Example Of Sheet Music With Lyrics

[Lazz]

Subsequent to a group discussion last week, I was asked to post the lead-sheet for a song:

I think an example of sheet music with lyrics written on it would be a nice example of what we were talking about that night. I don't know how many other "lyricist only" people there on on board here, but seeing an example of how the lyric fits into the measure is very helpfull to me.

The earlier lyric from Sept '08 - with which we all seemed reasonably content at the time - for anyone interested - can be found HERE

It has since been adapted to accomodate the evolution of the music.

So here it is is an example of 'sheet music with lyrics'. for Tom.

And for Neo to see what I was talking about elsewhere.

[Nightwolf]

cool, thanks for posting that. A few things I see that I think make sense, try this on:

4/4 time signature indicates that a quarternote counts as a beat (the bottom 4 tells me that) and that there are 4 beats per measure (top 4).

It looks like the Lyrics start prior to the true action. Since the notes have single flags atop they are 8th notes, the Words take flight one beat early (two 8th notes make a beat), so you might count the Words "I Don't" as 4and.

Quarter notes (no flag, but a flag pole) as I understand it would count off as 1,2,3,4, but since some are 8th notes we could count as "1and2and3and4and"

so it looks to me like the "a" in a-nymore is a quarter note and so will bee held longer than the rest of the line.

So the line "I don't think about you a-nymore" using a metronome to click the beats, the cadence would sound kinda like this:

"4and1and2and3,4and"

Right?

[AnneC]

You got it, Wolfman.

[Lazz]

Yeah, thanks Anne - Wolfie gets it right indeed.

Whatever value seeing this may have for anyone - and I hope it has at least some - I must admit that I am still wrestling with these words.

My one big problem is with those 2-bars of the second ending to the A section - the one with the neat little phrase that gets repeated up a minor 3rd . I like the way sound of the words sing the shape - specially 'out of love with love, I hear' - but I am struggling to make the meaning clear. Neither am I at all satisfied with the closing line. It's as though I misplaced the 'tone' of the piece somewhere and can't quite lay my hands on it wherever I scrabble and look.

Ah well - each struggle begins anew.

Just thought I'd mention it in case anyone thinks this is a fully completed piece.

It isn't quite there yet.

[Nightwolf]

It's as though I misplaced the 'tone' of the piece somewhere and can't quite lay my hands on it wherever I scrabble and look.

If you find any of my lost riffs during your search, please send them home

[Lazz]

If you find any of my lost riffs during your search, please send them home

Luckily, I did find this.

I'll send it right along when I've finished with it.

[Nightwolf]

Sweet I sure could use that

[Nightwolf]

another potentially great topic lead astray,...sooo sad

so, did anyone get anything out of Lazz and my posts (the top ones, not the goofy ones)?

[Lazz]

did anyone get anything out of Lazz and my posts ?

I dunno mate - it's had a bit of drive-by traffic - maybe they're shy - or maybe it doesn't have meaning for many.

What I got from your post, Wolfie, is confirmation that with a little smidgeon of application a person can figure useable workable meaning from the foreign code.

What I got from my own post is that patiently working through the chart in much the same way you did gave me a much better picture of the way the melody flows - like when I clean my glasses - I can see things better. So working over it also enabled me to clean up some mess in a tidier fashion. And - eventually - through constant scratching and picking, I was able to remove the stone from my shoe, resolve my endless and unseemly 2-bar scrap with syntax, and make of that second ending a far happier transition into the bridge. Like this:

"... may speak your name and lift the cold veneer -

my play at being cavalier…

only time will tell, I hear

Been a while..."

So at least it's finally finished.

Last thing is that I can benefit from looking at the harmony and trying to follow the chord changes (because as a lyricist I have a duty to work at my musical senses every chance I get), watching for subs, II-Vs, figuring whereabouts it's in C Major - and where it plainly ain't - wondering if it's better thought of as in D minor ....... at least I have the composer on hand to bounce my questions at.

[Nightwolf]

Well at least YOU got something out of it

or maybe it doesn't have meaning for many.

My post was intended to show just how to turn the code into something with meaning

[McnaughtonPark]

ok, my computer is in charge, I'm just a pawn.

This is the first I've seen the lead sheet, so thank you Lazz for posting it.

I hate being such an amateur, and not knowing anything about the music part of a song. The previous comments about lyricist not understanding how their lyric fits into the musical structure becomes so evident when looking at the lyric in this way. Every syllable corresponds with a note, or time slot. This is where the definition of making the verses count the same, and have the same number of lines comes in and becomes clear. Rhyme isn't needed to do this, but as Lazz pointed out, sometimes words sound themselves into the place in time, they belong there because of how they are pronounced or sung.

What is necessary is the understanding of time, and how many beats or stresses you are allowed to write. Beat matching, toe tapping, finger snapping, and writing the lines of the lyric to match. Whether you understand how to read sheet music or not..............,

you must write as if you do

Edited February 22, 2009 by McnaughtonPark

[McnaughtonPark]

So, thank you Lazz and John for explaining this.

I think you nailed the lyric Lazz.

[Lazz]

I think you nailed the lyric Lazz.

Thanks, Tom.

We are happy now at this end, too.

I hate being such an amateur, and not knowing anything about the music part of a song.

Me too.

That's why I've always treated it as an area worthy of attack.

words sound themselves into the place in time, they belong there because of how they are pronounced or sung..... What is necessary is the understanding of time, and how many beats or stresses you are allowed to write. Beat matching, toe tapping, finger snapping, and writing the lines of the lyric to match. Whether you understand how to read sheet music or not..............,

I can't sight-read either.

(I'm sure I could with practice, though. If I really had to learn. Because I can beat at it and figure the intervals gradually and work out melody a phrase at a time. Exhausting but everytime I do it, it's GREAT exercise !)

I can read the rhythms of notation pretty good by now, though.

And I think you're right that this (at the very least) is an important thing to get together - we may as well - it ain't hard at all - otherwise we wouldn't be able to do it.

But even if we are too useless to be able to read the melody accurately - we can still see the arc of the melody - and try and reflect those significant dramas in the word sounds - I mean if a phrase ends in a high note held for a few beats, it has to be singable, it has to be an open sound.... stuff like that.

Gee - I am glad you popped in.

Me and Wolfie thought we were talking to ourselves for a bit.

Reassuring to find the exercise wasn't a total waste of effort.

Thanks.

[Steve]

Interesting topic! Not sure if this might be usefull to anybody? but I used to produce chord sheets for my songs. This helps in two ways. First, you can record the song straight through without fluffing the thing! Second, if you need to record another track over the first, (two guitars etc) then you don't get lost! This is an example of my own working sheet. This is very old now but illustrates pretty well what is required!

The numbers under the chords represented the pattern number of the drum machine I was using at the time! There are a few 'musical' terms that I used, Repeats and codas; and in a few places I have used notes to indicate single strikes of a chord, (as at the intro) or a triplet. This may not be to everyones taste, and it may be meaningless to some! But it certainly helpes me in my structure of a song.

I have also produced lead sheets to some songs that I have distributed to singers!