Musician’s Notebook

Nine Inch Nails’, “The Slip” Album Review

I was fairly impressed with Nine Inch Nails’ album. To think that most of the times when people say,

“The best things in life are free!”, I will forever relate that to this album. I would like to warn most though 

its hard to really determine my opinion because I am an overall Nine Inch Nails fan for about 12 years now.

I do, however, would like to add that the one album I had anticipated from Nine Inch Nails for many years wasn’t

my favorite (”With Teeth”) of course after 2 -3 years, “With Teeth” did grow on me.

The reason why I’m even mentioning a past album in a current album review is because if I really wanted to 

say if I had to imagine what kind of sound I expected “With Teeth” to sound like it would have to be, “The Still”.

I think this album was is genius. I would have paid two times the amount of “With Teeth” for this album and I think

my wallet would have had to problem giving it up.

So I’m going track by track to describe to you guys another great record by Nine Inch Nails.

Track 1: 999,999

Sometimes Trent loves to do a great a little intro to his albums whether it be all atmospherical or a good intro song. 

Here he uses kinda of a hissing sound with some ambient and some greatly designed sounds in the background that 

he uses his great knowledge of sound synthesis to perform. The sounds get a little more intense then it all stops and

you hear his voice saying something which at first you didn’t notice was being manipulated by an effect  saying, “HOw did I Slip….”

which leads to the actual track.

Track 2: 1,000,000

Using one more 1 to the title of the track brings you his next track. Which has the usual harsh and rash synth lines with some 

crazy noisy sounds and harsh bass sounds to accompany his neighboring sounds. There’s even a slight guitar shred in 

the song that reminds of “Wish” from their “Broken” EP. The chorus is catchy along with some the abrasive sounds 

in the verse. Overall great song! It kinda reminds you of a mixture of what he would do in his “Broken” EP 

with his maturity of the “With Teeth” album.

Track 3: Letting You

The drum programming sequence in the beginning of this song kinda reminds me of some crazy drum n bass but then the synths 

begin to go nuts with some speedy vocal melodies. Another aggressive sounding song to follow up with its previous.

The chorus really hammers on against your brain in this one. It’s fast and its what you expect in a nicely evolved Nine Inch Nails song.

Track 4: Discipline 

This is the single for this album that most of us have already heard before the album came out. The song that made us 

anticipate the album to begin with. This one reminds me of something that would be in “With Teeth”. Its got your

synth lines that remind you of the synth lines in “The Hand That Feeds”, but its just such a better song. A very catchy song and kinda 

tones down his aggressiveness from the previous tracks on this album so far.

Track 5: Echoplex

This was the other song that was heard in iLike before the album came out. The electronic drums starts off the song along 

with the bass line that is effected by a strange kind of distortion. It’s a pretty good song overall with some great melodies. The beat I think is one 

thing that will stay stuck in your due to the fact that it never really changes. Maybe not my favorite song out of the whole album 

but it gives good contrast to the other songs that you’ve heard up to this point. 

Track 6: Head Down 

I love the drums in this song and the extremely distorted guitars. I love this song its very mid tempo and everything, but what I really love about this song

is the chorus. WOW! The sequence that follows the chords is just really amazing. It kinda reminds me of what “The Line Begins To Blur” 

did to my auditory pleasure. Not a track to skip at al!

Track 7: Lights In The Sky

Piano and vocals. One of the things that I love that Trent does. Sounds like a ballad of some sort, but if you’ve ever liked any of his piano and vocals 

only like the beginning of “Hurt”, “Something I Can Never Have”, etc. I think you’ll love this one if you’ve ever loved his piano and vocal work. I think the 

structure if very heart and especially the chorus and the melody that accompanies it.

Track 8: Corona Radiata 

Sounds sinister and almost like the world is ending or something. It’s another instrumental that could be used for a score of a movie or something. 

I will have you judge for yourself. Strange way to follow up sucha great ballard sounding song. 

Track 9: The Four Of Us Dying 

Another sinister instrumental. The bassline and the effect in it is lovely. The song is generally a harsh electronic rock jam to me. 

