Lesson 4: What Rhyme Can Do To Your Lyrics

Rhyme within a line

A special kind of rhyme is rhyme that occurs within a line of a song/poem. This form can occur in lyrics that use the normal rhyming-methods but also in lyrics and poems that don’t seem to rhyme at all and lack all kinds of patterns at the end of the lines. This kind of rhyme is one of those secret things in a song that can make it much more interesting.
This kind of rhyme can be divided into two sub-forms, normal rhyme and begin-rhyme.

Normal rhyme
This form uses the same rules as normal rhyme, which means the words sound like each other. This form can produce a very special effect: if used properly it completely focuses all the attention of the audience at once, and thus has the same effect as a shout in a bedroom full of sleeping people. Now this is a rather clumsy comparison, who would compare his lyrics to a bedroom full of sleeping people?? But I think you know what I mean....
Take a look at this example taken from "The Widow's Game", released on The Stag's last cassette "Reset". In the first line of the third verse the audience's attention is drawn back from the instrumental break to the lyrics by starting with rhyme within one line:

Begin-rhyme
This kind of rhyme doensn’t seem to rhyme at all because the words only use the same first consonants. An example could be: “the sun is shining on their severe burned backs”. None of the words in this line does actually rhyme but they sound like they are connected because of the same first consonant. Another example can be seen in the above example from "the Widows Game"...

 For both of these special types of rhyme counts that if used properly you can create a special effect that jumps right out of the rest of the line or even the whole song. Used in the right combination with rhythm it can also produce a very hypnotic effect. But be careful wth using these rhyme-forms: they can easily be overdone!

How and when to use rhyme

As we already noticed, rhyme is easy to use and abuse. To write good rhyme is merely a matter of taste. Because of that, you will always encounter people who will tell you your rhyme isn't good. (Usually they will use other terms to tell you this...). You will never be able to get around this problem, because everybody has a different taste...
Because of this it's very important to make some decisions before you start writing a new song. You will have to decide IF you are going to use rhyme, and if so, what kind of rhyme in the sense of style. It's also important to think about why you are going to use rhyme. To help you with this, look at the following checklist:

1) First decide IF you will use rhyming-words.

You'll have to use rhythm but you might consider to avoid the use of rhyming-words. Modernists will love you for this!

2) Consider why you want to use rhyme

The reasons why you want to use rhyme can help you deciding what kind of rhyme you will use. For example: if you only want to use rhyme to draw the attention, you might consider only using rhyme within a line.

3) Choose a general rhyming pattern or style for your song.

This will help you keep your song together and not turning it into a collection of rhyme-styles. (Of course, you can decide not to choose a general pattern, like I did in "Vain Regrets").

4) Put something personal into your rhyme.

Try to stick as much as possible to the general rules that count for the type of rhyme you use to "please" the purists, but don't forget to be original. Put your own inventions to the rhyme you are making.

This list will help you with your decision how to start setting up the rhyme for your lyrics. After these decisions the real work begins. And when the hard labour is done, don't forget to be objective. After that, all you can do is hope people will like what you have written.

How to make your rhyme more interesting

Rhyme can help you with bringing structure to your song. It can also be used to make the lyrics more interesting for those people who like to play with language. But rhyme can also make your song very boring and predictable. The challange is to stick as much as possible to the rules yet to make it look as fresh and new as possible.
As always, this is easy to say but very hard to achieve! But there are some do's and don'ts that will help you to accomplish this...

Avoid to be predictable

While keeping your rhyme simple may help you easier find the words you are looking for, it might lead to a song which is very predictable. So watch out! Try to avoid the use of tricks already used by everyone. Certain rhyming-combinations and patterns are so much used they might become boring.

Be inventive

Although almost everything has been done already at least once, it will never hurt you to experiment with unfamiliair rhyming-patterns. As long as there is a certain scheme in your song it's okay to break the rules of rhyme. For example, you could try to make words in different verses rhyme to each other.

Don't use the same words

One mistake that's very disturbing is the repetetive use of the same rhyming words. It may seem the lyrics rhyme but they don't!!! The only effect is irritation. A similar effect can occur when you use different words that rhyme to each other but with the same sound over and over again.

Of course, there are exceptions to this, but be very careful when you want to try techniques like these. 

Be careful using "dumb" rhyme

What I mean with dumb rhyme is using words that almost rhyme, like for example "line" and "mind". Forgive me the literal translation but that's how we call it in Dutch language and I don't really know how it's called in English. The use of this kind of rhyme can be helpful to overcome problems when you can't find a rhyming word at all. It can also be used to "hide" the use of rhyme, helpful for those who don't want to use rhyme too much.

But don't use it too much, for people might start to think you can't rhyme at all!

Tips and tricks on how to find rhyming words

Now that we know more about the different types of rhyme and their occurences, we'll have to find out how to make those words rhyme. Rhyme is one of those things that can become a disturbing factor while writing your lyrics: just at the moment you are inspired you can’t find that certain word that rhymes... To get around these kinds of problems everybody develops some personal tricks. Here are some of mine, plus additional information which probably will make the job easier for you and help you make your lyrics more interesting.
 
 

Don’t think!

In the first lesson I stated already that usually you get the best results in writing lyrics when you let your thoughts flow right out of your pen onto the paper. This certainly counts for rhyme. To have full profit of that general built-in feeling of what rhymes and what not you should NOT think too much at first. Just write down what you think. You’d be surprised how much words already do rhyme. This is due to the fact that you are at that moment totally devoted to writing a poem/lyrics. You feel the rhythm and your mind follows, opening all those secret archive-doors with parts of other songs. These reflections of things you've heard and/or read in the past greatly enhance your inspiration, like it or not!

Don’t be neat!

In addition to the last point I made: don’t bother if anyone couldn't read what you write down. Just use the first paper and pen you find and write it down, strike things through, make lists of rhyming words in the margins, whatever! Your paper will become a mess but who cares? Ever seen a painter keeping his studio clean while being inspired???

Help yourself to recollect.

As soon as you “hear” a piece of lyrics that seem to rhyme, write it down, even if it doesn’t fit at all in the rest of the song! Maybe it’s one of those jigsaw-puzzle-pieces that you’ll need later. And if you can’t use it, maybe you can use it in another song.

Examine what you have written down

After a brainstorm, or maybe a little brainbreeze.... you will encounter a moment you seem to have run out of rhyming words. At this time it’s always helpful to reread what you’ve written down. Look at everything you wrote, including the things you scratched or stricked through, the footnotes, etc. etc.. There might be something more useful than you thought a few minutes ago. This way you give your mind a moment of rest while still being focused on your work.

Keep it simple

Try to avoid difficult rhyming-patterns, words etc.. Unless you are very skilled and experienced making your rhyme difficult will only get in the way of your inspiration.