Chapter 7

Using Rhymes in Your Songs

In This Chapter

Looking at the basic types of rhyming schemes

Exploring the other rhyming techniques

Deciding whether to rhyme at all

Dissecting rhyming schemes

Nothing puts the final coat of shellac on a song better than a well-constructed rhyme scheme. The careful and often clever use of exact or similar sounding words is the spice behind the meaning of the words that helps market the emotions of a song. Without rhymes (unless purposely not used to create a specific unschooled effect), songs tend to sound unfinished and amateurish in nature.

Although finding these clever rhymes can be a challenge, many writers consider this to be the fun part of the songwriting process — think of the art of rhyming as similar to solving a brainteaser or putting together a jigsaw puzzle.

In this chapter, we fill you in on some rhyming techniques and show you how to use a few helpful tools to find and create rhymes for your own songs. As we’ve said before, there really is no right or wrong way to write a song — if it sounds good to your ear and expresses what you want to say, lyrically and musically, then it’s “right.”

Identifying the Rhyme

In some songwriting tutorials (and even in the previous edition of this book) rhyming schemes are meticulously detailed, giving names to the types of rhymes, like masculine, feminine, and so on. This analysis technique was derived from classical poetry, and it still has its definite place there. But trying to learn all these terms and the classical protocol of using them can be somewhat confusing — even counterproductive — to your songwriting progress. So instead of getting into all that, in order to identify what rhyming means for the songwriter, we’ll look at examples of the clever rhymes that powered some very big hits and at the processes the writers used to get there.

Getting the basics of rhyme structure

Knowing full well you might get a laugh or two from some of the examples used in the following, we’ll give them to you anyway to simplify and illustrate the point, and provide you with the confidence required to master the almighty art of rhyme. If you are old enough to read, you most likely know the simple children’s song “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” (published as a poem by sisters Ann and Jane Taylor in 1806) and can easily recall the lyrics:

Twinkle, twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are

The words star and are are the rhymes. They have the same sound at the end of them because of the ar sound — pretty simple stuff, eh? This is rhyme at its most basic. You might chuckle at this example, but think about it. You remembered this couplet the second you heard it as a child, and can recite it today as if it were second nature. There are many songs referenced in these chapters, and you probably don’t know all of them, but we’ll put our money on the fact that every person who picks up this book will know “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” It’s the rhyme of this little piece that you remember, and that’s what renders it unforgettable. This is the perfect example of how powerful rhyme can be!

When you sit down to compose a song, you’re basically writing a poem and setting it to music. At its basic foundation, simple poetry has words that have a “beat” to them — and the last word of every line sounds the same.

As in “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” the words star and are share the same sounds — about as perfect of a rhyme as you can find. Chances are good that your first-ever attempt at songwriting had a rhyming scheme that was similar. Perfectly legit, but if you have three verses of a song that all feature the same rhyme, it’s going to get really boring really fast! Or will it? Check out this sample from The Killers in their short song “Enterlude” written by Brandon Flowers:

We hope you enjoy your stay
It’s good to have you with us, even if it’s just for the day
We hope you enjoy your stay

Outside the sun is shining, it seems like heaven ain’t far away
It’s good to have you with us, even if it’s just for the day

© Universal-Polygram Int’l Pub Obo Universal Music Pub. Ltd.

The Killers made the simplest of rhyme schemes work — and so can you! At the risk of beating a dead horse here, take a look at yet another nursery rhyme favorite to reinforce the point and highlight simple rhyme structure variations:

Mary had a little lamb
Its fleece was white as snow
And everywhere that Mary went
The lamb was sure to go

Here we find the rhyme occurs in every other line with snow and go. This is the rhyming scheme to more hit songs that you can count on the arms of an octopus! What was said about “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” goes for this example as well — this child’s song is memorable because of the rhyme.

In “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” the rhymes come at the end of every other line. It’s perfectly acceptable to have the rhyme come at the end of the first line, and then have it hit on every other one. You can double it up, as well, having the odd lines rhyme in one way, and the even lines rhyme in another. As you can begin to see, the possibilities of rhyme are endless.

