General Music Chat

I don't think the two entries for the previous contest are that different at all, both had a very country feel to them.

Do the lyrics need to be used exactly as posted? Or can some rewriting be done?

Some rewriting can be done for the challenge. The only thing is that it has to be run by our team at The Lyrical Challenge first. We don't want lyrics drifting to far from what the lyricists had in mind. We also discuss some details with the lyricist as well in terms of changes. But our rules do state you are okay to change some lyrics as long as its not too dramatic of a change.

The verses are all messed up rhythmically - the first verse seems to have an extra half-line but the rhymes don't coincide with the AA-BB scheme in verse 2, in fact a 'prechorus' line is added for a rhyme in verse 1? REWRITE TIME!

^^ this.

yeah, I finally got curious and checked out the lyrics.

They seem terribly attuned to country to begin with, but getting past that-

The chorus is clearly a 4/4 endeavor, but the verses seem to be attuned more to a 3/4 pattern, and then the first verse has that pesky extra line in it. It might work for poetry, but for songwriting, this set of lyrics is clearly amateur and more difficult to work with because of it. I would have to take some serious liberty on them just to compose something that flowed.

When setting lyrics to music (or vice versa) it is imperative that the components be fluid. When my singer writes a poem that he wants turned into lyrics he understands that some modifications are almost always required. And when I'm writing music to fit the words I understand that the music must be fluid in order to accommodate the lyrics. It's the ying and yang of songwriting. If either component is too rigid the creativity will be stifled.

and it's ALL bout the flow, flo.

if it don't groove...why botha?

The verses are all messed up rhythmically - the first verse seems to have an extra half-line but the rhymes don't coincide with the AA-BB scheme in verse 2, in fact a 'prechorus' line is added for a rhyme in verse 1? REWRITE TIME!

^^ this.

yeah, I finally got curious and checked out the lyrics.

They seem terribly attuned to country to begin with, but getting past that-

The chorus is clearly a 4/4 endeavor, but the verses seem to be attuned more to a 3/4 pattern, and then the first verse has that pesky extra line in it. It might work for poetry, but for songwriting, this set of lyrics is clearly amateur and more difficult to work with because of it. I would have to take some serious liberty on them just to compose something that flowed.

I worked with the lyrics last night, proposed to the LC people my changes in the lyrics (actually fairly minor), and going to give it a go this weekend. If nothing else, its a good musical exercise.