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Songwriting: Essential Guide to
Rhyming
Pat Pattison
Chapter 1
Rhyme is Your Friend
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CHAPTER ONE
Rhyme is a connection between the sounds of syllables, not words. Only the last syllables rhyme in
underwear
repair
The other syllables,
under
re
do not figure in at all.
When two syllables rhyme, it means three things:
1. The syllables' vowel sounds are the same
wear
cast
Even though these syllables' vowels have different letters, they make the same sound in these
words. Only your ears count, not your eyes.
2. The sounds after the vowels (if any) are the same,
ear
air
(As you can see by the "ea" in "wear" and "ear," sometimes the same letters sound different in
different contexts.)
"(If any)" is important because syllables don't always have consonants after their vowel
sounds, as in
disagree
referee.
3. The sounds before the vowels are different.
This third characteristic is important. It shows that rhyme works by the basic musical principle
of tension /resolution: difference moving into sameness. When you hear a rhyme,
wear gree
pair ree
your ear notices that, in spite of the difference at the beginnings of the syllables, they end up
sounding alike!
Beginnings of rhymed syllables have to be different so your ear will notice the similar sounds at
the end. otherwise, your ear will pick up only repetition, not rhyme. When you hear a cheer-
leader yell
go! go! go! go! go!
Rhyme Is Your Friend
you pay attention to the repetition, not to the sounds of the syllables. No one in the stadium
thinks "Hey! Those syllables sound the same!"
When the beginnings of syllables are the same, the syllables cannot rhyme. This is called an
IDENTITY:
fuse
confuse
It is not a rhyme. Your ear does not pay attention to the sounds of the syllables. There is no
tension, no "difference" to be resolved by sameness.
peace lease
piece police
These words do not call attention to their sounds either, because their syllables do not resolve
difference into sameness. The same sounds are repeated, just like a cheerleader's yell. But try
peace piece
lease police
These are a big difference from the Identities above them. There is also a big difference between
these two lists:
1. birthplace, commonplace, misplace, place, rephce
2. ace, brace, chase, erase, face, disgrace, resting place
Say them aloud. Your ear does not focus on the sounds in the first list, but is drawn like a mag-
net to the sounds in the second list. In the first list you hear simple repetition. In the second list
you hear the sound of music - or, rather, of tension /resolution.
Look at the three conditions again.
1. The syllables' vowel sounds are the same
2. The sounds after the vowels (if any) are the same,
3. The sounds before the vowels are different.
When syllables meet all three of these conditions, call it PERFECT RHYME. Later I will show
you other kinds of rhyme besides PERFECT RHYME.
Most rhymes, including PERFECT RHYMES, belong to one of two categories. Never to both.
Every rhyme is either MASCULINE or FEMININE. (We will conveniently ignore three-syllable
rhymes, at least for now.)
Here are some MASCULINE RHYMES:
command
land
understand
expand
strand
Here are some FEMININE RHYMES:
commanding
landing
understanding
expanding
stranding
Rhyme Is Your Friend 7
As you can see, the difference is in the way they end.
MASCULINE RHYMES are either one-syllable words, or words that end on a stressed syllable
/
command
land
/
understand
/
expand
/
strand
FEMININE RHYMES always end on an unstressed syllable. They are always two-syllable
rhymes. (Masculine rhymes are one-syllable rhymes.)
/
commanding
landing
/
understanding
expanding
/
stranding
Look at the stressed syllables in the FEMININE RHYMES above and you will see that they are
all PERFECT RHYMES:
/
mand ing
land ing
/
stand ing
pand ing
strand ing
Stressed syllables, whether in FEMININE RHYMES or MASCULINE RHYMES, create
rhyme's tension and resolution.
The unstressed ending syllables above are all IDENTITIES, which is normal for Feminine
Rhyme. These IDENTITIES only continue the resolution. Unstressed syllables of FEMININE
RHYMES are usually IDENTITIES, but they do not have to be.
/
commander
/
understand her
expand me
strand thee
Call these pairs above MOSAIC RHYMES, since they are put together with syllables of differ-
ent words, like stained glass pieces in a church window.
Some words end on secondary stress, a syllable that, while it is not the primary stress in the
word, is stronger than the syllables around it. Use "I/" to mark secondary stress.
/ //
ap-pre-ciate
Listen t o it. You can tell by the pitch of the last syllable that it is stronger than the syllable be-
fore it. You cannot treat it as Feminine Rhyme, since its second-last syllable is the unstressed syl-
lable. All Feminine Rhymes have a stressed second-last syllable, or at least their second-last syl-
lable is stronger than the last syllable.
