Category: PART 3 – COMPONENTS OF A HIT SONG

Be careful not to fall into the trap of confusing listeners by not being consistent in your use of tense throughout a song. Remember, when people hear your song, they only know what you tell them in the lyrics—so it’s vital to make sure the time frame for a song is always clear and easy to follow. 

This means all lyric lines should be in the same tense instead of time-traveling be- tween past, present and future from line to line. The consistent use of tense is important because it locates your song’s story in a specific time and helps listeners understand when the situation or action described in the song takes place. 

If the tense keeps changing, there is a danger that listeners will end up bewildered, and may simply lose interest in the song. 

Getting the tense right can sometimes be a tricky business, though. Most people only think in terms of past, present or future. But, grammatically, lyricists are potentially faced with a multitude of different tenses. 

For example, the Simple Present Tense is used to describe events, actions or situations that have started but haven’t yet finished, although the lyric doesn’t explain when they started or whether they’re still active (e.g. “I go to pieces over you…”). 

The Present Progressive Tense is about something that is happening right now (e.g. “I’m going to pieces over you…”). 

The Present Perfect Tense draws attention to the present consequences of a past event that has now finished, as opposed to its actual occurrence (e.g. “I’ve gone to pieces over you…”). 

The Present Perfect Progressive Tense is used for an ongoing action in the past which continues right up to the present (or has recently finished), although the lyric doesn’t explain when it started (e.g. “I’ve been going to pieces over you…”). 

The Simple Past Tense recounts events or actions that happened at some point in the past and are now completed (e.g. “I went to pieces over you…”).

The Past Progressive Tense is used to describe events that were happening at a point in the past but are being talked about at this moment, and may still be happening currently (e.g. “I was going to pieces over you…”).

The Past Perfect Tense portrays situations that had already been completed at the specific point in time that you’re writing about (e.g. “I had gone to pieces over you…”).

The Past Perfect Progressive Tense is similar to the Present Perfect Progressive, except the point in time referred to in the lyric is in the past (e.g. “I had been going to pieces over you…”).

And there are many more different tenses with definitions that will make your brain ache!! 

The key, though, is to decide upfront which tense you intend to use in a new song and then stick to it. As you write more songs and gain more experience, you’ll start to develop an instinct for choosing the most appropriate tense for each song. 

The past tense is usually ideal for story songs that have a clear flow of time. The present tense is often best for love songs or songs with a strong emotional mes- sage. According to one study, more than 80% of up-tempo hits are set in the present. 

While the most effective lyrics tend to stay in one tense, it doesn’t mean the event flow within your song has to be linear. For example, you can use devices such as flashbacks as long as you include a transitioning word or phrase such as “I remember when…” or “Last night…”. This ‘linking’ phrase shows the connection between past and present and explains the change of tense to the listener. 

It is quite common for hit songwriters to show how past events have impacted on a current situation by putting the first two verses in the past tense and switching to the present in the chorus and final verse (e.g. “I was going to pieces over you” (in the verse) and “But I’m over you now and my life is full of sunshine” (in the chorus). 

There is often scope for changing tense in the bridge to provide a ‘release’ from the rest of the song. 

In general, though, it is best to avoid changing tense unless it is essential to your story. The tense that you choose for your lyrics can significantly affect the way your song connects with listeners. 

When you’ve finished writing your song, always check that the time frame or flow of time is consistent throughout. Make sure you haven’t unknowingly changed tense in places where you didn’t intend to. 

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“The ears expect certain rhymes, so you want to fool them because one of the things you want to do in a song is surprise an audience” —Stephen Sondheim  

As a publisher I have often listened to demos by aspiring songwriters and, despite always hoping to discover a fresh new talent, ended up feeling disappointed because I found that I could predict what the rhyme was going to be on almost every line. 

Inexperienced writers often weaken potentially good songs by going for the easiest rhyme, or by using the same rhyme sound too many times in a row. This simply makes the lyrics sound boring, monotonous and colorless.

It’s not enough to simply go through the alphabet looking for words that rhyme, irrespective of whether or not the chosen word helps to underpin the meaning of your song and drive the story forward. This lazy approach usually results in clichéd rhymes that we’ve all heard many times before. 

These days, you have to be more creatively adventurous. 

Historically, many pop songs in the rock era have featured ‘perfect’ rhymes where a one-syllable word is rhymed with another one-syllable word (such as ‘kiss’ and ‘miss’), or where two words have the same spelling in the last syllable (such as ‘love and ‘above’). But hit songwriting is more sophisticated these days, and publishers and A&R reps have much higher expectations of lyricists. 

In fact, many established songwriters now try to steer clear of perfect rhymes be- cause, they say, rhymes that are too exact can limit the expression of true emotion. Using ‘false’ rhymes which create word pictures, or convey what you want to say more accurately, can often be much more effective than pure rhymes. 

For example, today’s hit writers are more likely to rhyme words that don’t have the same combination of letters but sound similar (such as ‘clown’ and ‘around’, or ‘made’ and ‘late’). This is because sound-alike words can often engage listeners more than words with the same spelling. 

As Stephen Sondheim once explained: “One of the uses of rhyme is not only to focus the attention on the word, but to strengthen what you’re saying. So, you don’t make the least important word in the line the rhyme word.” 

You can also surprise the listener by having the rhyme fall on the second or third syllable of a multi-syllable word instead of at the end (i.e. put the rhyme on the syllable that is stressed most strongly in normal speech, such as ‘unachievable’ and ‘believable’). 

