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46 - songwriting

I finished week 3 of the Coursera songwriting course. This weeks assignment was to write a verse and chorus that confirms to certain specifications (stable verse, unstable chorus). The effect has to be achieved by using certain rhyme schemes or rhymes. For non-native english speakers like myself this was really difficult - as I have learnt last week, english is actually a rhyme poor language. There are very few “perfect” rhymes (love / above). Much rhyming is thus done with “family rhymes” (where similar sounds t/d, p/b, k/g, m/n/ng are rhymed like cut / mud) or even worse additive / subtractive rhymes ( cry / ride), assonance rhymes ( fool / rude ) and consonance rhymes (friend / wind).

While doodling with the guitar to put some chords onto the verse and chorus I actually managed to write another 2 verses and a modified chorus. So with that, I actually managed to write my very first song. Tomorrow I will try to actually record it, and depending on how it sounds I might post it :)

Jens-Christian Fischer

Maker. Musician