Starting with the alternate line method

A very common rhyme pattern occurs when the words rhyme at the ends of alternating lines. This is the scheme of the verses of “Heavy Metal,” the movie-driven ’80s hit for Sammy Hagar, co-written with Jim Peterik:

Head bangers in leather
Sparks flying in the dead of the night
They all come together
When they shoot out the lights
Fifty thousand watts of power
And it’s pushin’ overload
The beast is ready to devour
All the metal they can hold

© 1981 WB Music Corp. (ASCAP), Easy Action Music (ASCAP), and The Nine Music (ASCAP). All Rights o/b/o Easy Action Music administered by WB Music Corp. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Warner Bros. Publications U.S. Inc., Miami, FL 33014

Each line leads perfectly to the next as a night at a heavy metal show is described. Also note how the rhyming words in italics (leather, together, power, devour) tell their own story — there’s no doubt why this is a song entitled “Heavy Metal.” Very often the rhyming words offer essential points to a song, and the rhyme itself becomes another hook.

When Jim wrote the song “Heavy Metal” with Sammy Hagar, they put themselves into the moment of the concert and started to draw from their own experience of attending and performing big shows. The rhymes just kind of came naturally from the conversation they were having at the time. It’s not like either of them said, “Let’s construct an ABAB-type of rhyming pattern.” They just started with the lines “Head bangers in leather, sparks flying in the dead of the night,” and those lines seemed to dictate where the rhymes went from there.

This rhyming pattern is one of the oldest in pop-lyric writing. No matter what’s being said, what sentiments are being reflected, and what style of language is popular at that particular time, this form has resilience in every era. In “Vehicle,” a ’70s hit written by Jim Peterik for The Ides of March, notice that the same rhyming scheme is also used:

I’m the friendly stranger in the black sedan
Won’t you hop inside my car
I got pictures, got candy, I’m a loveable man
And I can take you to the nearest star

If you haven’t already figured this out, it’s perfectly acceptable if the rhyming words aren’t exactly in the same “shape.” In the previous examples, the rhyming words have the same makeup: sedan . . . man, night . . . tight, and so on. If your ear is tuned in, you’ll notice that in “Heavy Metal” the even lines rhymed, but not in the same way as the odd lines. There are plenty of rhymes to be found where the dominant sound of the word is matching, even though the construction of the word is different.

In “Superman (It’s Not Easy)” by John Ondrasik of Five For Fighting, this rhyme scheme is used to good advantage on its verse:

. . . stand to fly
. . . that naïve
. . . out to find
. . . part of me

The rhyme here is the “long i” sound of fly and find. It opens up a universe of possibilities, doesn’t it? If a rhyme sounds clumsy, it probably is, but then again it might just work. Your ear will guide you — trust it!

When you’re learning anything, it’s a good idea to take a look at history. The great pop songs of the ’30s and ’40s can teach you a lot about how to construct rhymes. They might not get big play on your iPod, but they are worth checking out, right alongside the hits of today.

Looking at other basic rhyming patterns

Helping to make rhyme work for you, here is an example where the first and second lines end in similar sounding words and the third and fourth lines end in a different set of rhymes. Take a look at how one of America’s most descriptive songwriters, John Mellencamp, uses this form in the verse of his 2001 release entitled “Peaceful World:”

. . . world is a wreck
. . . being politically correct
. . . didn’t at first
. . . made it worse and worse

“All Fall Down” is a modern-era example by the group OneRepublic. Check out this gem from the pens of Ryan Tedder, Andrew Brown, Zack Filkins, Brent Kutzle, and Eddie Fisher:

Step out the door and it feels like rain
That’s the sound, that’s the sound on your window pane
Take to the streets but you can’t ignore
That’s the sound, that’s the sound you’re waiting for

© Sony/ATV Tunes Obo Midnite Miracle Music

Another song in this pattern is “Night of the World Stage” by Jim Peterik’s ensemble group, World Stage. The second verse goes like this:

You’re sittin’ at the phone with your everyday frustrations
I’ll take you to the zone for mood elevation
There’s a whole rhythm section bangin’ in your head
Your heart could be my drummer, let’s run it in the red

For more examples of basic rhymes, check out the songs in Table 7-1.

