Rhythm (and groove) is arguably the most important element to any song, and can be a great place to start your song-writing. A lot of song writers start off by creating a drum loop or groove that they like, and then building their song from there.
As with most things musical, you want to start by listening to lots of different rhythms and grooves, and then deciding which one appeals to you, and recreating it in your own way. Below are some common grooves...
Find a groove that appeals to you!
We Will Rock You - Queen
My Generation - The Who
Come Together - The Beatles
The Kinks - You Really Got Me
Thunderstruck - AC/DC
The Pretender - Foo Fighters
Do you know whether your writing jigs or jives? Waltzes or boogies? Struts or strolls?
Most business writers ignore the power of rhythm.
They think rhythm is for poets, musicians, and dancers. Why would a business writer worry about something as esoteric as rhythm?
Well, have you ever worked out while listening to music? Did you notice how the cadence of the music influenced your speed of running, cycling or lifting weights?
You might not be aware of it, but a higher-tempo song makes you bounce a little faster. Your brain synchronizes with the tempo of the music; and, as neuroscientist Dr. Daniel Levitin argues, you might not even feel your muscles protesting because the music enhances your mood and increases your pain threshold.
Writing can stutter and stumble. Writing can flow so softly, it almost sends you to sleep. Writing can hop and skip, putting a smile on your face.
Rhythm is one of the most underrated aspects of writing.
Just like the music during your workout, your readers can sense the rhythm in your writing. Even when they aren’t reading your copy aloud, they can hear its rhythm because they listen to their inner speech. Inner speech mimics “outer” speech, using similar brain areas and even producing tiny movements in the muscles of your larynx.
Yucky rhythm can make your readers click away, while carefully composed rhythm can keep your readers engaged.
Music is what language would love to be if it could.
~ John O’Donohue
Want to know how rhythm can enhance your content?
Rhythm is easiest to spot in poetry, where the same cadence is repeated line after line. Here’s an example of Dr. Seuss:
I’m Yertle the Turtle!
Oh, marvelous me!
For I am the ruler
of all that I see!
Note how the stress pattern is the same in the first and third sentence, and also in the second and fourth. Stressed syllables in bold:
I’m Yertle the Turtle!
Oh, marvelous me!
For I am the ruler
of all that I see!
The rhythm in nursery rhymes and traditional poetry tends to be fairly rigid. But while prose and modern poetry don’t stick to a rigid pattern, you can still hear their rhythm.
Have you read On the Road by Jack Kerouac? It reads like the author is in a hurry to get his story shared. When reading, you hardly have time to take a breath, the sentences keep running, one after the other. Here’s an example:
I first met Dean not long after my wife and I split up. I had just gotten over a serious illness that I won’t bother to talk about, except that it had something to do with the miserably weary split-up and my feeling that everything was dead. With the coming of Dean Moriarty began the part of my life you could call my life on the road.
When you read a paragraph a couple of times, preferably aloud, you’ll get a better feel for its rhythm.
Notice how the rhythm of the description of the Ammo Can packaging from Man Crates below is similar to Jack Kerouac’s paragraph:
The NATO spec Ammo Can is air-tight, waterproof, and virtually indestructible. Even if your gift mistakenly gets shipped to the inside of an active volcano then shot into the middle of the ocean where the government is conducting nuclear test explosions, the contents will be safe and sound.
Rhythm creates a mood. Rhythm can make you rush ahead, or slow you down to quietly enjoy reading. In the paragraph below from All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, the pace ebbs and flows:
When she opens the bedroom window, the noise of the airplanes becomes louder. Otherwise, the night is dreadfully silent: no engines, no voices, no clatter. No sirens. No footfalls on the cobbles. Not even gulls. Just a high tide, one block away and six stories below, lapping at the base of the city walls.
And something else.
Something rattling softly, very close. She eases open the left-hand shutter and runs her fingers up the slats of the right. A sheet of paper has lodged there.
The pace of this paragraph from FiftyThree is quite similar:
We make stuff.
Beautiful, practical, meaningful stuff.
We make what we love.
We love what we do.
But over the years, we noticed that somehow, along the way, software designed to help us be creative actually made us less creative. We believe the best ideas often emerge from the simplest tools: pencil and paper.
In music, tone length and the silences in between tones define rhythm. When long notes blend together without silences, the music flows smoothly. In contrast, when you play short notes with clear pauses in between, you get a more abrupt style of playing. It wakes you up.
In writing, rhythm is defined by punctuation and the stress patterns of words in a sentence. Long sentences sound smoother, while short sentences make your content snappier.
When each sentence follows the same structure and rhythm, your writing becomes boring. For instance:
She went to the shop. She bought ingredients. She prepared Beef Rendang. She let it simmer for 5 hours. The house filled with exotic smells. She cooked rice. She waited for her husband. They ate a delicious dinner. She thought life was good.
By varying sentence length and structure, you can find a rhythm that suits your voice. Here’s an alternative version:
She went to the shop to buy ingredients. And when she prepared the Beef Rendang in the afternoon, exotic smells wafted through the house. After dinner, she whispered to her husband: “Life is good.”
Music doesn’t need words to be mesmerizing, moody, or upbeat. You sense its mood, and it impacts your state of mind.
In a similar way, the rhythm of your writing impacts your reader, too.
Rhythm is one of the most powerful of pleasures, and when we feel a pleasurable rhythm we hope it will continue. When it does, it grows sweeter.
~ Mary Oliver
Next time you read a novel, pay attention to its rhythm. Where does the author let you pause? How does the author vary long and short sentences? How does the writing ebb and flow?
Do you notice a similar rhythm in the writing of your favorite authors?
After studying the rhythm of a few writers, go on and play with the rhythm of your own content. Experiment by varying sentence length. Try different sentence structures. Play with different words.
Read your content aloud.
And learn how to influence your reader’s mood.
Make your words dance.