It keeps you anticipated throughout the entire song. It’s a great track to jam to if you feel you need a dosage of a great blend of electronic rock

with crazy synths and background sequences and etc.

Track 10: Demond Seed

The drum sequence is what really turns me on in this song. It’s more electronic than anything and I have been loving what 

Trent has been doing electronically lately especially since the “Year Zero” album. The song has some similar traditional Nine Inch Nails 

sounds. It’s abrasive, the vocals are soft, and the guitars at a minimum. It’s repetitive but it’s that beat that just doesn’t leave you 

and doesn’t get tiring neither and thats also the way the album ends.

Overall

I”m very impressed with the album. It seems almost too short sometimes, but that can be a perspective thing. You can enjoy it so much you might want 

to play it again.  I honestly suggest getting this album, after all its free! Any hardcore NIN fans would def. appreciate it. It’s got its older influence

back somewhere in there with a blend of the new mature sound since “With Teeth”, but it’s got the balls of “Broken” and “Year Zero”. So if you were 

a fan of any of those records, then I can almost guarantee you will love this album. For those of you who have been living under a rock for nearly 15 years

and are a fan of electronic music blended with rock music because I really wouldn’t want to call NIN industrial these days, I would get out of that shell of yours

and check this out this record. So don’t wait and do your ears a favor and get this album now at http://www.nin.com (Again, it’s free and you won’t have to feel guilty about “illegally” downloading it from a torrent site or a file sharing P2P network)

Apparently, 70-Year old Bill Cosby goes Hip-hop. He recorded a hip-hop album and says it has a pop and jazz feel to it. Although the comedian says he doesnt rap because he can’t say half the words that most rap music says to begin with because it’s profane and degrading. Well, isn’t that lovely?  As he says he doesn’t expect it to be much of a hit or anything, but why waste your time? I would expect a entertainment professional  to understand how the industry works in these situations and if you’re going to be a 70 year old senile rapper that decides not to rap in a hip-hop album because “automatically” rapping has got to have to have profane and degrading lyrics, then maybe someone should just stick to what they know. 

The album should be due out in this month and I would consider it, “very interesting”. I don’t think Bill Cosby has  given me anything to laugh about until now. Although, I don’t agree with his speculations that all rap is “evil”, I have to say his reasoning behind this album is primary to educate those in the wrong path. The only situation at hand here is the fact that people that are in the wrong path will not take Bill Cosby serious, I mean for god sakes he did Jello commercials and besides who’s ever taken him serious to begin with? 

The world may never know. I suppose once this album is out, we’ll see what’s going on. It may be a  great success or it might be a major bomb. I personally have mixed feelings about it, even though he’s somewhat a child psychologist and a entertainment veteran.   

Upon arriving on Nine Inch Nails’ website on the highly anticipated day after the message on their web blog titled, “2 Weeks”,

we saw that the assumptions were very much correct, we stumbled across the message saying:

“05 may 2008: halo 27

Click HERE to get the new full-length nine inch nails record: the slip

(thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years - this one’s on me)”

That’s right ladies and gentlemen the expected (or unexpected) album from Nine Inch Nails is out. The best thing about it is, as you can read, 

“this one’s on me” meaning its absolutely FREE! It’s not another Ghosts I-IV this album actually contains vocals like all other Nine Inch Nails albums.

Anyways I don’t want to keep you here all day but the link to download this album is here: 

http://theslip.nin.com

Upon arriving at the site you will need to give your email address so that the download link will be sent to you and onc eyou click on the link you will have a 

choice to forward it to some of your friends via email. Once you have click on the download, you will be given several choices as to what format you want to download 

and also mentioning the fact that  the physical format are coming soon and i doubt those will be free. The formats available at the moment are:

High-Quality MP3s

FLAC Lossless 

M4A Apple Lossless 

High Definition WAVE 24/96

All files are 100% DRM

Also, as usual somewhere in the link you will have a link to download the multitracks to the album and NIN also encourages you to remix it and pretty much pass it along.

