A CHAT ABOUT SELECTING A FORM FOR WRITING LYRICS.
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Editor58:
We have to establish who and what we are going to write about and what form meter should be used.
Writer45:
Let’s use Iambic pentameter and write about “Horse and Rider.”
Editor58:
I always use the alphabet with the word at the end of the verse to make them rhyme.
An example would be "The horse was black and furious...”
Then I go down the alphabet one letter at a time until I find a word that fits.
“A-urious, no. B-urious, no. C-urious, YES! A match that makes the real word using the letter C!
CURIOUS!”
Writer45:
So the lyrics are now, “The horse was black and furious... curious...”
Editor58:
OK. “The horse was black and furious. And the rider was young and curious.”
Writer45:
Alright. What if we swapped the lines like this.
“The rider was young and curious. His horse was black and furious.”
Editor58:
Yea. That can be our first couplet.
We have the picture of a horse and rider, now.
So, what is the action relating to this furious horse and curious rider?
How do we finish the quatrain?
Writer45:
Try, “The rider was young and curious.
His horse was black and furious. Together they did ride the midnight trail”
Editor58:
OK. That fits the Iambic pentameter.
Let’s add intrigue to this by saying that it happens, “In the pale of the moonlit night...”
Writer45:
OK! “...they encountered a (night, a-ight, b-ight.. c-ight, d,e,F!) terrible fight.”
Editor58:
OK. “The rider was young and curious.
His horse was black and furious. Together they did ride the midnight trail.
In the pale of the moonlit night they encountered a terrible fight... uh... that...”
Writer45:
“... that tested their mortal strength in every (a-ail, b-ail, c-ail, d-ail, D!) de-tail.”
Editor58:
I suggest we make a sex change on this, so that our new Iambic pentameter quatrain reads,
The rider was young and curious. Her horse was black and furious.
Together they did ride the midnight trail.
In the pale of the moonlit night they encountered a terrible fight
That tested their mortal strength in every detail.
Writer45:
Yes! That is our first quatrain! Now we need a melody for this!
Editor58:
Something Hispanic, I think! (what a chick!)
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Just like jazz music, where most great jazz forms are written using 128/4 or (32 measures to each of the 4 parts), lyrics have a meter and rhyming scheme that we can go by to be more original and creative than if we just tried to write the whole thing all at once.
It's always best to use the Jazz Corner posting area for something good, creative, and constructive, as well as for chatting about talent or doing concert reviews, even if you're describing a nasty fight like the one above. Chats help when you want to write lyrics and songs together, and those were lyrics written in an old chat I did, two years ago.
One chat room poem we did that I posted here that was a little different than this one would be
MAGPIES.
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