Okay, so I said earlier, that in

songwriting there are no rules.

They're only tools that you can use.
And we'll get into the tools as we go.
But I also said, oh, except for one.
There is one rule.
And that is the rule of prosody.
Prosody, prosody.
What prosody means essentially, is
everything fits together.
And that's just common sense.
That everything in your song should be
there for the same reason.
To express the central emotion, the
central idea, the central purpose of your
song.
Now, the concept of prosody was, at least
to my knowledge, first expressed by
Aristotle in his poetics.
When he said that, every great work of art
exhibits the same characteristic.
And he calls that characteristic, unity.
Everything fits together.
Everything works together.
That's the same thing.
Unity, prosody, that everything about the
work is there to enhance, to express, to
communicate, to focus the central idea of
the work.
All of the elements work together.
And really, you know you can think of that
as a rule.
It's just common sense.
I mean why would you want to put anything
your song that doesn't belong there?
That doesn't aid abet The communication of
the emotion, whatever that emotion is.
The communication of the emotion that the
song is there to express.
That one idea that the song is there to
express.
That one central message.
That one why that the song is there to
express.
So that this concept of prosody, this
concept of everything fitting together.
Everything working together to create that
powerful punch in the song.
Is the common sense rule.
Not only of song writing but of film
making, of painting, of choreography,
poetry, short stories, novels.
Any time you're in the business of
creating art.
The concept of prosody is in play.
It covers everything.
Now, I've found that probably the most
effective vehicle for expressing prosody
are the two terms.
Stable.
Unstable.
Stable, wax on.
Unstable, wax off.
Because stable versus unstable covers
everything.
It's a fairly broad brush, but it covers
everything.
What idea are you dealing with.
And then is that idea stable or unstable.
And then you unroll your tool belt, and
use those same tools that you have, which
we will talk about.
To create either this sense of stability
or instability.
So, ideas.
The ideas that you have.
What are they?
Characterize them as stable or unstable.
I'm so grateful that you're in my life.
Feels pretty stable to me.
So grateful.
That you're in my life.
I wish you were here.
Stable or unstable.
I wish you were here.
You can tell by my tone of voice really.
Now there's sense of longing there.
Sense of something not there that I want
to be there so I'm feelling a little bit
unstable.
Let's go back to I'm so greateful you're
in my life.
Could be.
I'm so grateful that you're in my life.
And now you can hear the but charging over
the hill with its lance lowered.
Making if feel like, I wish you, you, I'm
so grateful but, but something bad is
about to happen.
So your tone of voice is going to give
you, and I want to talk about tone of
voice in detail in some point.
But your tone of voice is, is going to be
your queue.
I finished my song.
[laugh].
Stable.
I finished my song.
Why can't I talk to you?
Why can't I talk to you.
Why can't I talk to you.
So you know how you feel.
Here's you idea and that idea will be
either stable or unstable to some degree.
You're the best.
You're the best.
Stable or unstable, yeah, you know.
You know you can answer that.
You're the best.
You're the best.
Stable or unstable.
We can make the world a better place.
We can make the world a better place.
Is that all there is?
Is that all there is?
I want more from you.
I want more from you.
I want more from you.
And there's 2 different degrees of
instability.
And by the way, I want more from you.
Feels really stable.
He's moving on.
Maybe a little different then.
I'm moving on or he's moving on.
So why can't you be with me.
He's moving on.
Good for him.
It'll be a good life.
I'm moving on.
I'm moving on.
And so you have all these different
colors.
And the tools that you have available,
your melody, your harmony, your melodic
rhythm.
Your harmonic rhythm, your lyrical tools,
which we'll talk about in detail too.
Are all there to help you craft.
Your idea.
But the first thing to do is to say, how
am I feeling?
In this song, stable or unstable.
In this verse, stable or unstable.
In this line.
Stable, or unstable.
How am I feeling.
And you can literally go, is the whole
song.
Unusual for the entire song to be hu-hah,
or It is quite usual for a song to go
ha-ah, ah-huh or huh, ha-uh.
Those are technical terms.
You could spell those out.
But it you know, the verse is, I was so
lonely, and then I met you.
And I'm lonely again cause I met you.
So it, it's a very flexible thing.
But once you start viewing the whole
process of creation.
Of the song.
Through the central idea of prosody.
That everything must work together.
Everything fits together to communicate
the central idea.
And start assessing the sections of your
song, the lines of your song, the general
intent of your song.
Through the grid of stable, wax on, versus
unstable wax off.
Then the process of making choices which
songwriting is all about.
Which art is all about.
Making choices.
Making choices for a reason.
Then you no longer have to depend on
things just coming up intuitively,
although that's great.
But as they come up, intuitively, you are
now in a position to say so, does this
intuitive idea that I have fit into this
unity that I'm trying to create?
And this idea, does it support this
unstable feeling that this verse has?
So once you start organizing it in that
way, the whole process of making choices
clears up.