[MUSIC PLAYING]
So let's dig into how we can actually use imagery to write a verse section.
One of the ways we can prepare to use imagery in our verses
is to understand how the music of a verse is structured.
Let's dig in the melody for a moment and see how a four line or a six line verse
section can show us how we could write lyric for a four or six lines section.
Melody in a four line verse section, which
is a very typical structure at least in commercial music,
we can hear that very clearly defined.
The melody is often where we see a melodic motif, which
is a small musical sentence.
It's kind of like a fingerprint of the song.
We can identify that melodic rhythm and pitch of the first line of a verse
as indicating we can identify that song, what that sounds like.
And that melody often repeats.
So within a four line section, we hear that repeating either the melody
in line one is also repeated in line two and line three, maybe even again
in line four.
But sometimes, we hear a different structure,
but still there's repetition.
We're in line one and line three.
That melodic motif repeats.
So the rhyme scheme of a lyric of a four line verse section is often something
like X-A-X-A. And that means that lines one and three don't rhyme with anything
else or each other.
But lines two and four rhyme with each other.
And therefore, they're the same letter, A.
We can notice, well that's interesting.
We have two groups of two lines.
So the verse is almost like two lines, and then it's mirrored again,
repeated those two lines.
So we can see-- what does that tell me about how a lyric might be structured?
What that says is line one and line two often complete a thought.
Lines three and line four often complete a sentence.
So I call that topic movement, this idea of being
able to see how the content of a lyric might be structured
based on what the musical structure is.
So in lines one and two, we might establish a sense of,
so I'm driving on Interstate 85, and I'm thinking about the past.
Maybe that's lines one and two.
And the lines three and four are, and outside the blur, the telephone lines,
get me lost, lost, lost.
So that's a second thought.
They're related.
I'm driving, still there is that small moment.
But first I talked about where I am.
I'm driving Interstate 85.
Then I talk about the telephone lines blurring by.
So they're kind of two separate thoughts.
They're certainly related, but they're organized according
to what the musical structure is doing.
You probably do this very naturally, but it helps sometimes
to think about how is this music structured
so I can deliver my content at a pace that appropriately matches the music
and gets me where I want to go, the main message in the course.
In a six line section, we tend to hear two groups of three.
So the rhyme scheme is usually something like X-X-A-X-X-A.
So lines three and six rhyme, creates conclusion for the section there,
or cadence, where the harmony cadences at the end of each section.
That's where we feel the rhyme closing down the lyric.
So in a six line section, we hear the same idea with structure.
If you think about harmonically what might be the chord progression
of a six line section of verse?
Often, we hear it broken up into two groups of three.
So the lyric of the first three lines sings
over perhaps an eight bar harmonic progression, or chord progression.
And then that eight bar progression repeats under lines four
through six of the lyric.
And we often hear cadence too at the end of line six.
We hear some kind of harmonic cadence.
And that's why it feels so natural to rhyme line six with a line three,
where that other harmonic cadence was.
So rhyme, and topic, and structure, content, and structure of the music,
they're all inter-related.
We hear rhyme where we hear harmonic cadence.
And we hear the topics change where the harmonic chord
progression begins again.