Exercise: creating repetition through declarative sentences

Step 1: Write or find a line in your lyrics that contains a verb in the present tense and a first- or second-person singular or plural subject.

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Step 2: Create a command by removing the subject from the sentence. Example: "You tell me that you want me" -> "Tell me you want me" -> "Want me" (Pattison, 2009, p. 80).

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Exercise: creating repetition through anaphoras, epistrophes and symploces

Step 1: Choose or write a line from your lyrics to experiment with writing anaphora, epistrophe, and symploce.

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Step 2: Isolate the first few words and/or the last few words of the line and repeat them in the second and/or third line, filling in the rest of each line with new words. If you only repeat the first words of a line, you have written an anaphora; if you only repeat the last words of a line, you have written an epistrophe; if you repeat both the first and last words of a line, you have written a symploce.

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Theorie:

Repetition is a powerful songwriting-tool. Findeisen (2015, p. 20) states: "Pop heavily relies on an element of recognition to help you relate quicker to a new song". Bell (2017, p. 69) adds that repetition helps to make a song catchy: "the more you repeat something, the more people remember it". Which words or sentences are the best to repeat? "Generally speaking as you write a song, you should be keeping your eyes peeled for something you can repeat. Something catchy or emotional. Something profound or funky, or something beautifully said. Something people might sing along to. (…) There can be many reasons to repeat a line or a section, but let’s take a look at one big one: The words we repeat stay interesting when we say them again. They gain something more when we repeat them, even gain something more because we repeat them" (Pattison, 2009, p. 77). There are a couple of repetition devices: declaritive statements, anafora, epistrophe en symploce.

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Declarative sentences / statements

"Declarative sentences (or “statements”) often can be easy prey for productive repetition. If the subject of the sentence is you, and the verb is present tense, there’s usually a command (imperative) lurking, waiting to be isolated: You tell me that you want me. Just delete the subject, isolating the verb, and presto, you have yourself a command, Tell me you want me. And even: want me" (Pattison, 2009, p. 80).

 

Anaphora / epistrophe / symploce

"When the repetition is at the start of several consecutive lines, the technical term is anaphora"(Bell, 2017, pp. 132-133). The opposite of an anaphora is an epistrophe (Bell, 2017, pp. 132-133). "[A symploce is a] figure of repetition that combines anaphora and epistrophe in which the first and last word or words in one phrase, clause, or sentence are repeated in one or more successive phrases, clauses, or sentences; repetition of the first and last words in a clause over successive clauses".

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Sources:

• Bell, E. (2017) The Art of Songwriting: How to Create, Think and Live Like a Songwriter. New York: The Song Foundry.

• Findeisen, F. (2015) The Addiction Formula. Enschede: Albino Publishing.

• Pattison, P. (2009) Writing Better Lyrics: The Essential Guide to Powerful Songwriting. 2nd edn. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books.

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