Day 46
1. Watch the video about song form (verse, chorus, bridge).
2. Listen to the following songs while reading the lyrics.
3. How can you turn the main idea for your song into a chorus? Brainstorm some ideas and write them down.
Day 47
1. Watch the video about prosody.
2. Practice.
3. Is the main idea of the chorus you are developing stable or unstable?
Day 48
1. Watch the video “Five Compositional Elements.”
2. Watch the video “Effect of the Number of Lines.”
3. Listen to the song “The Great Pretender” and read the lyrics.
4. Write down any ideas for your song. This could be specific lines for the verse or chorus, or even just now many times you need to repeat something.
Day 49
1. Today watch the video “Length of Lines.”
2. Then watch “Effects of Length of Lines.”
3. Listen to the songs “Still Crazy After All These Years” and “Train in the Distance” by Paul Simon.
4. Can you find anywhere in the song you’re developing where you could change the length of the lines? Do you think you should?
Day 50
1. Watch the video about “rhyme scheme.”
2. Today compose a couplet. (It does not have to be for your project you’ve been working on, it’s just an exercise.)
3. Now compose a four-line piece. You can use the rhyme scheme A B A B, X A X A, or X X A A.
Day 51
1. Watch the next video about rhyme scheme.
2. Listen to “Sweet Baby James” by James Taylor, paying special attention to the rhyme scheme.
3. Write four lines in A B A B. Then, rewrite them to change the rhyme scheme as follows:
- A A B B
- A B B A
How did changing the rhyme scheme affect the feel of your verse?
4. Here is the link to the article he referenced. Read the different arrangements of the verses. What do you think?
Day 52
1. Watch the video about perfect rhyme.
2. Write four couplets with perfect rhyme. They do not have to be connected or related to each other, but if you like you can try writing one large verse (A A B B C C D D).
Day 53
1. Watch the video “family rhyme.”
2. Now watch “finding family rhymes.”
3. If you haven’t use a rhyme dictionary before, you should. You will often find things called “near rhymes,” which have a similar ending sound to the word you are looking for. Family rhymes are a little different, as you could rhyme something like “mud” and “cut” because when sung, the vowel sound will match closely enough to create the feeling that there has been a rhyme.
4. Try writing four couplets using family rhyme. They do not have to be connected or related to each other, but if you like you can try writing one large verse.
