[stylist] songwriting vs. poetry

[Brad Dunsé]

There are several differing aspects to poems than 
lyrics.Off cuff here very quickly:

1. Songs shouldn't have stuff like red/read, blue/blew, etc.

2. Songs have about 3.5 minutes to get the point 
across while leaving space for a repeated chorus, 
not much time. Poems can take as long as they like.

3. Songs have to be written very conversational 
and simple, while poems can get all esoteric, 
complex and intellectual.  Why? See below.

4. Songs are on a force tempo. You can't stop and 
rewind a song on the radio or while listening to 
a live performer.  So if they don't "get it," 
from the first listen, likely they'll miss an 
important part of the rest of the song. Reading 
poems, you can stop and think. Though that is not 
the case with a live reading of a poem, the reader can pause to allow for it.

5. Lyrics have to be written to match the genre 
or style of the music. That marriage is called 
prosody. No dirges with lyrics like, "Hey babe ya wanna DANCE with me tonight?"

6. Lyrics often are written to rhythmically fit 
in the groove, beat, or rhythm of the music.

7. Lyrics have to phonetically match the line of 
a song.  I'm sure someone else can remember the 
word for it, wait, plosives, yeah that's it. You 
don't want a long hanging note on certain words 
in certain situations. You want open vowels and 
not hard edged D's or even nasally N's.

These are just off cuff here but you get the idea.

Brad



6. lyric






On 2/28/2012  01:39 PM Barbara Hammel said...

So, what’s so different about writing songs from 
writing poetry?  I get that there usually is a 
chorus and two or three verses.  Sometimes there 
might even be a bridge thrown in for good 
measure. I’ve often though of trying my hand at 
songwriting, in fact I have one I wanted to give 
to someone to see if they could work up a tune 
for it but I wasn’t on that friendly a terms with 
her.  A friend and I wrote one, too, when she was 
in high school and I was in college.  I saw the 
email with Brad’s tip, so will look at that, too. 
Barbara Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to 
dance. -- Carl Sandburg 
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Brad Dunsé

"When it comes to change, don't wind up like concrete...
all mixed up and permanently set!" --Unknown

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