What's A Stressed Word?

[Cartesiand]

I'm working on Meter or Metre whatever and I'm totally at a loss on what stressed words are. I've looked for patterns and I fail to see what constitutes as a stress. Can someone explain it to me?

[Avit Hammer]

JOHNNY played the guitar

the word johnny is stressed indicating who was playing

Johnny PLAYED the guitar

This indicating what he was doing with the guitar

Johnny played the GUITAR

indicates what instrument he was playing

[john]

It's not only stressed words, it is also stressed syllables. In natural language, in multiple syllable words, we emphasize one or more syllables. These stressed / emphasized syllables are written in such a way as to fit with the meter of the spoken word or the meter of the sung line.

This is called "scansion".

When you write lyrics they flow at their best when the scansion emphasized syllables align with held notes and other emphasized tones.

For Example:

She is beautiful.

5 syllables.

lets say the simple melody uses 5 notes. For the purpose of example, one of those notes is 4 times longer than the others. Where would you place it?

Let's try adding it to the syllable "ti". It sounds unnatural. certainly not the way that you would emphasize part of beautiful when speaking. It sounds most natural when the longer note is on the "beau-" part of the word.

If you are working to an existing melody, the meter is established, and our natural interpretation of scansion makes us align such emphasized syllables with the meter. Otherwise it sounds wrong. Awkward. Emphasis can be slightly louder, slightly longer or limited by silent beats before or after a syllable.

Avit also has it right in that we tend to emphasis the important words and play down filler word, linking words. The reason is that we place emphasis, naturally, relating to the topic of the song and it's message.

Getting this under your belt will help with spotting and placing hook words and phrases. Try speaking a sentence and notice how you have learned naturally to place emphasis. listen to other talking. there are places people consistently place pauses, and other places where those pauses sound awkward, out of flow. It is the same in songs and poems.

Speech wise we squish words together that are less important, creating new words in a short form, for example "Wha'd'ya" meaning "what do you", we say them quieter, we de-stress them. Yet again it is much the same in music.

Meter itself is not just a count of syllables, although that is a good starting place. Sometimes a syllable is stretched over two notes, so much like many songwriting rules, they aren't really rules, just guidelines.

By matching syllable counts when writing lyrics it makes the lyrics easier to fit a melody, and makes the words themeslves more portable.

For example, if you have a 4 line verse, and line 1 has 6 syllables, line 2 has 4, line 3 has 6, and line 4 has 4, then firstly aim for the same syllable counts on corresponding lines in subsequent verses. ie verse 2 has the same 6,4,6,4 layout. Yet again, not a fixed rule, just something that can make your life easier, and makes it easier for listeners to get into your music. Music genre has an effect on how important keeping the same is,

Then look at beat & melody wise, where the emphasis is. This works even as a writer as you can work with the beat of a song in your head, you don't need to be a musician. Not sure? then try using the melody of an existing, well known song. It's an interesting exercise.

Now when you come to write you know the beat including where the stress is placed, you know the meter, and you know the maximum number of syllables that will comfortably fit within that melody. So now write words that match that beat. Don't split words up unnaturally.

For example:

"I met her at the station"

if there are 8 beats in the above line, with beat 7 being a rest (ie not sung) "sta" space "tion" would split the word station in an awkward way.

"Met her at the station, yeah"

that would work.

Often there is a natural emphasis on the first and last words in a line, that is why hooks are commonly placed there.

i wish I had time to write more, with better examples, but I'm in a hurry lol

I hope this helps.

Cheers

John

[Cartesiand]

So it all depends on how it's sung? The book I'm reading makes it seem like I can look at any lyrics and be able to identify the meter. What would be the common meter to this song? http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/disturbed/landofconfusion.html