 Track Listings:

1. 999,999
2. 1,000,000
3. letting you
4. discipline
5. echoplex
6. head down
7. lights in the sky
8. corona radiata
9. the four of us are dying
10. demon seed

Aside from the new album I thought we’d all have to wait for awhile before Nine Inch Nails decided to announce their tour dates till May 25th but it appears they already

started throwing out some of the dates in our faces unexpectedly. Now, I too am disappointed that I don’t see a Florida date on here, but I mean it’s okay because they normally won’t give 

you all the dates for this next album’s tour right away. My only advice to those that don’t have their hometown under this list is just sit there and wait a little while longer 

and hopefully we’ll see them come around to our hometowns. Cross your fingers!

For ticket sales and presales it’s noted to go to their site http://www.nin.com 

7/25/08 Pemberton, BC [Pemberton Festival]

On sale: NOW

7/26/08 Seattle, WA [Key Arena]

Pre Sale: 5/7 (5:00PM)

On Sale: 5/10 (10:00AM)

7/28/08 Edmonton, AB [Rexall Place]

Pre Sale: 5/6 (5:00PM)

On Sale: 5/9 (10:00AM)

7/29/08 Calgary, AB [Pengrowth Saddledome]

Pre Sale: 5/6 (5:00PM)

On Sale: 5/9 (10:00AM) 

7/31/08 Winnipeg, MB [MTS Centre]

Pre Sale: 5/6 (5:00PM)

On Sale: 5/9 (10:00AM) 

8/2/08 Minneapolis, MN [Target Center]

Pre Sale: 5/7 (5:00PM)

On Sale: 5/10 (10AM)

8/3/08 Chicago, IL [Grant Park - Lollapalooza Festival]

On Sale: NOW

8/5/08 Toronto, ON [Air Canada Centre]

Pre Sale: 5/6 (5:00PM)

On Sale: 5/9 (5:00PM)

8/7/08 Uncasville, CT [Mohegan Sun Arena]

Pre Sale: 5/21 (5PM)

On Sale: 5/24 (10AM)

8/8/08 Worcester, MA [DCU Center]

Pre Sale: 5/14 (5PM)

On Sale: 5/17 (12NOON)

8/10/08 Baltimore, MD [Pimlico Race Course - V Festival]

On Sale: 5/3 

8/12/08 Knoxville, TN [Knoxville Civic Coliseum]

Pre Sale: 5/7 (5PM)

On Sale: 5/10 (9AM)

8/13/08 Duluth, GA [Gwinnett Arena]

Pre Sale: 5/6 (5PM)

On Sale: 5/9 (5PM)

8/15/08 Oklahoma City, OK [Ford Center]

Pre Sale: 5/6 (5PM)

On Sale: 5/10 (10AM)

8/16/08 Houston, TX [Toyota Center]

Pre Sale: 5/6 (5PM)

On Sale: 5/9 (5PM)

8/18/08 Dallas, TX [American Airlines Center]

Pre Sale: 5/6 (5PM)

On Sale: 5/9 (5PM)

8/20/08 St. Louis, MO [Scottrade Center]

Pre Sale: 5/28 (5PM)

On Sale: 5/31 (10AM)

8/22/08 Cleveland, OH [Quicken Loans Arena]

Pre Sale: 5/7 (5PM)

On Sale: 5/10 (10AM)

8/23/08 Auburn Hills, MI [The Palace of Auburn Hills]

Pre Sale: 5/7 (5PM)

On Sale: 5/10 (10AM)

8/27/08 East Rutherford, NJ [Izod Center]

Pre Sale: 5/7 (5PM)

On Sale: 5/10 (12NOON)

8/29/08 Philadelphia, PA [Wachovia Center]

Pre Sale: 5/7 (5PM)

On Sale: 5/10 (10AM)

8/31/08 Lexington, KY [Rupp Arena]

Pre Sale: 4/30 (5PM)

On Sale: 5/3 (10AM)

9/2/08 Morrison, CO [Red Rocks Amphitheater]

Pre Sale: 5/7 (5PM)

On Sale: 5/10 (10AM)

9/3/08 Salt Lake City [E Center]

Pre Sale: 5/7 (5PM)

On sale: 5/10 (11AM)

9/5/08 Oakland, CA [Oracle Arena]

Pre Sale: 6/12 (5:00PM)

On Sale: 6/15 (10AM)

9/6/08 Los Angeles, CA [The Forum]

Pre Sale: TBA

On Sale: TBA 

When you’re learning something about chords and want to get into songwriting, there are a few things you really need to know.

