: How do we tell someone how to sing a lyric? People usually use a musical sheet to tell how a song should be sung, but when you read a lyric you have no idea how a song should be sung

@Carla500

Posted in: #Lyrics

People usually use a musical sheet to tell how a song should be sung, but when you read a lyric you have no idea how a song should be sung without having the musical sheet in front of you, so is there a notation system that exists that allows you to know how a song should be sung? The pacing is very hard to determine unless you hear the song or look at the musical sheet, but there must be a way for people without musical training to determine how a song should be sung.

Here's an example:


[Verse 1]

Breath, should I take a deep?

Faith, should I take a leap?

Taste, what a bittersweet

All my, all my life


I rewrote the above into this:


[Verse 1]

Breathhhhhhh, should I take a deeeeeeeep?

Faiiiiiiiiiith, should I take a leaaaaaaap?

Tasteeeeeee, what a bittersweeeeeeeet

All my, all my lifeeeeeeee


This is something I just came up with, but as you can see it's not perfect, because still even now it's hard to know exactly how it should be sung. It gives you more of an idea, but it's still hard to know what the exact pacing should be.

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@Rivera824

@Rivera824

Sheet music is probably the most accurate way to describe the musical part of a song, but it conveys nothing to anyone weho does not read notes. Guitar chords convey less information, and again, most peopel who are not guitar players gain nothign from them at all.

These days, it is usually trivial to finad online and link to a sung version of almost any published song. If the song is original, or obscure, one can sing to a computer microphone, and upload the recorded song or enclose it in an email.

Because most people who are not musicians learn how to sing a song by hearing it sung. Even musicians often prefer to actually hear a performance in addition to reading music. Before the computer age tht could only be done in person. Now it is easy at a distance of space or time.

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@Sent2472441

@Sent2472441

Lyrics are not lyrics until they are set to music. At which point, they are sung to the music. They appear on the sheet music. Like so:

(source)

Alternatively, the lyrics can be placed not over sheet music, but over guitar chords, like so:

(source)

Basically, you superimpose some form of music notation over the lyrics. If there's no music, they're not lyrics.

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