Table 7-1 Songs with Basic Rhyming Patterns
Song Title	Songwriter(s)	Singers/Performers
“Uprising”	Matthew Bellamy	Muse
“Waiting on the World to Change”	John Mayer	John Mayer
“If You Ever Have Forever in Mind”	Vince Gill, Troy Seals	Vince Gill
“Marrakesh Express”	Graham Nash	Crosby, Stills, and Nash
“Your Song”	Elton John, Bernie Taupin	Elton John
“All Along the Watchtower”	Bob Dylan	Jimi Hendrix
“Because You Loved Me”	Diane Warren	Celine Dion

Trying out trickier forms of rhyme

Another type of rhyme scheme is where the last line of four lines rhymes with the first two lines instead of the third. For an example of this, check out the verse in the ’80s Survivor song, “I Can’t Hold Back” (written by Jim Peterik and Frankie Sullivan):

There’s a story in my eyes
Turn the pages of desire
Now it’s time to trade those dreams
For the rush of passion’s fire

The third line adds just enough sound variation to keep the whole verse sounding fresh. You can see how monotonous it would get if the pattern was identical by inserting the fake line Now it’s time to trade those lies in place of the third line. In the original line, the long e sound of dreams is a welcome relief from all the long i sounds.

Oftentimes you can get away with a minimum of rhyming and still have your song sounding top notch. The lyric to the classic hit recorded by Elvis Presley, “Can’t Help Falling in Love with You” (written Luigi Creatore, Hugo Peretti, and George Weiss), has an interesting back story. The song, originally titled “Can’t Help Falling in Love with Him,” was then tailored to fit Elvis when he showed interest in the song. If you read through the lyric, it’s apparent that all the rhymes were crafted to fit the original title. Look at these lyrics and read it the way it turned out, then try substituting in your mind the word him for you each time it comes around to see the difference it made.

“Can’t Help Falling in Love with You” performed by Elvis

Wise men say, “Only fools rush in”
But I can’t help falling in love with you

Shall I stay?
Would it be a sin
If I can’t help falling in love with you

Like a river flows
surely to the sea
Darling, so it goes
Some things are meant to be
Take my hand
Take my whole life, too
For I can’t help
falling in love with you

Like a river flows
Surely to the sea
Darling, so it goes
Some things are meant to be
Take my hand
Take my whole life, too
For I can’t help
falling in love with you
For I can’t help
falling in love with you

When Jim was working on the lyrics for “Eye of the Tiger” (co-written with Frankie Sullivan), more emphasis was put on telling Rocky’s story than rhyming up a storm. The word rival was originally there as an exact rhyme to the original working title, “Survival.” When the (extremely wise) decision was made to make the hook “Eye of the Tiger,” the word rival came along for the ride and became an “approximate rhyme” for the word tiger. Even though it may have been more desirable to find an exact rhyme for either rival or tiger, the emotion of the lyric was well worth the trade-off. It’s fascinating to look at the rough drafts of famous lyrics to see their raw beginnings, before they were refined and merely scrawls on a notebook page. Figure 7-1 shows one of the rough drafts of “Eye of the Tiger” taken from Jim’s work notebook.

Now look at an excerpt from the lyric of this ode to the human spirit to illustrate its lack of traditional rhyming techniques:

Rising up, back on the street
Did my time, took my chances
Went the distance, now I’m back on my feet
Just a man and his will to survive
So many times, it happens too fast
You trade your passion for glory
Don’t lose your grip on the dreams of the past
You must fight just to keep them alive

Notice how the rhyme pattern actually spans two verses with the last line of each verse containing the rhyming word.

The chorus then shifts to the following pattern:

It’s the eye of the tiger
It’s the thrill of the fight
Rising up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night
And he’s watching us all with the eye — of the tiger

© 1982 WB Music Corp., Easy Action Music, Holey Moley Music, and Rude Music. All Rights o/b/o Easy Action Music administered by WB Music Corp. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Warner Bros. Publications U.S. Inc., Miami, FL 33014

Sometimes you can fool the ear with an approximate rhyme. Tiger is such a strong word that it more than justifies the lack of exact rhyme.