Let’s start off with the fact that you need a basic understanding about chords.

So what are chords?

Well, let’s just say chords are pretty much in a nutshell, 2 notes or more being played at the same time. Having said this we know that we have a large amounts of notes we can combine together and only some of them sound right together at the right time. Which is why I’m going to briefly get into chord colors. I’m not really going to go all into music theory about this, but I will give you a basic understanding about each chord color family which are major, minor, power, sevenths.

(For a free music theory crash course, go to http://www.musictheory.net )

Major: Happy and positive.

Minor: Sad, sinister, and negative.

Power: It’s got a neutral sound and makes it sound powerful, but it’s because it doesn’t use the third of the typical chords. (For example, Major chord have a 3rd (The second note) in the middle that gives the chord a characteristics of happy while minor gives it the opposite effect).

Seventh: These are supposed to sound kinda jazzy/bluesy sound and gives it a sexy sounding vibe.

Next thing to focus are the rhythmic elements of a groove. Those four basic elements are tempo, feel, rhythmic level, and rhythmic idea.

Tempo: Would be the timing on the metronome. In other words, when you clap your hands in rhythm to your favorite song. That’s the tempo.

Feel: Says it all, what kind of feel are you going for? Rock? R&Bish? etc.

Rhythmic Level: The main rhythm in notes. Let’s say for an example 8th Notes? Quarter Notes? Etc.

Rhythmic Idea: Would be like rhythmic level but combining the rests in there. So you’re not only going to be hitting 8th notes only, but you’re rhythmic level is mostly 8th notes, but then you have a quarter rest here or there.

Now time for practice, use a chord you want to use (any chord) and if you have a metronome put it in a tempo of your choice. Then just start playing a one chord groove. Try to use different approaches like use quarter notes, then 8th notes, and alternate. You’ll begin to get the hang of alternating your grooves without even realizing it, but the best thing way to use this to your effect in a song is by recognizing your motives. I learn this from Shane Adams At www.Berkleemusic.com

Exact Repeatition: Lets say in one measure on 4/4 you played a groove on the next measure you’ll play the same exact thing.

Varied Repeatition: The same as above except the second half of the second measure you will alternate a note or rhythm or so.

Alternating Two Motives: Let’s say you play a groove in one measure of 4/4, but in the second measure you will play something completely different than the first measure, but musically speaking needs to sound like its still part of each other.

Anyways, more on harmony next time…..

l

So it appears that Nine Inch Nails is doing it again! 

After releasing, “Ghosts I-IV” on March 2, 2008 you figure most fans were thinking, “Okay, great well, now we’ll have to wait for some time for another release from Nine Inch Nails.”  Well guess again! Nine Inch Nails just so happens to release their new single entitled, “Discipline” (mixed by Alan Moulder), which includes vocals and everything. American radio stations began playing the new single and provided the online links  as to where you can download this song for free (discipline.nin.com)    

Now the whole situation that has people completely psyched and in massive anticipation is the fact that about two weeks prior to “Ghosts I-IV”, Trent Reznor posted on his site blog “2 Weeks”. So he does it again now! April 21, 2008 Trent Reznor posts “2 Weeks”. So us doing the math leads to the very speculation that the follow-up to “Year Zero” will be released on May 5th, 2008!! Even contained with the MP3 down for Discipline is the message that says “Go to www.nin.com May 5″. So no one knows exactly what that’s all about, but we all know that Nine Inch Nails has gone completely independent and of course thats a whole other story. 

In the future, I  will be discussing a few things about how the music business has changed over time and why artists like Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead have been doing these complete DIY releases. As for now let’s all put our hands together for more Nine Inch Nails material! 

Stone Temple Pilots have just recently reunited for a 4-month summer tour and before all that takes place on May 17th, they will start off their first performance at the ABC-TV’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” tonight  (which is actually tomorrow early morning Friday at Midnight!).  It should be exciting to see the long await reunion take place. I don’t know about all of you but a Stone Temple Pilots reunion is something I always predicted would happen. Now before you go off to see them live in person you should take the time to see them on screen. The performance will bring great fuzzy feelings to every hardcore 90s music enthusiast . To bring back that refreshing sound of Stone Temple Pilots should be something of wonders to all our ears! 

