What kind of notations are used for rap lyrics?

Chords, scales, harmony, melody, etc.
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What kind of notations, markup styles etc. are used for writing down and reading lyrics in rap, hiphop, trap etc.? Feel free to post examples if you know of any.


Things of specific interest are:
  • ways of marking up correlations of words and syllables to rhythm
  • ways of also marking their pitch, when required
  • whether to use hand-writing on grid-paper, or printable (.txt, .rtf ) files with basic text formatting
  • typographical aspects, such as line leading, fonts etc. - for example: always one bar per line? Do monospaced fonts (Courier etc.) allow for better visual correlations, etc.?
  • ways of visually separating repeating and non-repeating parts, for example whether to use indentation/tabs for choruses etc.
...and so on.

Notes on history of such markups are welcome, if you know of it. References to personal practices of rappers are welcome too, as are references to books and studies on the subject.

Some aspects of this subject may also relate to other rhythm-based genres.


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Note: I posted this in Music Theory forum because it fits the following criteria (as stated here: viewtopic.php?f=99&t=162136 )
"Questions about the underlying principles of any music or musical tradition."
"Questions regarding time signatures, counting patterns, and metrical structure."

Due to previous misunderstandings with some members of this forum, and other reasons, this time I'll just leave the question here and will try to refrain from writing much myself.

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The musical Schmigadoon! actually has a rap song, which is notated in the standard way: https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/ ... oduct.aspx

Oh and surely Hamilton: https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/ ... oduct.aspx

I guess 99% of the times the lyrics exist as a Note on iPhone?

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I've seen spoken word notation done best in jazz music. I don't know how widely it's adopted within hip-hop since it needs knowledge of how to read rhythms and notation, but it's done somewhat like this,
Image
where you're not supposed to read it like you're singing pitches, instead you rap / speak it and use the pitch as a general guide for the tone of your voice. There's also the ^ for accented words/syllables and the "(" for syllables that run together.

(I spent like 6 minutes scraping that example together in musescore instead of realizing I could just go screenshot any old lyric sheet. I work hard, not smart, lol)

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A notepad, you right the lyrics on a notepad using letters.

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F L O W

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it's pretty unlikely there are *any* musical notations preceding a rap track, it would be something by a pedant or academic if at all.
yeah, it'd be rhythmic notation same as notating drums, generalized not specified pitch areas. :party:

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What does get interesting is describing the rhythm of conversational speech. Not metered, bar lines aren't part of any impetus.
But you have to relate the thing to a basic pulse to do it at all. And if it's so someone can read it to play it, you're probably going to invent bar lines, too.

In art music, Schoenberg instructs in the score to *not* sing the written pitches of the score of Pierrot Lunaire, basically a guide instead. Intending a speak/singing, sprechgesang.
But absolutely not to emulate naturalistic speech. Much later Frank Zappa got into a thing they called meltdown, which typically was not stylized/as though poetry but the genuine rhythm of speech in an improvisation. and in at least one case, transcribed as to pitch accurately enough to be replicated on the guitar (Steve Vai).
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jancivil wrote: Fri Feb 18, 2022 4:00 pm What does get interesting is describing the rhythm of conversational speech.
Learning Swedish, I had to learn to speak in a more bluesy rhythm than the usual English pop rhythm because of how long and short vowels work. In English, instead of long vowels, we use diphthongs allowing us to speak in a very regular way.

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See flow diagrams in "How to Rap" by Paul Edwards, and his sequel. Wikipedia "Rapping" is a nice intro; and the Ethan Hein Blog for circular notation of grooves, his Groove Pizza, rap transcription, and teaching methods.
( tangent: in poetry metrical notation is called scansion )
d o n 't
w a n t
m o r e

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"How to Rap" by Paul Edwards is journalism, transcribing is great but I remain doubtful it's an impetus

there's a very good article at Wiki regarding scansion, goes well into the problems, more interestingly to me how problematic it tends to be to relate feet to the ONE, barlines, it's not that objective like one might guess from classical poetics

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jancivil wrote: Fri Feb 18, 2022 4:11 pm interesting
coincidentally
citation: comparing visualization techniques for learning second language
Thank you. That is absolutely fascinating.

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jancivil wrote: Fri Feb 18, 2022 9:36 pm"How to Rap" by Paul Edwards is journalism
Ha ha, yes it IS journalism... about writing and performing rap lyrics !
Check it out 8)
Edwards reports the notation artists actually use for writing and recording.
He calls it what I said above -- the "flow diagram" (pp. 67-78)
Here is an example just for you to Sing-Along with Slim :singer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4QOGxpt3a8
You're welcome!
:hug:
PS, some rappers are quite conversant about poets and their metrical technique.
d o n 't
w a n t
m o r e

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I have had to write up raps for vocalists a few times. I generally just write each bar relative to the 1234 count. It's mostly easier to record a guide vocal though. So that's the way I go almost every time.
Don't F**K with Mr. Zero.

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Harder question: How to notate free style rap on the fly?
Tribe Of Hǫfuð https://soundcloud.com/user-228690154 "First rule: From one perfect consonance to another perfect consonance one must proceed in contrary or oblique motion." Johann Joseph Fux 1725.

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