Summary

The webpage discusses the concept of scansion in songwriting, emphasizing its role in enhancing the rhythm and structure of lyrics beyond basic rhyming.

Abstract

The article "Beyond Rhyming: Scansion in Songwriting" delves into the often-overlooked technique of scansion, which involves stressing certain syllables in lyrics to create a distinctive musical rhythm. It highlights that while pop music may seem formulaic, with a common four-chord progression underlying many hits, scansion adds a layer of complexity that contributes to a song's catchiness and emotional impact. The piece references educational sources such as Harvard University and Purdue University to define scansion and illustrate its application in poetry and music. Songwriters are encouraged to use scansion to refine their lyrics, ensuring that the natural flow of language complements the melody, thus enhancing the overall quality of their songs. The article suggests that scansion is akin to an essential ingredient in songwriting, elevating the art form by giving it a more nuanced and expressive character.

Opinions

The author implies that the perceived similarity in pop music is due to a lack of understanding of the underlying techniques like scansion.
There is an appreciation for the complexity of songwriting, with scansion being a key differentiator between a good song and a great one.
The use of scansion is portrayed as a sophisticated skill that can be learned and applied, much like the craft of rhyming.
The article suggests that the mastery of scansion can help songwriters achieve a more natural and effective marriage of words and music.
It is conveyed that scansion is an undervalued aspect of songwriting that deserves more attention from both creators and listeners of music.

Beyond Rhyming: Scansion in Songwriting

The hidden dimension to popular music and songwriting.

Why does all pop music sound the same?

How are songs written?

Just take a look through this video below as proof, these three guys play through some of the greatest musical hits of the past few decades while continuously playing a four chord repetition in the background at the same time.

It’s astounding.

The guy on the keyboard just plays the same four chords in the same exact sequence and these popular classics like Don’t Stop Believin’, You’re Beautiful, Forever Young, I’m Yours, and along with an entire laundry list.

Check it out for yourself.

We all know that pop music follows a formula, but we’re not really sure of what that formula is sometimes. We see bits and fragments of it, sometimes it’s obvious by the rhyme scheme and other times it’s just a really catchy and well-written song that you can’t place your finger on.

That’s part of the magic of music.

Let’s look into one of the key techniques that songwriters use regularly to shape their songs apart from the elementary school grade stuff of rhyming.

I’m talking about scansion.

To start it off, we can think of the basic concept of of scansion as putting stress on certain syllables when you sing or pronounce them.

Harvard University defines scansion from a standpoint of poetry:

“The identification and analysis of poetic rhythm and meter. To ‘scan’ a line of poetry is to mark its stressed and unstressed syllables.”

But Purdue University gives a pretty great breakdown through a definition and a number of images about the different types of scansion:

“There are three kinds of scansion: the graphic, the musical and the acoustic.”

The scansions are shown here in some old poem in the example of graphical scansion given by Purdue in the same article above:

So, along with clever rhymes, the emphasis and spacing of how words or musical notes are played gives them a characteristic quality.

So, how do we define scansion in the context of songwriting?

If rhyming is the bread of music, then you might call scansion the butter, because it accentuates the existing features of a poet or rapper or singer’s lines that are already great.

In the process of songwriting itself, many people also turn to the concept of scansion to determine the best sequence of words to use in a hit or popular song.

Ever hear a foreign person pronounce a common word in your language strangely or something similar? That shows the significance of how emphasis and pauses on certain words and syllables can impact their general perception

Ok, so let’s get to the part about songwriting.

Simon Hawkins gives a good, intuitive breakdown of how scansion works for songwriters.

There are a million ways to say the same thing, but scansion allows you to choose which one of those ways will sound the best.

As Hawkins writes in his initial explanations:

Scansion is another general lyric tool and is particularly important. It’s the principle of preserving the natural shape of language and has a lot to do with getting the marriage of words to music right.

Ultimately, that will create allow you to choose the best lyrics for your songs rather than trying to shoot at first in a barrel while digging for the keys to a hit single.