Like many songs, the rhyme scheme on this one varies from section to section. This variance, in fact, further helps separate sections and makes them more distinct from one another.

As you can see, there are many different rhyme patterns used in popular songs. Here are some more patterns and some corresponding sample songs:

AAAA patterns (where the first four lines rhyme):

• “Fortunate,” written by Robert Kelly; performed by Maxwell

• “American Pie,” written and sung by Don McLean

• “Every Breath You Take,” written and sung by Sting

ABCB patterns (where the first and third lines don’t rhyme with anything, and lines two and four do):

• “My Girl,” written by Smokey Robinson and Ronald White; performed by the Temptations

• “God Must Have Spent a Little More Time on You,” written by Carl Sturken and Evan Rogers; performed by ’N Sync (pop hit) and Alabama (country hit)

• “House of the Rising Sun,” written by John Sterling and Eric Burdon; performed by the Animals

• “In My Life,” written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney; performed by The Beatles

The only real criteria for the validity of a rhyme pattern are not how many hits it’s been used in, but how it sounds to the ear. Not coincidentally, most of the patterns used on the biggest hits happen to be the most pleasing to the ear.

Adding internal rhyme

Rhyme isn’t limited to the ends of lines. It can occur within a line or in the midst of two successive lines. “Internal rhyme” is a common element in many of our favorite songs. Without knowing it, the audience is getting a nice portion of ear candy. It may not be nutritious, but it sure is tasty!

This line from the second verse of Survivor’s “The Search Is Over” (written by Jim Peterik and Frank Sullivan) is a good example of internal rhyme used within a single line of a lyric: “You followed me through changes and patiently you’d wait”/“Till I came to my senses through some miracle of fate.”

Lyrical touches like this tend to be rather subliminal, but they have the effect of making a song sound professional and “finished.”

In the song “Long Day” by Matchbox Twenty (written by Rob Thomas), the band uses the technique of internal rhyme that occurs not only within a single line but within successive lines: “. . . sitting by the overcoat . . . second shelf, the note she wrote . . . can’t bring myself to throw away.” The word note is an inner rhyme to the word wrote in the same line (which is an end rhyme to overcoat in the first line). Shelf is an internal rhyme to the word myself in the following line.

In John Mayer’s song “No Such Thing” (co-written with Clay Cook), he adds internal rhyme in the very first line of the song: “. . . she said to me condescendingly.” He uses the technique again a few lines later: “. . . the dreams of the prom kings.”

Using Other Rhyming Techniques in Your Song

When writing a lyric, you can use various techniques to make your job a whole lot easier. Also note that it’s not cheating to use inexact rhymes and play games like working backward from an end line and shifting pronunciations to make a rhyme work. Now look at a few of the methods that the pros use to complete a song.

Working with perfect rhymes

A “perfect rhyme” is when the syllables of two or more words contain the same vowel and final consonant sounds, but begin with different consonant sounds (such as boat and coat or bullet and pull it).

It doesn’t matter how the word is spelled as long as the sound of the word is the same. For example, fight and ignite are exact rhymes even though they’re spelled differently (night and ignite are not rhymes because the two sounds are identical even though they are spelled differently). Conversely, love and prove are not perfect rhymes because even though they are spelled the same (other than their opening sounds), they’re not pronounced the same. Even the addition of an s at the end of a word technically prevents two words from being considered perfect rhymes. On the other hand night and ignite would not be considered rhymes because though the end of the word is identical, the preceding consonant needs to be different to be considered a rhyme.

Practically speaking, there is no compelling reason that I can see for insisting on perfect rhymes throughout an entire song. It’s good work when you can get it, but don’t sacrifice meaning and emotion for lack of a perfect rhyme.