You can also rhyme a multi-syllable word with a word that only has one syllable (such as ‘sublime’ and ‘time’). This device can make a lyric much more interesting. It’s also okay to use a rhyming dictionary. Most top songwriters admit that they always keep a rhyming dictionary and a thesaurus handy. So don’t feel it will make you any less creative. It will actually make you more adventurous and give you many more options—including multi-syllable rhyme words that you might not otherwise have thought of. 

Even when you’re using a rhyming dictionary, don’t always go for the most obvious rhyme word. 

By digging deeper, and cross-referencing with a book of synonyms, you can often discover rhymes that inspire new themes or fresh ideas that can take your lyrics in a more exciting (and less predictable) direction. 

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Don’t make the mistake of using exactly the same rhyming pattern throughout your song. It is best to vary the rhyme scheme in the verse, chorus and bridge, so that each section is different and has its own personality. 

One of the most common traps that new songwriters fall into is creating a lyrical structure in the chorus that sounds too much like the verse. Changing the rhythm of the lyric—and the pattern or placement of the rhymes—can help to underpin a strong shift in the chorus melody and give your chorus a unique shape that really makes it stand out. 

As you build the song’s energy in the journey from the verse to the chorus, a change in the rhyme scheme—combined with a change in the melody—can help to prepare listeners for the all-important hook in the chorus. 

For example, your rhyme pattern in a four-line verse may involve making the first line rhyme with the third line, while the second and fourth lines also rhyme (this is known as an ABAB rhyme scheme and is the most common). 

You can then make the chorus sound different from the verse by switching to an ABCB scheme (where only the second and fourth lines rhyme) or an AABB scheme (where the first and second lines rhyme, as do the third and fourth lines). 

You can also establish a clear difference by varying the primary vowel sounds in each rhyme in the chorus—so that some rhyme lines end with long vowels and others have shorter vowel sounds. 

One way of building the lyrical rhythm in the verse is to use internal rhymes. This involves repeating vowels and consonants (and combinations of both) within each individual line. For example: “I’m lost in an ocean of restless emotion that only the lonely can feel”. 

But don’t forget, the rhyming pattern that you choose for the verse should be the same in every verse, while the rhyme scheme for the chorus and the bridge should remain the same whenever the chorus and bridge are repeated. 

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If your aim is to have your songs recorded by established artists, don’t make the mistake of submitting a song that you know has weak lyrics—even if the song has an irresistible melody and a hook that is infectious and memorable. 

Artists and their producers are naturally attracted to catchy songs that stand out as potential hit singles. But the subject matter is equally important. 

What really motivates a singer to want to record a song—and perform it live—is an outstanding lyric that moves him or her in some way. It also has to fit with the artist’s on-stage image (whether that image is ‘sexy’, ‘cool’, ‘romantic’ or ‘rebellious’). 

Remember, there aren’t many successful artists who don’t write their own material these days. As a result, they are constantly being bombarded with demos from songwriters. Your offering will have to compete with the latest songs by some of today’s best professional writers. So the bar is set extremely high. 

As a song provider, your primary role will be to create distinctive songs that will help to build or sustain an artist’s career. You also have to enhance the artist’s appeal by coming up with fresh-sounding song themes and lyrics that will keep fans buying their records. 

That’s why you need imaginative lyrics that avoid clichés, but are still written in conversational contemporary language. You need an interesting story line about situations, struggles and hardships that the artist can relate to, and which he or she can use to evoke an emotional response within their fans. 

So you should never pitch a song that is just ‘okay’ lyrically. A song with a dynamic melody and trite lyrics is unlikely to be picked up. 

If you’re a solo writer, and you feel you’ve written a hit tune but just can’t come up with a lyric that does the melody justice, maybe it’s time to consider partnering with a skilled lyricist? 

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Alliteration—the repetition of a particular sound in the stressed syllables at the beginning of adjacent words or phrases (such as “Mary, marry me in the morning”)—is a highly effective device that can make a lyric line stand out as a memorable hook in its own right. 

Other tools which can help to catch the listener’s attention include: assonance—the repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming within phras- es (e.g. “without you I’m blue”)—and consonance, the repetition of the same consonant two or more times in short succession (such as “pitter patter”).

These devices can add interest to your lyrics when used sparingly. But new writers sometimes make the mistake of over-doing such clever wordplay—resulting in lyrics that may be hard to sing because they contain too many ‘tongue-twisters’. If you intend to sprinkle some clever alliteration, assonance and consonance into your songs, always consider your choice of words from the singer’s perspective. 

There are several key points to remember if you want artists to be able to sing your songs comfortably: 

—Single syllable words make a song much easier to sing. 

—Accented syllables should fall on the accented notes of the melody. 

—Vowels are far easier to sing and hold than consonants. 

—Too many sibilants (e.g. ‘s’, ‘z’, ‘sh’, ‘ch’) can cause problems, especially at the end of a word. 

—Some word sounds are harder to sing at the upper or lower end of a singer’s vocal range. 

—Words should ideally end with sounds that open the singer’s mouth, not close it. 

Of course, some songs are intended to twist singers’ tongues—such as the 1908 classic ‘She Sells Sea-shells on the Sea-shore’ (words by British songwriter Terry Sullivan and music by Harry Gifford), or Sylvia Fine’s ‘Tongue Twisters’ recorded by Danny Kaye in 1951. More recently, Ed Sheeran had a go with his song ‘You Need Me, I Don’t Need You’.

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