Songwriting News: Dont Worry About The Rhyme – At First (2024)

The way I often write lyrics that rhyme – and I don’t think this is uncommon – is to first come up with a line I like that ends with a word or sound that I intend to rhyme to. Then I either search for a subsequent line to place the rhyme I need, or I find a specific word I want to use to make that rhyme and write the line backwards from there. (Or some combination of these.)

There’s nothing wrong with these approaches, and a lot that’s right. By their nature words that rhyme tend to feel like the most important words in a line (or a section) – rhyming naturally confers emphasis. Giving more focus to the rhyming words and working forward or backwards to or from them makes a lot of sense.

Lately, though, I’ve been leaning towards something slightly different. In the line in which I’m going for a rhyme, at first I don’t concern myself with the rhyme at all.

Instead I think of what I might want to say, what thought comes to mind. I leave myself free from worry about the rhyme, for a while anyway, and see what happens.

What sometimes happens is that I come up with an even better idea for a line… but one that doesn’t rhyme with my original word. The new line’s idea or sound goes in an unexpected – and possibly better – direction.

I then re-rhyme the previous line to the new line.

By the way, this can work with line length too. Sometimes by freeing up the process in this way I come up with a different phrasing that might be more interesting and exciting, and might even warrant changing the melody, if there is one yet.

I don’t have to write a section in a chronological way – first line or two first, then rhyme back to that; letting the first line(s) narrow the possibilities of what comes after – though that’s not a bad thing.

The other approach is to keep the possibilities open and if something good happens work backwards to a different rhyming word and what might be a better result.

There’s no ‘right’ way to do anything in songwriting.There are a lot of different approaches. Whatever works!

Let me know your thoughts in the Comments section below.