In the side note of all this related news, I would also like to inform that they will be working on a new album and Scott Weiland actually said that there might be a DVD included with this upcoming album. Another part of this to mention is Scott Weiland’s second solo album will be coming out along with his autobiography later towards the end of the year. 

For those of you that haven’t kept taps on the recent news from Stone Temple Pilots, they have also announced their tour dates starting May 17th (or should we say Tonight at “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”) 

For those of you completely oblivious to the tour dates here they are! 

Columbus, OH

Rock On The Range Festival 

(May 17)

Camden, NJ 

Tweeter Center The Waterfront 

(May 18)

Cleveland, OH 

State Theatre Playhouse Square 

(May 20)

Chicago, IL 

Charter One Pavillion 

(May22)

Indianapolis, IN 

Indianapolis Motor Speedway 

(May 23)

Uncasville, CT 

Mohegan Sun Casino 

(May 26)

Holmdel, NJ 

PNC Bank Arts Center 

(May 31)

Mansfield, MA 

Tweeter Center For The Performing Arts 

(June 1)

Detroit, MI 

Fillmore Detroit 

(June 3)

St. Paul, MN 

Roy Wilkens Auditorium 

(June 6)

Kansas City, KS 

Rock Fest Liberty Memorial Park 

(June 7)

Maryland Heights, MO 

Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre 

(June 8)

West Valley City, UT 

E Center 

(June 11)

Las Vegas, NV 

The Pearl

(June 12, 14)

Calgary V Festival 

(June 21)

Los Angeles, CA 

Hollywood Bowl (June 24)

Tucson, AZ 

Anselmo Valencia Amphitheatre 

(June 25)

San Antonio, TX 

AT&T Center

(June 27)

The Woodlands, TX 

Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion 

(June 28)

Grand Prairie, TX 

Nokia Theatre Grand Prairie 

(June 29)

Morrison, CO 

Red Rocks Amphitheatre 

(July 2)

Milwaukee, WI 

Summerfest Marcus Amphitheatre 

(July 4)

Quebec City, Quebec 

Summer Festival Planes |Of Abraham 

(June 10)

North York, ONT 

Edge Fest Downsview Park 

(June 12)

Canandaigua, NY 

Constellation Performing Arts Center 

(July 15)

Green Bay, WI

Oneida Casino 

(July 17)

Mt Pleasant, MI 

Soaring Eagle Casino 

(July 18)

Cadott, WI 

Chippewa Valley Music Festival 

(July 19)

Berkeley, CA 

Greek Theatre 

(July 25)

Paso Robles, CA 

Mid California State Fair 

(July 26)

San Diego, CA 

Concerts on the Green Qualcomm Stadium 

(July 27)

Bethlehem, PA 

Muzikfest 

(August 8)

Atlantic City, NJ 

The Borgata 

(August 9)

Baltimore, MD 

V Festival Pimlico Race Track 

(August 10)

Charlotte, SC 

Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre 

(August 17)

Orlando, FL 

UCF Arena 

(August 19)

Hollywood, FL 

Hard Rock Live Seminole Hard Rock Casino 

(August 20)

Tampa, FL 

Ford Amphitheatre 

(August 22)

Alpharetta, GA 

Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Encore Park 

(August 23)

Vancouver 

GM Place 

(August 30)

Seattle, WA 

Bumbershoot Festival Memorial Stadium 

(August 31) 

So last time we mentioned the fact that we have rhyme schemes and toggling last time. Well the reason why it’s so important to know the rhyme scheme and placement of our internal and external lines is because the structure of the song is very important. It has to be told in a story mode and in a style as if you were having a conversation with someone. Thats another great way to have your audience drawn to your music in terms of understanding the lyrics.

So here I’ll map out the information for you as how to structure your lyrics in your song.

So first thing’s first, we have the verses.

VERSES

On your verse you want to make sure you’re using the external lines to describe the character’s 5 senses and explain the place and time. You want to be kind of vague at first but not too abstract. You’ll have your verse describing the beginning of the story and end it with an internal line.