—Jim Peterik, singer and songwriter — Survivor and Ides of March

Sometimes there are nuances between words that put their status as perfect rhymes in question. In the David Pomeranz and David Zippel hit “Born for You” (sung by Cathy Lee), they rhyme stars with ours. Though there’s a slightly different vowel sound between the words, they sound virtually identical when sung.

Some writing teams of the past, such as Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, always used exact rhymes in their lyrics, otherwise they wouldn’t write it. Look up the lyrics to “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music, and check out the wonderful perfect rhyming schemes.

The argument for this perfection is the absolute neatness of all the phrases, similar to the way the military demands its beds be made or the way the woman down the road keeps a perfect lawn. It sure looks nice, but you can decide for yourself if it’s mandatory.

Even if you are writing with a very successful songwriter in Nashville, don’t let them insist on using perfect rhymes all the time. You might end up writing a few good songs, but you also might just sacrifice some great emotion on the altar of perfection if you do. Sometimes the perfect word for a line does not happen to be a perfect rhyme.

Getting it close with near rhymes

“Near rhymes” are words that are close enough in sound to be similar but not exactly the same. They are used extensively in all types of musical styles and seem to be getting more and more popular as rhymes are getting further and further apart. In “Take the Money and Run” (written and sung by Steve Miller), the line that you may remember most is his wonderful mangling of the English language when he rhymes Texas with facts is. This is a great example of the near rhyme taken to its extreme.

You’ll find this kind of rhyme prevalent in hip-hop. Here’s an example from Jay-Z in “Empire State of Mind,” featuring Alicia Keys — this song stretches near rhyme almost to the extreme, but it works for Jay-Z:

All of my Dominicanos
Right there up on Broadway
Brought me back to that McDonald’s
Took it to my stash spot

© EMI April Music Inc. “Empire State Of Mind” by Al Shuckburgh, Janet Sewell, Burt Keyes, Alicia Augello-Cook, Shawn Carter, Jane’t Sewell, Sylvian Robinson, Angela Hunte

In “Can’t Say It Loud Enough,” Johnny Van Zant, Robert White Johnson, and Jim were stuck for a rhyme for the word window. Here’s how they got around it:

I see the eyes of a child barely five
In a photo right next to my window
I see the shadow of a man at my side
Feel his spirit each time the wind blows

Notice the inner rhyme of eyes and five in the first line.

No matter how good a line or a thought is, if it doesn’t please the ear in the context of the music, it’s not gonna do what it’s supposed to do, which is to make the listener enjoy the song. Poetry has to read well — lyrics have to sing well. Music is based in time and meter. A good lyric blends with melody; it doesn’t fight it. It should be as ear-pleasing and interesting as possible. I use sound-alike words as much as possible. Bouquet/day, problem/solve ’em, God/job; these were all in hit songs I’ve written. A good exercise is simply practicing rhyming words that don’t easily rhyme; the ultimate being “orange.” There is no perfect rhyme in the English language for “orange,” but there are plenty in songwriter-ese: i.e., “storm,” “born,” “torn,” etc.

—John Greenebaum, noted Nashville songwriter — co- writer of “Third Rock From The Sun” by Joe Diffie and many more

Working backwards with rhyme

When working up a lyric, you often have one key line, perhaps the first, to build up from. It would then be a good idea to create a dummy lyric for the next three or four lines (or however long your verse might be). As noted in Chapter 1, a dummy lyric is not intended to stay as a permanent fixture of the song; it exists mainly to block out the mechanics of the verse, marking parameters such as the amount of syllables per line and possible rhyme schemes.

Being a big fan of the dummy lyric (Hey — how about a book called Dummy Lyrics For Dummies!), when Jim writes with someone else, he’ll say, “Let’s just come up with a dummy lyric for now to help us remember the melody.” It’s a great way to beat the writer’s block that comes from thinking that everything you write down has to be brilliant. Almost invariably what happens next is that you’ll come up with at least one or two lines that are pretty darn cool in the climate of lowered expectations.

In creating your mock-up section (this technique works equally well for all sections of the song), you may hit upon a last line that is actually a keeper. Your next step may be to work back from that line to find appropriate rhymes for the rest of the verse.

