16
Songwriters Group: Lyrics: Poetic Devices
The songwriter’s group meets Mondays (generally every second Monday) at 7:30 PM. You can contact Dave Von Bieker to find out where at dave@vonbieker.com. Join us if you can!
Here is a run-down of what we went over on Monday, November 9, 2009. You can scroll down to the bottom to “play along at home” and get the assignment for the coming meeting on November 23.
Review
Last week we talked about power words – words that draw you in, or words that stick out and make you think for a moment. We talked about words that create interest. Words that are not bland. Words that pack more meaning inside them than may be expected. Words that add color. Even words we’ve made up. We listened to the wealth of words in Bruce Cockburn’s If A Tree Falls In The Forest. Then, we listened to some first drafts of songs and poems, and were challenged to improve our words choices by focussing on using strong words, rather than weak, generic words, throughout.
Song Circle
Many of us in the group shared songs or poetry we’ve been working on. Daniel (welcome Daniel!) shared a song about Johnny Cash and his dark cave experience. Some great words and images are used throughout. Dave shared the progress of his song A Place Like This. Eli shared a song he’s working on based on Ghost Riders In The Sky, which has a really great feel to it, and a lot of potential for our upcoming Bridge Songs: Faerie project. Pascal shared a poem set at a bus stop that also used some powerful words and imagery. It was great to have Angela back, and to have Kevin out for the first time as well. Our group is picking up some steam!
It was also great to share and hear feedback. We listened to each piece and then reflected on these questions;
What was the strongest word choice for me?
Are there any poetic devices that stand out?
Everyone did a good job respecting each other, yet offering constructive feedback, rather than just saying “I think it’s great”. This sharing time is definitely one of my favorite parts of the group!
Learning: Poetic Devices
We took a bit of a trip back to high school English class for this one. Actually, most of what we talked about comes from the book, Songwriting For Dummies, that we’ve been referring to fairly often.
Essentially, poetic devices are language tools we can use as songwriters to add interest to our lyrics. From Songwriting for Dummies, here are some poetic devices we can use (perhaps you also know of more)…
- rhyme
- alliteration
- imagery
- personification
- simile
- metaphor
- assonance
- consonance
- anaphora
If you don’t know what any of these are, you should pick up the book (you can find it on Amazon.com) or do a search online. They’re fairly common terms.
You can also find word and writing tools online to help you with your poetic devices. Here are just a couple.
rhyme generator – http://www.rhymezone.com
This site helps you find rhyming words, of varying numbers of syllables, to any word you type in. I’ve already used it once to replace the words “good mood” with “come unglued”. A new favorite tool of mine.
random word generator – http://watchout4snakes.com/creativitytools/RandomWord/RandomWordPlus.aspx
Stuck on a topic for a song, or a verse? Find a random word to spark your creativity here. You can even select how common of a word you want.
Finally, a way to wrap your head around poetic devices, and to start using more of them, is to read good poetry!
Listening
We listened to the song Basket, by Dan Mangan. We talked about the many poetic devices used throughout this song, what our favorite ones were, and what the song said to each of us. Great discussion on a great song.
I am now throwing the listening feature out to you, songwriters! Each week one of you will bring a song to our attention that has to do with the topic for that week. This coming meeting, the 23rd, Kevin will be bringing a song with a song use of narrative (storytelling).
Sneak Peak
Next time we meet, on Monday, November 23rd, we’ll look at storytelling. People love stories, even in their songs. It’s what explains the popularity of country music (yes, there is an explanation!)
After that, we’ll look at abstract lyrics – lyrics that are used to convey a mood or sense, rather than a literal story or picture. Anyone want to bring a listening song for us that week?
The Assignment
Write a song that prominently features at least one of the poetic devices we talked about today. If you cannot write a melody for it, that’s OK – at least try to formulate a lyric. Try a strong use of metaphor (write about how love is a hot air balloon, or how death is a deep freeze, etc.), or personification (ascribe human qualities to something inanimate) for a challenge.
See you on November 23rd – most likely at The Carrot Community Arts Coffeehouse (9351 118th ave) at 7:30 PM.
Posted in Arts Group, Links, Resources, Songwriters Group | 3 Comments »