Rhyme

Rhyme will help to make the lyrics of your song easy to remember and to keep your listeners paying attention to your song.

When a listener recognizes a rhyming pattern in a song, they develop a sense of anticipation - they want to hear the rhyme completed, and they feel a sense of satisfaction once they hear the complete rhyme.

Although rhyme can make a song more pleasurable to listen to, you should never allow rhyme to take priority over the ideas and emotions that you mean to convey through your song. Your song's lyrics - regardless whether or not they rhyme - should reflect the character of the singer, the circumstances of the plot and the emotional tone of the song.

Never force a rhyme if it will detract from the overall message of the song.

You can use a rhyming dictionary to get ideas for rhymes. However, when you write your song, make sure that the rhymes that you use are original. Avoid overdone, cliché rhymes, like June and moon.

Types of Rhymes

Here are some types of rhymes that you can use to make your song catchy and more memorable.

Perfect Rhyme

Examples of perfect rhymes include:

hat, rat

night, fight

rider, cider

money, sunny

Masculine Rhyme

A masculine rhyme is a rhyme in which only the last syllable of both words rhyme.

heat, meat

shout, without

and

anger, hunger

are examples of masculine rhymes.

Feminine Rhyme

A feminine rhyme consists of two two-syllable words in which both syllables rhyme. The stress in these words falls on the second to last syllable.

Lover, discover

is an example of a feminine rhyme.

Triple Rhyme

In a triple rhyme, the last three syllables of both words rhyme.

Vanity, sanity

and

embraceable, replaceable

are triple rhymes.

Slant Rhyme

A slant rhyme consists of two words that give the impression of a rhyme, but do not rhyme exactly.

Slant rhymes are also known as imperfect rhymes, near rhymes, false rhymes or off rhymes.

A slant rhyme can consist of two words that share the same vowel -such as hand and stance - or two words with the same final consonant - such as dirt and heart.

Rhyme Placement

Rhyming words are usually placed at the ends of lines in songs.

Some commonly used rhyme schemes for a four-line section of song are:

ABAB - The words at the end of the line one and line three rhyme with each other, while the second and fourth linesend with words that rhyme with each other.

ABCB - Lines two and four end with words that rhyme with each other.

AABB - The first and second lines end with words that rhyme with each other, and the words at the end of line three and line four rhyme with each other.

AABA - Lines one, two and four end with words that rhyme with each other, while line three does not.

AAAA - All four lines end with words that rhyme with one another.

A rhyme can appear in the middle of a line. It is then known as an internal rhyme.

Internal rhymes are common in rap music.