A Rhyme In Time
Written by Dan Monk
Moon, June. Heard that one? It's what we would call a rhyme crime.
But what is a rhyme? Is it two words that sound the same? Pretty
close. According to Websters:
Correspondence of sound in the terminating words or syllables of two
or more verses, one succeeding another immediately or at no great
distance. The words or syllables so used must not begin with the
same consonant, or if one begins with a vowel the other must begin
with a consonant. The vowel sounds and accents must be the same, as
also the sounds of the final consonants if there be any.
Now that's quite a mouthful. Fortunately Websters has several
definitions. My favorite is:
A word answering in sound to another word.
which makes me think of Jeanette Mcdonald and Nelson Eddy. When I'm
calling you, will you answer true.
But I digress.
Rhymes come in many different forms. They have been grouped together
as follows:
1. Perfect Rhyme - major accent
Which is subdivided into Masculine, Feminine Trisyllabic and
mosiac
forms.
Masculine
The masculine is perhaps the most common and certainly the most
used. It commonly has only one syllable, But there are exceptions
such as retrain/refrain. As long as the last syllable is stressed.
Because the main attribute of masculine rhyme is that the two words
have the same sound in the middle vowel and the ending consonant or
vowel sound. Such as, yep you guessed it, moon/june or tree/me.
Feminine
Apparently women are smarter than men. Because the feminine rhyme
has two syllables. Although as mentioned above masculine rhyme can
have two syllables the major difference is the femine rhyme always
has two syllables and the stress is on the first syllable. A good
example is staple/maple.
Trisyllabic
Pretty self explanatory, each word in the rhyme has three syllables.
Also referred to as feminine. One of the most common rhymes is
beautiful/dutiful. You can draw your own conclusion on that.
Mosiac
In mosiac rhyme one word rhymes with two others. For instance
earthquake/mirth shake. Mosiac rhyme is often very funny such as
pneumonia/phone ya from the Burt Bacharach song, "I'll never fall in
love again".
2. Perfect Rhyme - minor accent
Which is subdivided into Apocopated, Broken, Congintuous and
Internal. Apocopated and broken are very similar in that a part of
one word rhymes with another word. Or two.
Apocopated
The rhyme occurs on the first syllable of each word. Such as
cope/hopeless.
Broken
A broken rhyme is where one word rhymes with two other. Such a
clover/go over.
Congintuous
A rhyme where two words that are close to each other rhyme. Strictly
speaking they should be next to each other. Such as true blue.
Otherwise they would be an internal rhyme.
Internal
If the rhyme is not at the end of the line, but inside the line then
it would be an internal rhyme. Internal rhyme is very popular in pop
music.
3. Near Rhyme
Near rhyme can be subdivided into two types, Assonance and
Consonance.
Assonance
Also called vowell rhyme, assonance is where the vowels rhyme but
not the consonants. A good example is same/cave, notice the long a.
Consonance
The opposite of assonance, consonance rhyme is where there are
similar sounding consonants. Such as green/tan.
If you were paying attention you may remember that masculine perfect
rhyme is where two words have the same sound in the middle vowel and
the ending consonant. Or assonance and consonance.
Rhyming Techniques
Rhymes can occur at the beginning of a line, in the middle or at the
end. Rhymes that start lines are rather rare. Most of the time you
will use end rhyme, i.e. the last words in the line.
The problem with end rhyme is it's done so often the technique
itself is in danger of becoming a cliche. The challenge is to make
it interesting and unique. That's where the different types of
rhymes come in handy. There is nothing wrong with using several
different tpes of rhymes, in fact I encourage it, just be sure your
songs overall feel stays consistent.
By varying the type of rhyme you can present different viewpoints.
For instance a song where the main character vocalizes a phrase then
thinks about what was said. A masculine rhyme (external) with a
feminine rhyme (internal) would be a good choice.
As mentioned before internal rhyme is also used a lot. And used
correctly it can really punch up a song. But be careful not to
overuse it. Unless you're Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen.
No rhyme at all
At one time this would have been considered heresy but today it is
widely accepted. One of the biggest hits of our time, 'Wind beneath
my Wings' by Larry Henley and Jeff Silbar mixes rhyming lines and
nonrhyming lines very effectively. Which brings me to this point;
the most important consideration when choosing your rhymes is to use
words that complement, or even better, strenghen your music.
In addition to using the optimum rhyming scheme for your song, there
are a couple more writing techniques that can strengthen your songs.
Alliteration can be a powerful tool. 'Wind beneath my Wings' is a
good example. Paying attention to your vowel sounds can also pay
some dividends Short or soft vowel sounds tend to be more romantic
and or reflective. Long vowel sounds are more angry and assertive.
Try to use words that fit with what your song is expressing.
I hope this article gets your creative juices flowing and you can
use some of what I said to create great songs.
(c) 1999, Dan E. Monk, All rights reserved. Reprinted here by
permission.
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