The use of Repetitions

Ever wondered how all those singers manage to learn all those lyrics by heart??? Well, one thing's for sure, you don't have to be a graduate to be a singer, but a good memory can come in handy! But fortunately there are some tricks to let that singer sing the lyrics you want! In this month's lesson I'll try to explain how the use of repetetive parts in a songtext can help remembering a song. We will see that there are two sorts of repetitions:

• Literal Repetitions
  
• Seemingly Repetitions
  

I'll explain the difference between these two later on this lesson. But before kicking off I can tell you already that there are quite a lot of advantages to use repetitions.
These include:

• Lyrics will be easier to learn by heart
  
• It's easier to write lyrics
  
• Lyrics will be more easy to recognize for the audience
  
• And so on...
  

These advantages which we will discuss later, might seem to be unimportant, but consider this: Why wouldn't you make it yourself easier as a songwriter to write those lyrics?? After all, it's not very much fun going though all those dictionaries in your head searching for those words to fit! Why don't go easy and use your own words!! And when you consider it might change your song into an alternative national anthem just by using those repetitions you would be crazy to do it the hard way!
Now don't you all start yelling at me saying: "Man, go to kiddies class!" I know there are plenty of people perfectly capable to write good (and complicated) lyrics, in fact I'm one of them hahaha but this course is supposed to learn you all some tips and tricks to make the job easier...
So now we figured this out I guess we're ready know to dive deeper into this material. Put on your helmets, fasten your seatbelts and GO!!!

Literal Repetitions

The name says it all: Literal Repetitions are literal repetitions of a part of the lyrics. One very much used example is called the Chorus. It's one of those old-fashioned elements of a song which hardly no-one dares to let go. I wonder why (NOT!!). The chorus is the most important part of the song, whether you like it or not. It's that part that will almost always be first remembered of a song. Notice that all the classics are songs built around a good sturdy chorus. They can come in all kinds of forms: a chorus doesn't need to be very complicated at all. Take a look at the lyrics of one of the most catchy choruses ever: the one of the song Child in Time by Deep Purple. Gillan probably took a day off when the lyrics of this chorus were written but it sure proofs the fact that a chorus is good as long as it's recognizable throughout a song.
Usually a chorus doesn't change during a song, and if it changes, it only changes slightly and it will probably be at the end of the song. An example of this can be seen in the song Autumn which we discussed in the first lesson. Notice that the last chorus has changed, but very slight: "they" changes into "we", that's all. A chorus shouldn't change too much, otherwise it won't be recognized as the chorus anymore.
Of course, the music is an important factor in recognizing a chorus, but remember that a good songtext is still interesting and meaningfull without the music!!
Remember when you start to change a chorus, be sure the change is logical. You can change a chorus more drastically without sacrificing the link with the other choruses, but you will need to use the so-called seemingly repetitions for that. I will discuss that later....
It is also possible to use literal repetitions in a verse. A lot of the advantages will count for this option too. By repeating lines or parts of lines it will be much easier to build a complete songtext and it should enhance the logic of the lyrics. But watch out for the pitfall of making your song too simplistic!! Many songwriters make the mistake to repeat large parts of text, and thus making the song dull or even worse: hard to understand. This trick might work in a poem but it usually doesn't work in a song, and certainly not a rock-song. Use it sparsly and subtle.
An example can be found in the following exerpt of the song "Live it Up" which I wrote for the second cassette of the Stag, named "Winds of Pain". You can view the complete lyrics of this song by clicking here. For a 47 seconds sound-sample of it please click here. The file is recorded mono in 8 bits PCM-format so downloading-times should be reasonable... For tips on saving the soundfiles on your local harddisk visit the information-page.

Live it Up 1)
The life you live, just seems alright,
but if you bust the shell, you can smell the stench inside.
you're just filled up, with all your happy memories,
you're living in the past, but you never get yourself released.

3)
The life you live, just ain't alright,
and you know, you rot away inside.
Just enjoy all your happy memories,
but don't forget to live your live, and never get yourself released.

As you can see, there are quite a few literal repetitions! I coloured the repetitions for convenience. Some parts of lines from the first verse have been copied to the third, after a slight change. Take a look at the tails of the lines of these verses: they are almost identical. This is a dangerous trick because the result might be you ending up with a song which seems to have nothing to say. To avoid this, keep in mind the following rules:

Place the repetitions as far away from each other as possible.

For example, use the last verse to copy parts from the first verse as in the example

Try to avoid copying whole lines.

Your verse might become a fake-chorus.... Use single words or parts of lines instead.

If you do it alright the audience/reader wouldn't notice at all the verses are almost identical. They will only think the last part sounded familiar (if they aren't drunk, stoned or deaf of course!!!) and that was just your intention, wasn't it???
Using literal repetitions in a verse can be okay but it's better to use seemingly repetitions. As you will see later, the above example also contains examples of seemingly repetitions. So I guess it's time to tell you more about that now!

