[MUSIC].
>> We're going to talk about harmonic rhythm
for highlighting your lyrics.
When I have a harmonic rhythm,
and it's the same,
and nothing is changing.
Let's say my harmonic rhythm is
[MUSIC] the first chord is two beats.
I have, so I of a C chord for
two beats and then I go to G for one beat,
and then they go to F for one beat,
and I just keep doing that.
Nothing's going to catch
your attention because you're like,
oh yeah, I got that. That's what you're doing.
You're just going to be focused on the lyric,
the story becomes mesmerizing.
[MUSIC] I'm going to
play you a song using that exact harmonic rhythm.
I'm just going to keep it all the same.
[MUSIC] Caught in the crossfire as a child,
[MUSIC] bullet words and along goodbye.
[MUSIC] You watch the rain fall on your shoes.
You read a Bible soaked in booze.
It gets hard to believe in a smile.
But I might as a songwriter want
something to stand out lyrically and my story.
What part of that story,
what I want my audience to
really think about for a second,
caught in the crossfire as a child,
bullet words and along goodbye.
You watch the rain fall on your shoes.
You read a Bible soaked in booze.
It gets hard to believe in a smile.
There's a lot of things I could
choose in that lyric to highlight.
But what I want to highlight is probably this kid is
reading a Bible that's soaked in
booze That's a complicated image there.
That's what I want you to pay attention to.
What I'm going to do is I'm going to just
extend that moment for an extra three beats.
[MUSIC] Caught in the crossfire as a child,
[MUSIC] bullet words and along goodbye.
[MUSIC] You watch the rain fall on your shoes.
You read a Bible soaked in booze.
It gets hard to believe in a smile.
Hopefully that highlighted that moment for you,
I held it for an unexpected three beats
or you could go away,
have a minute to think about.
She's reading a Bible soaked in booze.
That's a really important part of
my story that I want you to think about,
and if I just keep the harmonic rhythm the same,
I'm not taking advantage of the fact that if I change it,
I can really highlight that moment in my song and
make you really think about it for a minute.
When you're talking and you stop talking,
and I say yellow house on a hill,
and I don't see anything else.
You have to go, I guess I'm going to think
about yellow house on a hill for a minute,
and it's the same with songwriting.
if I leave a space in the lyric,
I give you a moment to spend with that idea.
So as a songwriter,
I really want you to think
about the fact that that kid is
reading a Bible soaked and
booze because it's really complicated.
You know, it's her dad a preacher,
is an alcoholic preacher,
is someone in the house and alcoholic and they've
spilled booze on the Bible and
she's finding solace in the Bible.
It's a really cool image
that I might want my listener to think about.
So try that out,
try maybe spotlighting one of your lyrics by
holding that chord in an unexpected way,
just like you would if you were in a Cafe
talking to someone and they
were about to leave and you went,
wait one more thing and you put your hand on
their forearm and held him in place for a second.
It's just a really good technique for
highlighting your lyrics. So try that out.
It's often really a great challenge for
songwriters to change meters.
Instead of writing a song,
and 4:4, you could try to write a song in 3:4.
It just gives it a little, something special.
Anytime I hear something in 6: 8,12: 8,
any triple meter song is
a really great choice just to try something different.
But you can also highlight your lyric and
a really original way if you're writing a song in 3: 4.
I'm going to play a couple of bars of a song
that uses just one chord per measure.
It doesn't change in any unexpected way,
so nothing stands out.
So we're still talking about highlighting your lyric,
using harmonic rhythm in
this harmonic rhythm in triple meter,
which is 3: 4, is one chord per measure,
so each chord gets three beats.
[MUSIC] This city is a graveyard,
nothing's passing like streetcars,
every corner is an alter,
when I held you in my arms.
Now what I want to do,
is I want to bring in a new chord,
and I want to change it on beat
two in a really unexpected way.
[MUSIC]This city is a graveyard,
nothing's passing like streetcars,
every corner is an alter,
when I held you in my arms.
So when I change the chord,
your ears come with me.
When I change the chord on beat two,
I'm highlighting words like city,
passing, corner, and held.
That's the folks that that story,
but I'm not really sure that's
the story that I want to tell unnecessarily.
Maybe there are other words that I want to highlight.
Maybe I want to change my chord on beat
three and highlight a whole different story.
Maybe I want to highlight graveyard,
streetcars, alter, and arms.
They tell them way more interesting story actually.
Now I'm going to play that again and I'm
going to change my harmonic rhythm from
the first chord for two beats and
the second chord on beat three for one beat.
[MUSIC]This city is a graveyard,
nothing's passing like streetcars,
every corner is an alter,
when I held you in my arms.
As a songwriter, you get to decide,
you know, what story do I want to tell?
What lyric do I want to highlight?
Maybe you go back to the second one where it's
[MUSIC] actually really like that one.
So it just depends on what you
like and what you want to highlight within your lyric.
But just notice that when you change your chord,
the listener's attention goes with you.
You can use that to your advantage as
a writer to help you tell your story. Try it out.