You have two choices when you rhyme "appreciate":
1. You can treat it as a one-syllable Masculine Rhyme.
appreciate
Rhyme Is Your Friend
fate
relate
Even better, you can rhyme it with other secondary stresses:
/ . //
appreciate
/ //
navigate
/ //
compensate
2. You can treat it as a three-syllable rhyme. (Here as a Mosaic):
ap pre ci ate
quiche he ate
These three-syllable rhymes are still Masculine, since their last syllable is more stressed than the
one before it. The somersaults you have to turn for these little gems are worth it only if you are
writing comedy. They sure do dance.
Occasionally when. I've asked writers what rhyming dictionary they use, some have been indig-
nant, as though to say, "I do not cheat. I am self-sufficient." Others have looked at me sadly, as
if hoping that someday I will abandon my artificial crutch and get in touch with my creative in-
ner self.
Use a rhyming dictionary. This is one place where self-reliance and rugged individualism is
silly. Finding rhymes is almost never a creative act. It is a purely mechanical search. On those few
occasions where it is creative (finding mosaic rhymes, for example), a rhyming dictionary can still
stimulate the creative process.
The self-reliant writer who thinks rhyming is a spontaneous expression of personal creativity
can usually be seen gazing into space, lost somewhere in the alphabet song, "discovering" one-
syllable words. This "alphabet process" is certainly at least as artificial as a rhyming dictionary.
Nothing about it is creative or pure, nor is it spontaneous. The worst part of it is its inefficiency.
Try it. Clench your jaw, assume your best self-reliant posture (legs planted, hands on hips, star-
ing determinedly beyond the horizon) and come up with rhymes for "attack."
Here is a typical result:
back quack
hack rack
jack sack
lack tack (oops!)
knack zach
Mentally running through the alphabet misses in two areas:
1. It misses words that begin with more than one consonant.
Here are some you might have missed:
black smack
brac snack
clack stack
crack thwack
plaque track
shack whack
slack
Rhyme Is Your Friend 9
2. It misses multi-syllable words ending on the rhyme sound. Here are more you might have missed:
aback
almanac
bareback
bivouac
blackjack
cardiac
egomaniac
haystack
kleptomaniac . . .
If you're going to use an artificial process, at least use an efficient one!
Finding rhymes is mechanical. Once you have found out what is available, the real creative
process begins: using rhyme. And the more alternatives you have to choose from, the more room
you have to be creative. Anyone can find a rhyme; not everyone can use rhyme creatively.
The Complete Rhyming Dictionary, edited by Clement Wood (Doubleday), is the best rhyming
dictionary around. It divides rhymes into Masculine, Feminine, and three-syllable rhymes. It is
organized phonetically by vowel sound, italicizes archaic words, and is as complete in its listings
as something in print can be. (Nothing can keep up with current slang. But you can write those
in.) Get it in hardcover so it will last.
EXERCISE 1: WALK TO A BOOKSTORE AND BUY YOUR RHYMING DICTIONARY.
USING YOUR RHYMING DICTIONARY
There are three sections. The first lists masculine Rhymes; the second, Feminine Rhymes; the
third, three-syllable rhymes. Each section is organized alphabetically according to the vowels, a,
e, i, o, u.
To find a rhyme, ask two questions:
1. Is the word I want to rhyme Masculine or Feminine?
The answer will direct you to Section One or Section Two. Now ask the next question:
2. What is the vowel sound of the stressed syllable?
Look at the bottom of any pages. You will see the following list:
ale, care, add, rm, ask; me; her; , end; ice, ill;, old, or, odd, oil; foot, out; use, urn, up; this, thin;
This is your vowel index. It uses familiar words to help you identify the sounds, and gives you
phonetic markings over each vowel.
Look up "attack." First, it is Masculine: (attack). You will find it in Section One.
Look at the phonetic index for the vowel sound of the stressed syllable "tack." It is the short a,
as in "add,"
The rhyming dictionary lists by vowel and ending co
n
sonant. You will find it under the column,
headed "AK." All Masculine words ending with short a + "k" are listed in the column. Most are
Perfect Rhymes for "attack." Some are Identities.
Try the Feminine: (hollow). It will be in Section Two.
Look in the phonetic index for the vowel sound of the stressed syllable "hol." (Yes. The short o
as in "odd.") Look in the Feminine section under the vowel "0." (The fourth part of the Femi-
nine section.) Look alphabetically for " o l + o."
The stressed syllable is in CAPS and the unstressed syllable is in lower case. You will find "hol-
low" plus other words, "Apollo, swallow, wallow," among others.
Practice using your rhyming dictionary for a while. You may be slow at first, but like anything
else, you will get better with practice.
Rhyme Is Your Friend
EXERCISE 2: USING YOUR RHYMING DICTIONARY, FINDTWO INTERESTING RHYMES FOR EACH
OF THE FOLLOWING WORDS.
1. love:
2. leadership:
3. blessed:
4. attendant:
5. crude:
6. Athena:
7. cripple:
8. grease:
9. stroked:
10. filet: