What kind of notations are used for rap lyrics?

Chords, scales, harmony, melody, etc.
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Michael L wrote: Fri Feb 18, 2022 10:09 pm You're welcome!
I wasn't asking.

this question at the music theory sub-board suggested (to me) an expectation of musical notation, like people needing to read music before they record a rap. it seemed absurd. Journalism about rapping is apparently more interesting to you than it is for me, let's just say

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jancivil wrote: Sun Feb 20, 2022 11:03 pm
Michael L wrote: Fri Feb 18, 2022 10:09 pm You're welcome!
I wasn't asking.

this question at the music theory sub-board suggested (to me) an expectation of musical notation, like people needing to read music before they record a rap. it seemed absurd. Journalism about rapping is apparently more interesting to you than it is for me, let's just say
That video by the Journalist with his formalised flow diagram is an "interesting" demonstration of how that "seeming absurdity" is truly so in others' practice!

What is/is not notated is a useful question, answered realistically by ones' own practice, but perhaps journalism can reduce trial&error for some, including the OP?

My "welcome" was to the OP/topic, but I did not make that clear.
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I quite admire people that can do it, have a facility for it and all that. I have tried to and failed. I would have to work at it.

As a music theory conceptualization it does not seem like a thing to me, however, which I do believe I articulate well enough to grok.

people as individuals do their things, I have notations I have adopted and then abandoned. We could get into that, but it's off topic here. Not to police it, but to indicate my own attitude.
Let me be perfectly clear, why I posit pedantry, academic talk, and journalism as inessential: I want to hear from people WHO DO THE THING.

Then, you appear to be deliberately twisting everything I say, which I really do not dig. Don't quote me to make some point that isn't mine.
Is it regular rhythmic notation?
[delete pointless expression of rancor]
On a music theory basic, the expectation of type of notation for poetics as though the actual question is first of all a bit of a stretch, it wasn't articulated as such, and I was not quick to reply you may notice.
"You're welcome!" comes across as facetious, like you didn't get thanked btfw, whomever it was for. You're welcome for giving you something to talk about, then. Thread's been here a while, ya know.
Last edited by jancivil on Sun Jan 07, 2024 3:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

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jancivil wrote: Mon Feb 21, 2022 12:15 amThen, you appear to be deliberately twisting everything I say, which I really do not dig.
No, I was just trying to show some connections between what we are saying.
I think we are more in agreement than not :shrug:
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sorry bout the heat instead of light, Michael. overflow from more than one thing, primarily as I can't stand this NK fool who can't manage to know where he is or just flat disrespects it, or the thread which isn't music theory at all unless it IS about rhythmic notation.

I could give a detailed lecture on scansion but given the OP and that it's too much pearls unto swine for me particularly at the time.
(diseased colon which I lost finally, for starters.)

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I woulda thought capable rappers do it easily in real time. If not, I guess I could be one.

bull_shit

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Aargh, takes me back to my A-Level English Literature;

https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history- ... -section-3

:scared:

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:)

Sometimes a pentameter line will have an extra ‘beat’, as in the famous line from Hamlet, ‘To be or not to be: that is the question’, where the ‘tion’ of question is an eleventh, unstressed beat. (It is worth asking yourself why Shakespeare wrote the line like this. Why did he not write what would have been a perfectly regular ten-syllable line, such as ‘The question is, to be or not to be’?

because rules aren't everything, and that correct way doesn't actually the f**k work and its scansion sounds stupid in comparison. "perfectly regular" FTW :roll: But it is worth asking yourself.

I remember the stuff from jr high. I was too unformed to grok much then... I learned literally everything independently from school, speaking of AARRGH. {before conservatory, where I learned how to think about form in performance. and honed my chops for a grade.}

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jancivil wrote: Sun Jan 07, 2024 3:59 am

because rules aren't everything, and that correct way doesn't actually the f**k work and its scansion sounds stupid in comparison. "perfectly regular" FTW :roll: But it is worth asking yourself*.

:hihi:

Exactly! Much of literary criticism and theory is pretentious twaddle. There are authors of course who like to consciously play with devices and form etc, but I'm sure most just write (as I think most musicians do..) what comes to mind and sounds right to them in the context of what they're doing.

Given Billy Shakes was writing for the stage, he just wanted it to sound good being spoken aloud. :bang:

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As to independent thought, I found that what is lacking in that area of analysis is this:
the downbeat - 1 - of that is on the first BE. Measuring feet isn't it.
to BE or not to be. (beat)
That (beat) is the QUESTion
2/4.

and we can phrase eg., not to be more than one way. Musically, here's a dotted quarter and 8th, then dotted 8th and 16th, 'til Question, where you probably drop that, and it may be a cross-rhythm against the (musical) meter.
Soon, I was into non-poetic speech for rhythm.
Last edited by jancivil on Sun Jan 07, 2024 4:24 am, edited 1 time in total.

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jancivil wrote: Sun Jan 07, 2024 3:20 amI woulda thought capable rappers do it easily in real time.
I wondered the same thing, because feeling can get lost during writing.
I found that in the days of tape, rappers had to write it all down cuz tape editing is slow and studio time expensive, so they would punch-in just to fix errors.
Then in the 1990s with digital audio, Jay-Z was the first to punch-in to write his rhymes. He 'set the bar' and now everyone does it, sometimes spitting just a few bars at a time over and over until it's right. That oral style comes from the street -- rapping about how you are feeling at that time.
If you're good, you write five different songs a night in the studio, working seven days a week.
If you're not so good, each song sounds the same, but it's just as much work.
Now famous rappers teach this technique!
Last edited by Michael L on Sun Jan 07, 2024 4:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
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jancivil wrote: Sun Jan 07, 2024 4:18 am As to independent thought, I found that what is lacking in that area of analysis is this:
the downbeat - 1 - of that is on the first BE. Measuring feet isn't it.
to BE or not to be. (beat)
That (beat) is the QUESTion
2/4.

and we can phrase eg., not to be more than one way. Musically, here's a dotted quarter and 8th 'til Question, where you probably drop that rhythm, and it may be a cross-rhythm against the (musical) meter.
Soon, I was into non-poetic speech for rhythm.

Just reminded me of this;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw_zDsAeqrI

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Michael L wrote: Sun Jan 07, 2024 4:23 am
jancivil wrote: Sun Jan 07, 2024 3:20 amI woulda thought capable rappers do it easily in real time.
I wondered the same thing, because feeling can get lost during writing.
then with digital audio, Jay-Z was the first to punch-in to write his rhymes. He 'set the bar' and now everyone does it, sometimes spitting just a few bars at a time over and over until it's right. That oral style comes from the street -- rapping about how you are feeling at that time.
If you're good, you write five different songs a night in the studio, working seven days a week.
If you're not so good, each song sounds the same, but it's just as much work.
Now famous rappers teach this technique!
:o
I come from improvisation, and the choice stuff is spontaneous. You can ruin the thing, working it to death. I just "write" left to right and make quick decisions rather than worry. Not to advise beginners, just saying.

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donkey tugger wrote: Sun Jan 07, 2024 4:24 am
jancivil wrote: Sun Jan 07, 2024 4:18 am As to independent thought, I found that what is lacking in that area of analysis is this:
the downbeat - 1 - of that is on the first BE. Measuring feet isn't it.
to BE or not to be. (beat)
That (beat) is the QUESTion
2/4.

and we can phrase eg., not to be more than one way. Musically, here's a dotted quarter and 8th 'til Question, where you probably drop that rhythm, and it may be a cross-rhythm against the (musical) meter.
Soon, I was into non-poetic speech for rhythm.

Just reminded me of this;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw_zDsAeqrI
:hihi:
Charles had the best take AFAIC. close #2 was Tennant.

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jancivil wrote: Sun Jan 07, 2024 3:11 am [...] I can't stand this NK fool who can't manage to know where he is or just flat disrespects [...]
A thing not very nice to say that is
now don't you think? A lifetime of regret
befalls another knight in sour armor

A silence so profound
like that inside a whale
And all they ever chase in life
is someone else's tail

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