So we have to do some rhyming in our songs.
Rhyme is what makes the listener latch on to what you're singing.
It's what makes them feel safe, and it's what makes them remember your lyrics.
I know that, as writers, we think, "Oh, it's too ... It sounds so cheap, it sounds so ugh.
I don't wanna rhyme all the time."
But it's just part of the process, it's something we need to do.
So how do you find those rhymes that don't sound so canned, don't sound so basic, they
sound original?
They don't call to your attention the fact that you're rhyming, it just does, and it
works and really hooks your listener.
Hi, I'm Heather Greenslade from Singer Songwriting School.
For the best song writing tips, subscribe to my channel and hit the bell so that you're
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If you haven't seen my series, all about verse rhyme patterns and hit songs, check that out
here.
In this video, I'm going to show you different types of rhymes that you can use within those
patterns or your own patterns.
Today we're going to discuss the five main types of rhyming that'll be helpful for you
in writing your lyrics.
The rhyme type that we're taught when we're in preschool is called a perfect rhyme.
So cat, bat, sat, they all have the same vowel sound and the same final consonant.
So for examples, Maroon 5 rhymed 'conversations' with 'stations' in their song Maps ... [singing
00:01:27] ... And Ke$ha rhymed 'Jack' and 'back' in Tik Tok ... [singing 00:01:48].
I probably don't need to go into much detail about that.
Another type of rhyme is called the family rhyme and this feels like a really safe rhyme
too.
Basically the vowel sound is exactly the same and the final sound, the consonant is similar.
Lorde uses this rhyme type in Royals when she rhymes 'flesh' with 'address', so you
have the eh sound in both of them, but then 's' and 'sh' they're similar, but they're
not the same.
[singing 00:02:23].
Dolly Parton uses this type of rhyme when she rhymes 'life' with 'five'.
You've got the 'i' but then 'f' and 'v'.
Super similar, not quite the same.
[singing 00:02:49].
There's two types of rhymes that are really similar to each other called additive and
subtractive.
Basically you take one word and that final vowel consonant sound is the same, but you've
either added a little something at the end or taken a little something away at the end.
In Pink's song, What About Us, she rhymes 'hearts' with 'star' so that's subtractive
because har and star would work, but she took the 'ts' off, so it's hearts and star.
If it had gone the other way and star had come first, it would be called an additive
rhyme 'cause stars rhyme with hearts.
The last really prevalent type of rhyming that I'm going go over is assonance rhymes.
Basically in assonance rhymes the vowel sounds are still exactly the same, but the final
consonants aren't the same.
It's not like in family rhymes where they're almost the same, they're just not the same.
Maroon 5 uses assonant rhyme in Sugar, when they rhymed 'weak' with 'knees'.
They both got the 'e' sound but 'k' and 's' not the same ... [singing 00:04:19] ... You
can find this in Sia's Broken Glass where she rhymes 'dust' with 'love'.
So you have 'u' and 'o' but 'v' doesn't sound anything like 'st'.
[singing 00:04:30].
I think you get it.
So how's this helpful?
Well I think frankly rhyming can be a little bit terrifying because it feels so constraining
and that makes you terrified that you're not going to be original, that you're not going
to write something new that anyone will care about.
So once you have these different strategies for finding rhyme techniques, it just opens
up that cage a little bit, right?
For the example with Sia rhyming 'love' with 'dust,' well you know, once you realized that,
maybe you don't want to use the word, 'dust.'
But you can grab your rhyming dictionary ... Yes, you should have a rhyming dictionary.
I'll put a link to my favorite below in the description, and you could look up ... Instead
of just look up what rhymes with love because how many times have we done that already.
You can look up, "Hey I know dust would work," so then you just look up dust to find everything
that rhymes with dust.
Then if you can find something interesting there, you can go a little bit further and
go down that rabbit hole and get some really unique things.
What I'm trying to show you here is that it's so important to have all these tools in your
toolbox because then once you get going, anytime you get stuck anywhere along the way, or you
just don't end where you want to be, you just grab one of those tools and get to work.
If you ever happened upon a lyric where you think, 'That was so clever how they rhymed
this word and that word,' I'd love to know about it.
Put it in the comments below, I'm always looking for a new moments of brilliance in songwriting.
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If you found it helpful, comment, "Helpful" below.
If you know anybody else who would enjoy this, please share it with them and hey, happy writing.