Seemingly Repetitions

As you could see, literal repetitions aren't very difficult to use. In fact, everybody is using (or misusing...) them. Choruses will be the main part of a song until another Beethoven stands up so we will be using it in some form for decades to come. How different are seemingly repetitions... These aren't as easy to use as literal repetitions! As you could read between the lines above, seemingly repetitions have the same effect on a song as literal repetitions, but this effect is achieved in a different and much more complicated way. This kind of repetitions come in the class of "things that spice up lyrics", if you know what I mean.
The problem with seemingly repetitions is that they must be used very, very subtle. Use them too much and they will become just plain literal repetitions. I'll try to explain what I mean with seemingly repetions.
A seemingly repetition is a style-form used by a songwriter to make the audience/reader "feel" te relation between two (or more) parts of a songtext. Was this relation rather clear when using literal repetitions, using seemingly ones results in far less clear relations in the songtext. This is due to the fact that seemingly repetitions hardly (or not at all) use copied parts of a songtext. The relation exists because the contents of the text make out the repetetion and thus makes the relation between the text-parts.
Tough eh?? Well, not as tough as it looks. I'll try to explain it using one of my songs. This one is previously unreleased. You can hear a sample of this song by clicking on the picture below. It will download a soundfile recorded mono in 8 bits PCM-format. I chose this format to keep downloading-times within reasonable limits while enabling you to hear a large part of music. I wrote this song in the "dying days" of the Stag and it's the original demo I used on my 4-track home-studio, which I always use to give the bandmembers an idea of a new song. I'm not a singer so pardon me for that; but after all, we're talking lyrics now...

Demon Dreams

1)
In the darkest hour, I hear a voice calling me,
a soothing sound from a world beyond, it calls my soul and makes it free.
Whispered promises of heavenly peace, seducing me to believe
there's love in the voice that's calling me.

When she calls my name, I feel like riding the rainbow.
Dazing trough the skies,to get to her and drown me in her eyes.

2)
When the sky turns red at the break of day.
I feel a pain deep down my soul, but it fades away.
And while the sun shines down on me, she seduces me to believe
there ain't no voices calling me

When she calls my name.......etc.

3)
When the night comes down, I fear the voice to call me.
There's something deep inside of me, that stands up to this slavery.
But when the winds carries out her voice, and my fear parishes in lust,
I betray the one I love, and deny all that I trust.

When she calls my name.....etc.

4)
When the nightwind reeks the fire, the other side just takes control.
Offering me the chances I've missed, all the love I've ever sold.
I relive the past, and fear to let it loose,
but the blackbird sings his warning: Don't choose.

Chorus:
Dreams are illusion, tell me why you're calling me.
Dreams are illusion, tell mee why you're soothing me.
Dreams are illusion, tell me why you're hurting me.
Dreams are illusion, don't want the morning dew to moist my eyes no more.

---

For this example I used the entire songtext because you can only "feel" the relation between different parts of the text when you read the whole song. The seemingly repetition is very subtle here and is achieved by using equivalents. These equivalents are the words (or strings of words) that make the link(s) more clearly; without them it would be more difficult to recognize a seemingly repetition. Mind that I use the word equivalent a little free: an equivalent usually is a word that has the same meaning as another word, like for example dog and hound. Here I mean with equivalent a word or string of words that point to the same subject. Let me explain by some examples from Demon Dreams:

Example 1:

At the beginning of each verse, you see a simple form of a seemingly repetition. It is used to show a relation in time, in this case, the night. This example is shown in red.

Example 2:

The second example shows how a seemingly repetition is used to link parts of the lyrics which are about the feelings of the "I"-person. These feelings don't have to be the same: the link can be laid between to opposites as well, just as long as the subject is the same. These examples are shown in purple.

Note that seemingly repetitions usually appear at the same place in a songtext in different verses, although that's not necessarily the case. The examples also proof that seemingly repetitions make it easier to understand the lyrics. In fact, the same thing is said twice in different words, so the change people will understand it is twice as big.
I hope you have an idea now of what seemingly repetitions are and how to use them. As you can see, it's sometimes hard to tell where a literal repetition ends and a seemingly one starts. As a rule of thumb: as soon as you "feel" the repetition (and the link established by it) rather than you "see" it, it's a seemingly one.

Advantages and disadvantages...

We're almost at the end of this month's lesson. I know this one wasn't easy but songwriting usually isn't easy at all, except for the lucky few. To make it up to you I made a tabel where you can see the advantages and disadvantages of the forms of repetitions I discussed in this lesson.

Sort of Repetition	Advantages	Disadvantages	Remarks
Literal Repetition	*Easy to use *Makes lyrics easier to remember	*Danger of looking "cheap" *Commonly used	*Used most commonly in choruses *Often misused by lack of writing-skills
Seemingly Repetition	*Helps reader to understand difficult lyrics *Adds structure to lyrics	*Difficult to use *Danger of "falling back" to plain literal repetitions	*Makes you "feel" the link between textparts

The above list could be much longer if you please. Send me your comments about this, because while experimenting with it you will certainly encounter more advantages and disadvantages of using repetitions. For myself, I am convinced of the fact that the advantages are of more weight than the disadvantages and therefor I'd suggest to try things out in your lyrics. Especially the seemingly repetitions can be a real burden when trying them out for the first time but practicing a lot will make it more easy and natural to use. After all, consider this: how often do we have to explain things twice or even more just to get the message clear in real life??
As a final bonus, here's a link to the full lyrics of another song of mine, which is called (The Square of) Heavenly Peace. It's full of literal and seemingly repetitions as you will see. Just read it and try to find them.