Sing this:
Daisey, Daisey, Give me your answer, do
I'm half crazy, all for the love of you
It won't be a stylish marriage
I can't afford a carriage
But you'll look sweet, upon the seat
Of a Bicycle Built for Two.
See how each line seems to fit the music? See how words like "for" "the" and "of" are on unstressed notes while "Won't" and "Can't" are on stressed notes and therefore get more attention.
If your song takes the language and bends it like a pretzel to fit the music, it will distract the listener. He'll have his attention on the way you wrote the lyric rather than what the lyric says.
Words like "Wonderful" have an accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables. WON-der-ful. As in:
WON-der-ful, MAR-vel-ous, YOU be-long to ME.
So if you wrote that your girl is won-der-FUL, or won-DER-ful, it's going to be distracting for the listener.
If you have words like "a," "the," and "and" on accented notes, it will again be awkward and people will notice the writing instead of the song.
Try singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" to the tune if "Bicycle Built for Two"
TAKE ME OUT TO, THE ball game TAKE me out.
See? It doesn't work. The words don't fit. Of course, they don't. They were written for a different piece of music and fit with that one. Your words should fit with the music.
Check the accented and unaccented notes in your melody line. Once you have that, write words that fit the pattern.
In "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" the music is 3/4 time with the accent on the first beat, so it goes:
TAKE me /OUT to the /BALL /GAME /
TAKE me /OUT to the /CROWD.
See? None of the accented words are on the 2nd or 3rd beats. If I only showed you TAKE OUT BALL GAME you could guess which song that is.
Another thing, if you are saying that thinking of her makes your heart soar, make the music soar as well. If you are feeling down, make the music go down. A song about how flat the land is in this part of Texas should be pretty flat itself.
You can use this straight or play with it. I wrote a song called "Hollywood is Upside-Down" and all the lines were that way with the music. The notes on "Upside-Down" went up. The notes in the line about the sky were down, the notes in the line about the ground were down. It made people laugh and they didn't know quite why.
Have you got a simple lyric with a few words held out long? You can give it a complex melody with lots of movement. Look at Dolly Parton's "I will Always Love You." She sings "I-I Will Al-ways Love You" and that melody just flies away with us. There's lots of movement because the lyric is simple.
On the other hand, if your song is wordy, complex lyrically, put a simple melody with not much movement to the words. You don't want the melody to get in the way of the lyric.
Note the repetition in the melody of "For What It's Worth."
There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
See, lots of repetition, simple melody, they wanted you to get the lyric without being distracted by an intricate melody.
Note where the emphases is in "STOP, children, WHAT'S that SOUND, EVerybody LOOK what's GOin' DOWN."
Remember, if your lyric and melody are fighting each other, your song will have a lukewarm acceptance.
Jon Batson is a member of North Carolina Songwriters and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) with five Hollywood produced musicals, two CDs and a collectible vinyl record to his credit. Jon is the author of The Songwriter's Hook Book, found at http://amzn.to/lLWNSE.
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