Rhythm Showing

[UrbanAncients]

When writing song lyrics, how do you show pauses during lines and when you hold on a note, if you haven't already wrote the melody on paper, like on a stave. I'm guessing everyone does it differently, whilst some might not do it at all, so it would be fun to see, plus, I need to know how to show rhythm.

[stevel]

Originally Posted by UrbanAncients

When writing song lyrics, how do you show pauses during lines and when you hold on a note, if you haven't already wrote the melody on paper, like on a stave. I'm guessing everyone does it differently, whilst some might not do it at all, so it would be fun to see, plus, I need to know how to show rhythm.

I don't usually show rhythm in text. I just write the words.

Traditionally, an end of a line is a "pause":

Hickory, Dickory Dock (pause or breath)
The mouse ran up the clock (P)
The clock strick one and down he run (P)
Hickory Dickory Dock.

Thoughts are also shown by commas and periods, which in many cases directly equate to classical antecedent and consequent phrase structure (not necessarily in pop music though).

Because I could not stop for Death,
he kindly stopped for me.

here the comma is no pause (or slight pause) and the period is a pause.

In actual music, lines show when a word (called a word extension) is to be held:

I_________
want you to know,
I_________
want you you know.

ooh, I just copyrighted that - no one take it :-)!!!

A long time ago, before music notation, people used marks to show pitch changes (and those symbols evolved into notes).

So you could certainly invent your own set of marks for pauses, long notes and so on that are basically graphic representations of what's going on.

Me, I just use note values over the text, or put other musical symbols (breath marks, fermata, etc.) over the text, assuming I'm "pre-figuring" the musical rhythm (and pitch sometimes, for which I use lines or letters).

But usually, I put the text in as I go so it gets done simultaneously with the music.

Best,
Steve