The Mistake All Beginner Songwriters Make (and how to avoid it!)

These days I simply do it the other way round. I write whatever I have on my mind without thinking about neither the song, rhymes, meters nor structures. I write sentences, lines, phrases, words, paragraphs, quotes and sometimes I even paste parts or articles or interviews or anything related to the topic/theme I'm exploring. After I've written everything that I have on my mind I start looking for phrases from what I wrote that might be the title or the chorus and see what internal rhythm they have that can give to the song. And then move on from there - a kind of jigsaw puzzle with whatever I have - sometimes I add more + end up not using half the things I wrote (but still useful to sort ideas and not forget stuff). I have pages of these info dumps that seem like good ideas but haven't managed to turn into songs yet 😂 I leave them for when I'm not feeling inspired to come up with something completely new. Anyway well done for this video and channel - always very resourceful and helpful.

Direct rhyme is not wrong. It just limits yourself in the long run. There are so many other possibilities. Song lyrics do not have to rhyme at all.

Hi folks! I am, quite frankly, loving the controversy that this little video has sparked! The passion! There have been a few comments here referencing Sondheim and The Beatles etc, so a little more context might help quell concerns that I am relegating the great writers of the canon to beginner status...Perfect rhyming was absolutely the bread and butter of popular songwriting as it emerged in the Tin Pan Alley era, and up until the late 50s, or even early 60s. Essentially, the cultural revolution of the 60s and 70s diversified not only style but expression and taste, and we bare that legacy today. Songs that rely on perfect rhyme, TODAY (as in, in our contemporary era), will sound like a call-back to an older era. It's not about good or bad, really - it's all about effect. If that is the effect you want - go for it. But a quick scan of Billboard charts in almost all genres where lyrics matter from the past 20 years will reveal a different trend. I have found, in my 13 years of teaching at universities, that beginner songwriters tend to default more strongly to that way of writing, possibly (and I suspect) because when we are explicitly taught rhyming during language acquisition (ie early childhood and literacy development years), we are taught perfect rhyming. But our EARS (and subconscious perception) can easily perceive much more subtle and complex rhyme, no problem. Developing as a lyric writer is about tapping into that knowledge, making the implicit explicit. The intended audience of this video is beginner songwriters starting out TODAY, wanting to build a career as a contemporary artist or songwriter, not a critique of songs of the past. Thanks for your all comments, thoughts, and insights. Happy writing!

Since you asked for examples - "Baba O'Riley" by The Who rhymes "fields" with "meals", and "living" with "forgiven" (with a perfect rhyme in there as well - "fight" and "right"): "Out here in the fields I fight for my meals I get my back into my living I don't need to fight To prove I'm right I don't need to be forgiven"

Yesterday All my troubles seemed so far away Now it looks as though it's here to stay Oh I believe in yesterday Here I stand Head in hand Turn my face to the wall If she's gone I can't go on Feeling two foot small Lennon and McCartney would like to have a word

Heart of Glass has the exact example you mention. "Once had love, and it was divine, Soon turned out, I was losin' my mind."

Oh, it makes great sense to rhyme the vowel. Especially since we are emphasizing vowels when we sing, not so much the consonants. And yet it hadn't fully occurred to me until you talked about it. Thank you!

Beautifully explained! I've always had trouble writing lyrics, but now I feel a sudden surge of confidence, let's hope it actually lasts! Thank you!

One of my favorite couplets is ~ "I read some Byron, shelly, and keats Recited it all for a hip hop beat I'm having trouble saying what i mean With dead poets and drum machines "

This is great advice and thanks so much for it. I think though that near-rhymes and even non-rhymes are just what is currently in fashion, and conversely perfect rhymes are out of fashion and sometimes seen as clichéd (especially the obvious/overused ones). If we go back a few decades anything other than perfect rhymes was largely frowned upon and seen as lazy or inept songwriting.

The content of this channel is fantastic. Super inspiring!

game changer, thank you. I spend more time creating poetry but this really resonates especially the ideas about focusing on the last strongly stressed syllable

A lyric from the show "Something Rotten" popped into my head. It always makes me laugh: "Ohhhhh, every time I hear a perfect rhyme I get all tingly, Because I knoooowww, that to write a perfect rhyme is not an easy... thingly..." 😂

Sondheim would have vehemently disagreed with this. 🤔He was a very strong believer in the importance of "perfect" rhymes and says he never used rhymes that weren't so. Of course, he was a genius and a purist and wrote for musical theater, not popular music. In any case, thanks for this great video. I'd like to recommend a book I use for finding rhymes, "Surprising Rhymes" by Brian Oliver. It's inexpensive and very easy to use. It also focuses on slant rhymes and not so much on perfect rhymes

I've only just found you and only watched a few of your vids (this and the Beatles) but it feels like you're revealing awesome secrets that should've been obvious (especially since I thought I knew what a secondary dominant was) but somehow went right over my head. Thank you for making this outstanding information so clear.

Extremely helpful , I find myself looking over all my lyrics!! Thank you so much.

So simple, yet I never thought about rhyming the stressed vowel and not the last syllable. Super helpful, thank you!

This is my favourite youtube channel now. Such useful stuff!

Brilliant advice again. Thanks Keppie

Excellent advice, just superb! It makes for a more natural, conversational tone and relieves some of the stilted, rather rigid formatting & formulaic nature of far too many compositions. Well done! 😊