Songwriting Without Boundaries Read online

  Hot spots: “creases of the silk flowing like grains of a smooth wood,” “She glides, not one bump to reveal her steps; no, her figure sways slowly, to the left, mmm, to the right, her head gliding along a horizon,” and “as graceful as a southern gentle wind.”

  A sailboat is a beautiful woman in heels.

  Antoine plays about the medium-sized boat like an intuitive lover, touching her, pulling softly, her sails gently lift to catch a fine sea breeze, he smoothes his hand along her graceful curves, and only takes his hands on to her wheel when absolutely necessary. She is carrying us in her graceful glide along the aqua blues and greens, lifting us away from the white Greek homes that look more and more like dots on a cliff’s painting. I am most impressed and mesmerized by Antoine’s careful encouraging touch. He is in control, but in the right way: a dancing motif, his body leading her body, they are languid, loving, sexy, impetuous, teasing, a sailing foreplay of wind water wood that glides like a feminine goddess figure across the crowds, on towards the sun setting light show ahead of us in the west.

  Both the sailboat and the woman glide beautifully, in “a sailing foreplay of wind water wood that glides like a feminine goddess figure across the crowds.” A convergence of tanned, beautiful families, brought to you through the sponsorship of graceful, and tacking elegantly in both directions.

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

  Sailboat → Linking quality 1: ________________

  Sailboat → Linking quality 2: ________________

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

  Sailboat → Linking quality 1: ______ → Target idea 1: _________

  Sailboat → Linking quality 2: ______ → Target idea 2: _________

  DAY #14

  FINDING LINKING QUALITIES: MOVING BOTH DIRECTIONS

  Prompt: Vacation

  Congratulations! You’ve made it to day 14. For the last day of the challenge, after finding your linking qualities and exploring your target idea through the lens of vacation for the usual ten minutes, you’ll spend another ten minutes reversing the direction, looking at vacation through the lens of your target idea.

  Try this. First find two interesting qualities for vacation.

  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: ________

  CLARE MCLEOD

  Linking quality: Long overdue

  Vacation → Linking quality: Long overdue → Target idea: Library book

  A library book is a vacation.

  Each word is a grain of sand and I’m sinking into them like a tide is pulling me into the water. Absorbed into a new world, there’s no way I’ll skip ahead to the ending, I want it to last. I follow the horizon of lines that lay before me on the page, unconsciously holding my breath as particular passages chop and twist. Sometimes gliding along the stories’ highway, speeding through frictionless territory until some detour appears, then lost in the unfamiliar. I only have a short time though til I return …

  These two ideas work so well together, but the key to getting there is the linking quality, long overdue. Then there’s the realization, “Yes, a book can take you somewhere you’ve never been before.”

  A vacation is a library book.

  I borrow the town of Lucca for a while, someplace thousands have seen before, all kinds, leaving the oils of their skin behind. It is bound by walls, fortified. The smell of leather hangs overripe and the buildings are yellowed and peeling. After a day wandering its streets, my tired eyes droop and I can go no further. The …

  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 approa
ch 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:

  release 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.

  unkínd (do fa) butcher (fa do)

  Uncónscious (do fa do) has three syllables; only one of them stressed.

  Ópposíte 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.

  Cónsequénces 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).

  Ínterrúpted 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 roses

  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.

  Because prepositions are not as important as the nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs they serve, their stressed syllables are marked with a secondary stress (//), which also notes their secondary function in the line. Because of this, when you set lyric to melody, you will remember to relegate prepositions to secondary rhythmic
positions in the bar.

  Take a second to notice into, another two-syllable preposition. It is stressed ínto, not intó. It is probably the most badly handled word in songwriting—perhaps since it usually follows a stressed syllable:

  She walked into the room.

  The proper handling is

  She walked (pause) ínto the room.

  not

  She walked into the room.

  ’Nuff said.

  Rhythm

  Again, you create rhythm in language by arranging stressed and unstressed syllables into patterns. The most usual pattern, typical of 4/4 time, is a duple (two) pattern:

  da DUM, or DUM da

  When you repeat the pattern a few times, you produce a duple rhythm:

  da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM

  I soon forgot the ones I loved

  Or

  DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da

  Don’t let lovers leave you stranded

  Since the pattern was repeated four times, there are four stressed syllables in the line and thus a tetrameter line in duple meter.

  Lyrics and poetry also work with triple rhythms, typical of 3/4, 6/8, and 12/8 time signatures:

  da da DUM da da DUM da da DUM da da DUM

  In the still of the night when I held you so tight

  Or

  DUM da da DUM da da DUM da da DUM da

  Roses have thorns that can cut you to pieces

  Again, since the pattern was repeated four times, there are four stressed syllables in the line and thus a tetra (four) meter line in triple meter.

  Of course, lines need not be regular, and in fact, in this challenge it is better that your lines be a little jagged. Writing in four-stress lines is limiting enough. Writing in regular four-stress lines would let the rhythm drive the bus. A line like this (by Paul Simon):

  Four in the morning, crapped out, yawning

  Is a tetrameter line:

  Four in the morning, crapped out, yawning

  But it is hardly regular, containing a triple pattern (DUM da da) and three duple patterns (DUM da). For a time, you’ll be working in four-stress lines, the mainstay for songwriters (along with trimeter lines), because they suit the demands of 4/4 time so perfectly.