When I was writing the lyric to “Can’t Say It Loud Enough” for the Van Zant album with Robert White Johnson and Jim Peterik, all we had was a great second line, “My daddy said that the truth is the truth and there just ain’t no space in between it.” We worked backward all day long to find the right line and the right rhyme for the first line. We finally came up with, “Some people think that a lie ain’t a lie if you find enough fools to believe it.” Working backward on a lyric, you can sometimes come up with some great stuff you never would’ve otherwise.

—Johnny Van Zant, lead singer of Lynyrd Skynyrd and member of Van Zant

Changing pronunciations to help rhyme

Sometimes, merely how a singer pronounces a word will dictate if a word will rhyme. Thinking is a perfect rhyme for drinking. If you’re writing a country tune, however, you could easily rhyme spankin’ with drankin’, which is country past-tense for drinkin’.

You can stretch the language only so far in search of a rhyme. When rhyming pain, it would be out of fashion to pronounce again, so as to rhyme exactly.

Rhyming across verses

Take a look at this old standard, “In the Chapel in the Moonlight” (written and sung by Billy Hill), to see how the rhymes match up across the verses.

Verse 1

How I’d love to hear the organ
In the chapel in the moonlight
While we’re strolling down the aisle
Where roses entwine

Verse 2

How I’d love to hear you whisper
In the chapel in the moonlight
That the lovelight in your eyes
Forever will shine

Bridge

Till the roses turn to ashes
Till the organ turns to rust
If you never come, I’ll still be there
Till the moonlight turns to dust

Verse 3

How I’d love to hear the choir
In the chapel in the moonlight
As they sing “Oh Promise Me”Forever be mine

Words and music by Billy Hill, 1936 Shapiro, Bernstein & Co., Inc. New York Copyright Renewed/International Copyright Secured/All rights reserved/Used by permission

Notice the use of lovelight and moonlight, and the technique where the same word or words are repeated at the beginning of succeeding verses or lines: How I’d love to hear . . . (1) the organ, (2) you whisper, (3) the choir . . . in the chapel in the moonlight. A picture is painted here: moonlight, the choir, the silence. Then the bridge provides the counterbalance: rust and dust. There is no rhyme scheme in the verses, the whole thing is tied together by the repeated lines and the cross-verse end rhymes: entwine, shine, and mine. What a well-crafted gem this song is — no wonder it reached the #5 position and spent one third of the year on the charts in 1954.

To Rhyme or Not to Rhyme?

That is the question — you must decide! Since the ’60s, the use of rhyme in popular, rock, country, and R&B songs has changed greatly, with less and less of an emphasis on rhyme in many cases. Near rhyme is used more as an embellishment nowadays — the same trend that poetry took at the beginning of the twentieth century when free verse came alive.

Looking at songs with little rhyme

It’s interesting to note that there’s only one rhyme in the Paul Simon-penned song “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” again proving the point that there are a lot of choices when it comes to using rhyme. Take a look at the following song, “Wild-Eyed Southern Boys” (written by Jim Peterik and performed by .38 Special), as another example of this — we’ve noted the few words that actually do rhyme:

Verse 1

It’s a hot night at the juke joint
And the bands pumpin rhythm and blues
Gonna spill a little rock and roll blood tonight
Gonna make some front page news

Pre-chorus

And the ladies hate the violence
Still they never seem to look away
Cause they love those

Chorus

Wild-eyed southern boys
Wild-eyed boys
Wild-eyed southern boys

Verse 2

It’s a southern point of honor
You got a get right in on the act
You can hear the outlaws holler
Fightin’ for the lady in black

Pre-chorus

And she’s just one in a million
But she’s all I need tonight
Cause she loves those

Chorus

Wild-eyed southern boys
Wild-eyed boys
Wild-eyed southern boys

© 1981 WB Music Corp. (ASCAP) and Easy Action Music (ASCAP). All rights administered by WB Music Corp. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Warner Bros. Publications U.S. Inc., Miami, FL 33014

