation.
Then spend another ten minutes reversing directions, looking at
vacation
through the lens of your target idea.

Vacation → Linking quality 1: ________________

Vacation → Linking quality 2: ________________

Using these qualities as linking qualities, supply the target idea for each of them.

Vacation → Linking quality 1: ________ → Target idea 1: _______

Vacation → Linking quality 2: ________ → Target idea 2: _______

Yippie! That’s it!

Now take a little time off and let your bloodstream absorb this process of looking at ideas. But do come back soon. A final challenge awaits (or looms), and it’ll (fill in a metaphor here) you in unexpected ways.

CHALLENGE #4

WRITING IN RHYTHM & RHYME

True Ease in Writing comes from Art, not Chance,

As those move easiest who have learn’d to dance.

—ALEXANDER POPE, “AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM”

I got the idea for this challenge from Gillian Welch, who several years ago participated in an object-writing group with me and four others. We worked online every Tuesday for several months and then, because we were having such a great time, we decided to add a second night. So every Tuesday and Thursday, I dutifully sent out the “object for the day,” and, using “reply all,” we each sent our efforts to the others. I highly recommend group writing like this, if you can find several good writers to join in.

Gillian’s partner David Rawlings had suggested to her that there be a tighter link between object writing and actual lyric writing, and Gillian responded by suggesting to the group that we try writing in
tetrameter
(four stressed syllables per line)
couplets
(rhyming in groups of two) every other Thursday. “I’ve been doing it recently,” she said. “You don’t get as much written, but it’s pretty interesting, and I’ve been able to export some of it directly into my songs.”

We tried it, and both the results and the changes in approach were fascinating.

In the following challenge, you’ll work for several days in tetrameter couplets, in both triple and duple meter. Then you’ll switch to common meter, after which you’ll work in two larger forms, employing some pentameter lines. It’ll take a little preparation, though. You’ll have to spend some time looking at rhythm and rhyme.

First, let’s talk about rhythm.

RHYTHM: STRESSED SYLLABLES

You create rhythm in language by arranging stressed and unstressed syllables into patterns.

Right. I guess if you’re going to arrange stressed and unstressed syllables into patterns, it would be very helpful to be able to tell stressed and unstressed syllables apart. So start with that.

When you hear someone speaking a language that you don’t understand, they seem to talk very fast. All you hear is an uninterrupted stream of syllables, and you have no way to distinguish where words start or end. As far as you can hear, each syllable might be a separate word, or maybe there are words made up of several syllables. If you don’t know the language, you won’t be able to tell.

The purpose of language is to communicate ideas as efficiently as possible. To that end, people talk pretty fast, or at least, they don’t pause between the words in our sentences. They speak
legato
—smoothly without stopping. That’s why words come in a steady stream and seem to go by so fast when you don’t understand them. Languages all have strategies to allow speakers to be efficient (speak legato) and yet know which syllables can stand alone and which ones clump together to form a single word. In English, you use pitches to create melodic shapes. Pitches give English speakers a second way (besides sound) to identify multisyllabic words. For example, the word
release
has two syllables. When you learn the word, you learn not only the sounds of the syllables, but also a little melody and rhythm. In effect, you learn to sing it. Like this:

re
lease
da DUM

The second syllable is higher in pitch. Say it several times, then slow it down and listen to the pitches. You should hear a melodic leap of a fourth on “lease”—(do fa). That way you can say something like “The release mechanism is opposite the receiver” without pausing, and everyone will understand “release” to be two syllables joined together to denote one idea. And it doesn’t even sound like you’re talking fast, since the melodies identify the multisyllabic words. You only “hear” four ideas: release, mechanism, opposite, receiver.

Learn to hear the shape of the language—to pay attention to pitches as well as sounds. That way, when a word has several syllables, its pitches help identify it as one word even though it is embedded in a steady stream of syllables.

Every word with two or more syllables has a melodic shape: One or more syllables have higher pitches than the others. They are called
stressed syllables
. Stressed syllables are usually a major fourth (fa) above the “tonic” (do) established by the unstressed syllables.

Look at these:

unkind butcher unconscious opposite consequences interrupted

Say each one a few times normally, then pay attention to the pitches.

un
kínd
(do fa)
butch
er (fa do)

Un
cón
scious (do fa do) has three syllables; only one of them stressed.

Óp
po
síte
also has three syllables, but two are stressed, the first being stronger than the last. It is called the
primary stress
. When there are two or more stressed syllables in a word, one is highest in pitch and is usually a step above the
secondary stress
—(sol do fa). In this case, the primary stress is the first syllable of
opposite
. Multisyllabic words with more than one stressed syllable will contain a secondary stress.

Cón
se
quén
ces has four syllables, two of them stressed. The primary stress is on “con,” which has the highest pitch (sol) when we say the word. The
secondary stress
“quence” is also stressed (fa), just not as much. You should hear (sol do fa do).

Ín
ter
rúp
ted has four syllables, two of them stressed. Which one is the primary stress? Yup, the third syllable (fa do sol do).

To determine stressed syllables in a multisyllabic word, just listen to the pitches. They’ll let you know every time. Multisyllabic words are pretty easy; you can be sure of this because people agree on them. At least their primary stress is listed in our book of agreements—the dictionary.

But how about one-syllable words, the staple of English and especially of lyrics? Don’t bother looking in the dictionary; it doesn’t mark stresses on one-syllable words.

One-syllable words are stressed when they have an important job to do, like delivering a message. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs all get sweaty because they work hard, like these:

track list risk luck slick hard stem strip

Because their function is to carry meaning (a cognitive function), they will
always
be stressed. Humans learn as children to raise the pitch of their voices when pronouncing these words to show that they are important. These raised pitches act as spotlights that shine on these words and draw attention to them. Again, they will usually be raised somewhere between a third and fifth above the tonic (do) set by the unstressed syllable.

Other one-syllable words have a different function—a grammatical function. Think of them as sign carriers. Their job is to show how the important words relate to each other. They also set the tonic (do) that allows the raised pitches to shine. Look at:

The
days
of
wine
and
ro
ses

It is easy to pick out the stressed syllables, but look at the others:

• The
is an article. Its job is to tell us there is a noun coming.

• Of
is a preposition showing that the days contain the wine and roses.

• And
is a conjunction showing us that wine belongs with roses; they are in the same boat. They are both possessed by the days.

These sign carriers are humble. They stay out of the limelight, content with their lower pitches, and help organize things by establishing the fundamental tone. Without them, sentences would be in chaos. Here is a list of some of these workers. In most cases, they will be unstressed.

prepositions (e.g., of, to, after, over)

articles (e.g., a, the)

conjunctions (e.g., and, or, but)

auxiliary verbs indicating tense (e.g., have run, had run)

auxiliary verbs indicating mood (e.g., might run, may run)

personal pronouns (e.g., I, him, their)

relative pronouns (e.g., which, who, when)

Of course, any of these can be stressed when a contrast is involved.

I asked you to throw the ball
tó
me, not
át
me.

I asked you to throw the ball to
mé
, not to
hér
.

I asked
yóu
to throw the ball, not
hím
.

You’ll be able to tell. Just use your ears and your common sense.

Compound Words

There are some two-syllable words that contain both a primary and secondary stress. These are unusual, but easily recognized, since they are usually made up of two separate words that would be stressed if they appeared alone, called
compound words.
Like these:

hotdog sunlight nighttime newsstand pigtail sandstorm

In English, the primary stress in compound words is almost always on the first syllable.

Secondary Stress in Grammatical Functions

Articles, prepositions, and conjunctions, because their job is to show relationships between meaning functions, are usually unstressed. They have a grammatical (or secondary) function. Yet many prepositions have two or more syllables and thus contain, within themselves, more and less stressed syllables. For example,
óver
has a stronger first syllable, while the second syllable is stronger in
befóre
. Generally these stronger syllables rise a major third (mi) above the tonic set by the unstressed syllable.