As you begin to write music, keep two things in mind. First, the music helps us understand the feeling underneath the words. Is the character feeling happy and excited or anxious and afraid? The music will let us know. That doesn’t mean the music always reflects what’s being said. If your character is trying to be happy but is actually feeling anxious, the difference between what the lyric says and how the music feels will help us understand that.
Second, the human voice has limits. Some words are easier to sing at certain tempos or on certain pitches. In fast tempos, “stop consonants” like “k,” “p,” and “t” are hard to sing, which is why they are used in tongue-twisters like “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.” On high pitches, “close vowels” like “ee,” “ih,” and “oo” are hard to sing, which is why we struggle on the last phrase of the U.S. national anthem — “O’er the land of the free.” Make your lyrics easy to sing.
The three main ingredients in music are rhythm, melody, and harmony. How many of these elements you use and how you use them helps the audience understand what you mean to say.
Rhythm is the primary building block of music. It’s what moves a song forward. Hip-hop music often only uses rhythm with its lyrics. However, the rhythm isn’t always the same as the “beat.” You clap to the beat of the music, while you sing in the rhythm of the words.
The rhythm should match the lyric, following its pattern of stressed syllables and words. The stressed words are the important words. If you remove everything except the stressed words, you should have the basic message of your song. To highlight the important words, put their stressed syllables on the downbeats (where you clap). By repeating rhythm patterns, you can give your song a structural cohesiveness.
To start thinking like a composer, notice the rhythms around you: the pulse of your heartbeat, the pace of your walk, the pattern of your conversation. Composer Richard Rodgers took cues from life in “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” and “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top” from Oklahoma! In the first song, you can feel the sauntering gait of Curly’s mare on a lazy morning, and in the second you can almost see his horse-drawn buggy clip-clopping along the road before it slows down.
To feel the emotional effects of different rhythms, listen to Roger Miller’s “Muddy Water” and “River in the Rain” from Big River. In the first, you can feel the urgency of Jim’s escape, and in the second, you can almost see the calm waters of the Mississippi. Then listen to Stephen Sondheim’s “Getting Married Today” from Company, which juxtaposes Amy’s anxiety with the solemnness of the ceremony.
To write out your rhythm, become familiar with the symbols for notes and rests. If you’re new to music, you can learn the basics from Michael Pilhofer’s Music Theory for Dummies (2007). If you can already read music, try Scott Jarrett’s Music Composition for Dummies (2008).
As you write the music for your show, watch Songland for insight into the creative process. On each episode, producers Ester Dean, Shane McAnally, and Ryan Tedder work with three different writers on original songs. You can view past episodes on its YouTube channel.
Next, the melody.