Another song with very little rhyme scheme going on in the lyric is “Happy Endings” by Jason Mraz. There are a few rhymes in there, but it’s a hard look to find them — feet, weak, . . . and anyway, grey, which is a little more on point — proving that overall, the absence of rhyme is not a show-stopper to writing a great song:

You are naked
Standing at the other end of this
Poison arrow
I am William tell

And you are the girl with the golden apple
And you are hungry to be swept off your feet
You wanna do this out in the open
But my aim is often weak
And you fear my shoulders sloping
Your split ends will end up falling anyway
Before the weight of the apple world
Gets to turn them all grey
And your eyes they need
Calming down

© Goo Eyed Music ASCAP

Check out some of these other hit songs with very little to offer in the rhyming department:

“Let’s Make Love,” written by Chris Lindsey, Marv Green, Bill Luther, and Almec Mayo; sung by Faith Hill and Tim McGraw

“Shape of My Heart,” written by Max Martin, Rami Yacoub, and Lisa Miskovsky; performed by The Backstreet Boys

“White Flag,” written by Dido Armstrong, Rollo Armstrong, and Rick Nowels; performed by Dido

“You Don’t Have to Cry,” written by Stephen Stills and Gold Hill; performed by Crosby, Stills, and Nash

Bringing it all together

Songwriting has a bunch of rules that can be broken at will — and you never need to feel a bit of guilt about it — but remember what Shakespeare said: “To thine own song be true” (Shakespeare did say that, didn’t he?). Here’s an example of a lyric that illustrates almost every part of this chapter on rhymes. Analyze “Roses for No Reason” by Jim Peterik and Lisa McClowry to see how rhymes can work for you, too.

Verse 1

Lying on my bed, overtired, uninspired
Paging through a book of far off islands
Wondering who I am
Where I belong
I search for songs
To soothe my soul
And help me find the inner silence

Pre-chorus

Then just when I’m about to give up hope
When nothing in this world
Can help me cope

Chorus

He brings me roses for no reason
Orchids out of season
Love right to my door
And he sends me
Where no one dares to travel
I’m taken by the man who comes to call — with roses for no reason at all

Verse 2

I wonder if he knows
To what degree he means to me
Sometimes I’m overtaken
By emotion
And what I thought was loveIs so much more — I know for sure
Never has there been a sweeter potion

Pre-chorus

I’m just about to call this night a day
When I hear the knock
That takes my breath away

Chorus

He brings me roses for no reason
Orchids out of season
Love right to my door
And he takes me where no one dares to travel
I’ve finally found the softest place
To fall — and roses for no reason at all

Bridge

A gift without occasion
The taste of sweet persuasion
A celebration of just being alive
A love without condition
My whispered premonition
These roses could be just the start
Of sharing secrets heart to heart
Of special moments just like these
Until the end of time.

© Jim Peterik — Lisa McClowry. Jim Peterik Music — Bicycle Music ASCAP

Practice Makes Perfect

For this exercise, try looking at the rhyme schemes of ten of your favorite songs by writing out the lyrics line by line and determining what method was chosen. You’ll start to see the various patterns of the rhyme schemes and the tricks writers use to make a lyric sound good while they’re telling a story. Now go to a song you’re currently writing and see how you might improve upon it by using more exact rhymes, rhyming variations, inner rhyme, and dissimilar-sounding vowel sounds. Look at how your rhyming words draw attention or add emphasis to enhance the final piece.

Next, again choose one of your favorite songs and make a note of all the rhyming devices you find: internal rhyme (both within lines and between lines), perfect rhymes and imperfect rhymes, and also the instances where a singer’s pronunciation affects its RQ (rhyming quotient). Is it believable, conversational, or is it just plain sappy? Then take a look at your own finished or work-in-progress songs to see the workings of what you probably accomplished on pure instinct. Now figure out how the lyric could be made more “ear-pleasing” by the addition of some inner rhymes or some closer rhyming.

Pay attention to the effective rhyming methods that are used to hold the listener’s attention and how good rhyming techniques make the lyrics seem so easy to remember. Also keep track of which songs were able to make the rhymes sound effortless, and use those to model your own efforts at perfecting the art of rhyme.