CHORUSES

Now you’re chorus is important in fact you’re hook is there to be repetitive with a strong power point. The power point a lot of times will determine the name of the song. It’s also the main idea of the song, the big picture. This is where you want to be completely to the point and you also want to use all internals! Make sure the last time you do your chorus in the song you repeat it twice. It’s also recommended that even though you have done a destination writing for your song, make sure you do a separate one thats all internal to make your chorus even stronger.

BRIDGES

Bridge is just another verse, but different slightly different. In a way it’s just another verse that’s not supposed to sound like the other verses. The point here is that you don’t want to bore your listeners by hearing the same verse after they heard it twice. If you think about it, the verse isn’t even the catchy part anyways, the chorus is, right? Right. So the bridge is supposed to traditionally be right after the second chorus. In a bridge you can finish your story here and just repeat the chorus twice after it, or you can do the chorus twice and just add a final verse and finish the song there. Just be cautious, you don’t want to bore your listener. In this case, experiment with both suggests I just gave you and also listen to your favorite songs and get an idea.

Now here’s the deal, there’s an easy way to do all this once you’ve got your DW done and you have at least one of your verses and your chorus.

What we do here is called Plotting.

PLOT PROGRESSION OUTLINE

Plotting is kinda like planning something briefly. Think of it as a short timeline you are constructing for like a history project or a book or something. Except the only way you can obtain this information is by getting it from your DW. So lets say you have your DW done, this would be how to make it headache free on how to plot it.

Verse 1

Introduction to the story. Describe 5 senses of the character of time and whereabouts and hint a little on the internal line. Don’t give too much information away because you want your listener to want more. Keep them slighty in suspense. Use 4-6 lines that you choose from your internal and external columns.

Chorus

The main idea of the song with the power point (the title) is there. All internal lines and the big picture of your story.

Verse 2

Get further into the story but don’t end it here. Get a later section from your DW and internal and external columns and in 4-6 lines and do it the same way you did toggling in verse one.

Chorus

The main idea of the song with the power point (the title) is there. All internal lines and the big picture of your story.

Bridge

You can conclude the story here if you want or you give an important part of the story here. If you choose to conclude the story here. Repeat the chorus twice after this to jam it into your listener’s head. If not, just give an important part of the story here as if it were about to conclude, repeat the chorus twice, and end it with the third verse.

Chorus

The main idea of the song with the power point (the title) is there. All internal lines and the big picture of your story. Repeat this last chorus twice.

Verse 3

Depending if you decided to end the story at the bridge will determine if this third chorus will even exist. If you didn’t end it at the bridge, you should end it here with the conclusion.

Here I will show you an example of a Plot Progression Outline I did for class.

“Stolen Car”

Verse 1: The character describes getting into the car and his surroundings.

Chorus: The main point which is the fact that he needs to get away and he’s stating his desperation of having to leave.

Verse 2: The character describes the scene around him even further along with the frustration that the car won’t start. Why is unknown because its a brand new car and he continues to blame security of new cars and etc.

Chorus: The main point which is the fact that he needs to get away and hes stating his desperation of having to leave. (I would repeat this chorus twice)

Bridge: He describes his failure of trying to get away because the cop just caught him and so he explains his failures and once again the crowd reaction at the end.

There you have it! Give it a try experiment with different song forms and see what you can come up with the following information.

So last post we had done destination writing and external and internal columns. Now we’re going to get to the good stuff!

So once you have two columns of INTERNALS and EXTERNALS you will need to get some rhyme pairs from each columns. Maybe the first time you do this you might have a little trouble, but for now just try to limit yourself of the following options. A lot of times when we work of limited things it makes you’re pushing what you got to the limits. The shorter the destination writing the shorter the columns so thats why getting used to writing as much as you can on destination writing under 5 minutes is something you need to practice.

If you’re having troubles finding rhyme pairs you can do some of the following:

- Rearrange words from the sentences to rhyme with the next.
- Take out a thesaurus and use your generic adjectives into better rhyming words of the same meaning.
- You can probably mix two sentences together to rhyme with another two combined sentences. (I did this a lot)

Honestly, if you are so limited that you have like 6 sentences to work with, I understand write another destination writing. This time have in mind that you will want to do internal and external sentences but keep that pen moving.

