Watch your rhythms!

by Andy Jenkinson
(Leicester, UK)

Language and words have a natural rhythm and stress to them. Do not shoe-horn words agains a melody that does fights this. Stressing syllables that are usually unstressed sounds very awkward. Consider "She was beautiful" with the 'ti' landing on a downbeat. (Or the 'ful' to a lesser extent). Not natural sounding.

Also, if you are considering the song for other singers - pay attention to pronunciation of words, and regional dialects. Rhymes may depend on certain pronunciations to work ("Squirrels" and "Girls" for instance). "Chance, Dance" can have long 'A' sounds ... "Romance" can not.