Stressed And Unstressed Syllables

[daydreamer123]

In other words, meter. I was reading Pat Pattison's Writing Better Lyrics (a great resource for songwriters!) but I don't understand meter (stressed and unstressed syllables). How do I know what syllable gets stressed in a word and when it doesn't? Can a word have two stresses? Help?

[BenStoller]

Check lesson 4 in this free, Pat Pattison class through Coursera:

https://class.coursera.org/songwriting-007

 

He gets into which words and syllables to stress in a workshop setting.

Edited August 24, 2014 by BenStoller

[john]

It most cases we look for stresses to be the same as they are in natural speech. Look up scansion. It is something we do all the time. Try it and see. Pick a few words and try changing the stressed syllables.

Failing that, many dictionaries indicate the stressed syllables.

Take "location" you could change the emphasis in different ways (and in some cases it depends on your accent)

LOcation

loCAtion

locaTION

What one do you think is most likely?

[Mahesh]

The first one?

[MazingMaryRocks]

My vote goes for.....nr 2

[Bernd]

Just speak the sentences aloud - then you'll 'see' where the stresses lie. Most important for lyrics are the endings of the lines, accents within the lines can be shifted more easily.

 

I always have a melody in my mind when I write music. As long as my words flow well with the tune in my head the meter should be fine. Alternatively you could 'rap' the lines to see if they will match the same tune.

 

Good luck!

Bernd