Lecture notes for week 5 on rhyme

1. HOW CAN I USE RHYME
AND STILL SAY WHAT I
MEAN?
Week 5a

2. LEARNING OUTCOMES
➤ At the end of today’s session, students will be able to:
➤ Understand the purpose of rhyme in songwriting
➤ Construct 3 different types of family rhymes
➤ Analyse the rhyme schemes in popular songs and apply
them to their own songwriting.

3. WHY DO WE USE RHYME:
Rhyme - Why?

4. WHY WE USE RHYME:
➤ Memory aid
➤ If you use a rhyme within your hook line, or make your hook
the second line in a pair of rhyming lines, you increase the
chance that listeners will remember it.
➤ Sense of completion and release
➤ A rhyme consists of two lines - the setup line and the
completion line.
➤ Try fulfil the listeners expectation, but with a twist
➤ Add emphasis

5. WHEN WE DON'T USE RHYME:
Rhyme - Why not?

6. REASONS NOT TO USE RHYME
➤ Stops you saying what you need to say
➤ Sounds boring and/or cheesy
➤ Doesn’t feel authentic

7. HOW CAN I RHYME WITHOUT SOUNDING CHEESY?
➤ What are the most cheesy rhymes?
➤ Why?
➤ How do we avoid them?

8. RHYME TYPES:
➤ Perfect
➤ Family
➤ Additive
➤ Subtractive
➤ Assonance

9. PERFECT RHYME
➤ The syllables’ vowel sounds are the same
➤ The consonant sounds after the vowel sounds (if any) are the
same
➤ The sounds before the vowel are different
A lovely day to have some fun
Hit the beach, get some sun

10. FAMILY RHYME
➤ The syllables’ vowel sounds are the same
➤ The consonant sounds after the vowel sounds belong to the
same phonetic families
➤ The sounds before the vowel are different
A lovely day to have some fun
Hit the beach, bring the rum

12. ADDITIVE RHYME
➤ The syllables’ vowel sounds are the same
➤ One of the syllables add extra consonants after the vowel.
➤ The sounds before the vowel are different
A lovely day to have some fun
Hit the beach, get some lunch

13. SUBTRACTIVE RHYME
➤ The syllables’ vowel sounds are the same
➤ One of the syllables adds an extra consonants after the vowel.
➤ The sounds before the vowel are different
Hit the beach and get some lunch
A lovely day, have some fun

14. ASSONANCE RHYME
➤ The syllables’ vowel sounds are the same
➤ The consonant sounds after the vowels are unrelated
➤ The sounds before the vowel are different
A lovely day to have some fun
Hit the beach, fall in love

16. ➤ Expanding your rhyming possibilities accomplishes three
things:
➤ It increases the possibility of saying what you mean (and
still rhyming) greatly
➤ It guarantees the rhyme will not be predictable or cliche
➤ It allows you control how stable or unstable the rhyme
feels, allowing you to support or create emotion through
rhyme

17. WHERE TO PLACE THE RHYMES?
➤ Like form and phrasing, we can map out the rhymes of a song
using letters; this might help give us an indication of tension/
release/build-up
➤ Some different examples…What are the effects of the different
types of rhyme?
➤ Don McGlashan: “Anchor Me” (verse vs. chorus vs. bridge) -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPIhhqM4b4s
➤ Billy Joel: “Piano Man” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=VaUyJyPekJE, or “The Entertainer” - https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_VHFyaSXQw
➤ Eminem, “Lose Yourself” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=_Yhyp-_hX2s

18. TOOLS FOR RHYMING
➤ Rhyming dictionary
➤ Rhymes are listed by their
phonetic sounds
➤ Online rhyme-finder
➤ Or…what not to do? http://
www.billboard.com/articles/
columns/pop-shop/
6214232/20-most-forced-
rhymes-music-ariana-grande-
break-free