>> [MUSIC] In this video, we're going to talk about lyrical setting. If you write the greatest lyric in the world, but you put the wrong emphasis on the wrong syllable, you're going to lose emotion and we do not want to lose emotion as songwriters. That's what we're going for. Even if all of your lyrics feel like they're set within the measures in the way that you would see them and then out of nowhere, you miss-said something. It's a lot like somebody driving up in front of your house and saying, "Hey, get in my brand-new Lexus." You get in and you're like, "This is awesome." Then you hit a pothole. When a song has more of an egregious missetting, where it's really obvious and it's really misshaping the language, it really takes a songwriter out of the song for a second. A lot like when you go to a really good movie and you forget you're in the theatre. It's amazing, you're just in the movie and all of a sudden in the middle of your great movie in walks a really bad actress and she goes, "But wait, if you leave now, I will die." You're like, " [NOISE] " It breaks the spell of the movie and you're like, "Let me have some popcorn." We do not want to break the spell of our song and we don't want to lose any emotion. So think about the line that you're singing. Think about the words that you're singing and think about the ones that hold the most meaning. Let's work from a line, from a poem from Yeats, "Never give all the heart for love." If you emphasize the first word, never give all the heart for love, that means never, never do that. Never give all the heart for love. You change a second word to put the emphasis there. Never give all the heart for love. Never give all the heart for love. Never give all the heart for love. Feel that preposition, just jump up there and just ruin the whole feel of that sentence? Never give all the heart for love. Never give all the heart for love. When you're alone in the privacy of your own home, just say your line in the room and just test it out. Because if you actually test it out, never give all the heart for love, you would have felt how that didn't feel right to you. It lost emotion. It didn't feel as good as some of those other lines. So really think about what are the words that hold meaning? Never, give, all, heart and love. Usually, the words that hold meaning are going be nouns and verbs, for sure, adverbs and adjectives. So let's say that now we want to take, never give all the heart for love and we want to figure out where to place that in a measure. Working in a measure of four four, the first beat, the downbeat, is the strongest beat in the measure. The third beat is the second strongest beat in the measure. I really want to be mindful of what am I going to put on that strong highlighted beat in the first part of the measure. Let's work with Never give all the heart for love. [MUSIC] Never give all the heart for love, never give all the heart for love. Notice, what was in the highlighted position in the second bar was the word, the, it came in on beat one. So never give all the heart for love. The? The does not deserve any attention at all. It's not an important word. It's just getting us to the important words. So let's try it again, rephrasing that. [MUSIC] Never give all the heart for love. Never give all the heart for love. Notice how for is like, "Excuse me, the. I want to shine." Now for is up there getting all the attention and it doesn't feel right. Think about how you want to say that, never give all the heart for love. Never give all the heart for love. Think about the words that hold meaning and you want to shift those through the measures and figure out where do I want to see this happen within my measure so that I get the most out of my lyric writing. Let's say that I want to emphasize the word all. I feel like that's the most important for me. That's the most important word in that sentence, is never give all the heart for love. So let me play that by shifting all on the first beat of that second measure and let's see how that feels. [MUSIC] Never give all the heart for love. Never give all the heart for love. I feels like I just wrote a John Mayer song. Didn't that feel better with all on that downbeat? Now let's do that one more time and just say that you've decided that you want heart to be highligted. [MUSIC] Never give all the heart for love. Never give all the heart for love. Notice how that shifts? It's so important to think about how are we setting this? So really take your time and really feel how the lines that you're writing lay across the bar line. What are the words that are holding meaning and how are you putting them within the measures so that you get the most out of your lyric writing.