So once you have rhyming sentences you now need to do some toggling and use a rhyme scheme.

Rhyme schemes come in a symbol for an example..

If you see a sentence 1 rhymes with sentence 2 but doesnt rhyme with sentence 3 or 4 but 3 and 4 rhyme together.. the symbol would look like this:

Sentence 1 A
Sentence 2 A
Sentence 3 B
Sentence 4 B

Extra note: Yes not all lyrics or even poems have to rhyme but the reason why rhyming is so great is because it helps the listener remember the lyrics, lyrics that rhyme and are remembered stay stuck in your head and songs that get stuck in your head are catchy and catchy songs in the songwriting market means commercial success and commercial success means $$$$$$$ and/or a great song. This is especially important to the chorus which needs to repeat a lot to be stuck in the listener’s head, because you want that listener singing that damn catchy song that is suck in your head even if they hate it. (Perfect Example: Jame’s Blunt’s “Your Beautiful”…ugh! I know, but you can’t deny the song’s success.)

Now here’s the deal and I will say I am not Mr. Know-It-All, but I will tell you in this case there are different rhyme schemes and I don’t know them all but you can do a google search and you will find them. They come in many forms in 4-6 line verses, I’m sure you can figure it out.

Now let’s say we have rhyme pairs and rhyme schemes… what’s next? Toggling..

Toggling is when you get those lines and instead of putting them in an order of rhyme schemes you get a formation of the internal and external lines and toggling them.

Example:

Sentence 1 is External
Sentence 2 is External
Sentence 3 is External
Sentence 4 is Internal

Yes, it gets tricky when you’re limited to your short options and you need to fit the rhyme scheme and the toggle. In fact, I found this hard but with practice you will get it. It was actually advised by Andrea Stolpe that once you get more in depth with this you should do all this like every week and as you get faster do it everything and you’re songwriting skills will not just accelerate, but your songs will be more efficient so imagine writing like 7 songs a week thats 28 songs a month and multiple that by 12. You will have more chances of writing a major hit. It’s all a skill and every skill REQUIRES PRACTICE TO MASTER!!

Again there are also plenty of toggling formations as well which you can find online as well. If you have a hard time finding one, just send me a comment and I will make you a list of the most common togglings, I just want you guys to try and do the research because we can all share the great sites and some might be easier to learn than others. The best way to learn is multiple information from many sources because they are all explained differently.

You ask why do I want the last sentence to be an internal?

I will answer that next time but what I’m going to do is I’m going to post an example of one of my class assignments so you can get a good idea of how I did this, step by step. Remember, during destination writing, don’t worry about spelling just crank those words out because remember this isn’t an english class assignment. This is you digesting ideas and only you need to know what’s on there for your verse. Once you got the song written is when you make sure your actual verses and choruses are nicely polished.

“Bedroom”

The walls are silent especially with the television off. Fan blows cold air into the direction of the futon bed. The same bed that smells like sex. The silver walls shine even through its old paint. The computer stands still on the desk on its own. I lay down on the futon bed the one in which you’re laying next to me. Bodies mended naked with each other. I am glowing inside as we begin to fall asleep. I am attached like a hook in the hole holding ourselves together. The redlight on the ceiling shines down on us like an artifical moonlight or a sun. Your tongue still slides down my neck and damn its been turning me on. Your so goddamn b eautiful with your blue black hanging down to the lips I love to kiss.

External
—————–
The walls are silent especially with the television off
Fan blows cold air into the direction of the futon bed
The same bed that smells like sex.
The silver walls shine even through its old pain
he computer stands still on the desk on its own.
Bodies mended naked with each other
The redlight on the ceiling shines down on us like an artifical moonlight or a sun.
Your tongue still slides down my neck
blue black hanging down to the lips

Internal
—————–
I am glowing inside as we begin to fall asleep
I am attached like a hook in the hole holding ourselves together.
The redlight on the ceiling shines down on us like an artifical moonlight or a sun
damn its been turning me on<