Talking about the song homework.

Short words like “But on” can be used as pickups. Use the most meaningful words on the strong beats. The last line has the important words on offbeats which makes the singing of it a bit stilted. Also consider squishing or combining words that are not important to make space for words to land on important syllables, even if they don’t make actual words.

The third paragraph makes a great chorus because of the short syllables and the fact that the words at the end of the lines are good words to end on because they can be held easily (am, damn, say, day).

“well” and “hell”, on the other hand, have sounds that change quite a bit when you try to end the words after holding them.

Think about when you want to rhyme and when you don’t. As a lyrics writer, use near rhymes like rhymezone.com.

Homework: Try to apply what I’ve learned to my own lyrics for next time.