In the last segment we talked about rhyme scheme, and how rhyme scheme by itself can create stability or instability. Because it creates a journey, a sonic journey that raises expectations, and is capable of resolving, or not resolving the expectation that it sets up. We also saw how rhyme scheme works in cooperation with a number of lines and lengths of the lines, so that we now have, those three tools to use to help support our ideas with, with our structure. To support a sense of solidity or stability by using number of lines, length of lines, and rhyme scheme to create stability, or to support instability by using number of lines, length of lines, and rhyme scheme to create a more unstable journey. Now in this segment, we're going to see how rhyme types, kinds of rhymes you use, can aid and abet those journeys, creating more or less stable sequences, just in terms of the way the rhymes work together, the way they interface. In order to do that, first thing I want to do is something really quite simple I want to show you some relationships between a little piece of melody and the chord underneath the melody. Leonard Bernstein calls melody, the noun, and the harmony, the adjective. So let's take a look at a noun. [music]. Let's try da, da, da, da, dum. That's our noun. Let's end that melody with, which is in by the way the key of C, ba da, da, da c. Let's end that on a C major triad. [music]. There's the C major triad. Here's the C in the base. Ba da, da, da, dong, [music], [music] da, da, da, da, dum[MUSIC]. That really feels like we're done, that really feels like we're resolved. That's about as stable as you can get, playing the C major triad, in root position, with C, E, G, and playing at C in the base, and singing a C at the same time. Ba da, da, da, dum[MUSIC][MUSIC]. Alright, feels like were done. Now lets stay inside the C major triad, and lets take the fifth of the C major triad, the g, and lets play that, [music], in the base, and I'll keep the C major triad in my right hand. Ba da, da, da, dum [music]. [music] Da, da, da, da, dum [music]. Now, that feels pretty stable too, but it doesn't feel as stable as da, da, da, da, dum [music] da, da, da, da, dum, [music]. So, it feels like we're done, feels like we're home. But, they've repai, Mom and Dad have repainted the room, and have changed from my cowboy bedspread into flowers. And so, it feels like I'm home, it's still my room. I don't like pink very much, and the flowers, maybe not. But still, I'm home. Ba dah, da duh, dom, [music]. Alright? Now, let's instead of putting the G in the bass, why don't we put the third, the E, in the base, and see what happens then. Ba da, da, da, dum. [music] Ba da, da, da, dum. [music] I'm still home but now Mom and Dad have put, put all their stuff in my room and I have to sleep in my sister's room, and I didn't really like my sister's room that much, ever. So, I'm home but it's slightly uncomfortable. And that's the that's a C major triad with the three in the base, with the third in the base, okay, so, let's see what else happens. What if I take continuing to sing the C the root, let me take the C out of my right hand, and in my right hand I'll simply play the E and the G, keeping the E in the base. Da, da, da, da, dum. [music]. Da, da, da, da, dum. [music] Now, I'm sleeping in the basement. I think the house is for sale, too. It doesn't really feel comfortable, but still, I'm home. It's a, as it were, tonic function. Okay, now, I teach at Berklee College of Music, affectionately known as The Chord Factory. And here at Berkley College of Music, we sometimes say that every C major chord has four notes in it, that is it contains also the seven, the B. So taking Berkeley, The Chord Factory, at its word for the moment, let me know put the B in. And so in my right hand I'll play E, G, B, and in my left hand, in the base, I will play the E again in the base. Dada, da, da, dum [music]. [music] Da, da, da, da, dum [music]. That's the E minor, that is the three minor in the key of C, which is still oooh, atonic function. Still I'm home, but the house has been sold, its five years later and I'm peeking in the window, looking at all the furniture that's different, but still there's that feeling of eh, yeah, it's kind of home. So there we are with a series of possibilities. Now, what if somebody said to you, that every time you come to the end of a sequence, every time you come to the end of a verse, every time you come to the end of a chorus, every time you come to the end of a bridge, or a pre-chorus, that you have to hit the tonic chord, the root in the base, and sing the root? That would be silly. At which point, of course, you would say, well huh, what a stupid rule that is, that gives me no ability to move anywhere. That gives me no ability, to be expressive. I mean can I sing that C, and play an E minor under it? Of course I can. It's just a matter of, it will create a different feeling then playing the C major triad in root position and playing a C in the base. It's a different feeling. What about the G in the base? Can I do that? Of course I can. It's just going to be a little less stable, than it is when I put the C in the base. So, all of these different harmonic choices still staying within that, I'm home spectrum. How fully am I home? I'm really home, or I'm peeking in the window of my old house, but still, it's all home. So there is that spectrum going from most resolved, to least resolved and still creating a tonic function. Now this, of course, is not new news to you. This, saying that, you know what, the chords you play under your melody affect the melody and give it different emotional resonance. Should be, something that, once you pick up an instrument, you learn, fairly quickly. That, the chord that you play underneath your melody, makes a difference. What you probably don't know, or maybe haven't thought of, is that rhymes work exactly the same way. That rhymes work exactly the same way, as that chords work. There is a scale of rhyme types, that goes from the most resolved, to the least resolved, where you still have a sonic connection. And so what we're going to talk about in this segment is the use of rhyme types to create varying degrees of being home, varying degrees of homeness. And so here we go, take a look at the table. You can see that the most resolved is called perfect rhyme, perfect rhyme, or let's call it fully resolved rhyme. So perfect rhyme has three characteristics. Number one, in perfect rhyme the vowel sounds are identical. So note here, blood, mud, blood, mud. Now note that they are spelled differently, double o as opposed to the short u. But the sound the short u sound, is the same, so that mud and blood have identical vowel sounds. Note also, that mud and blood, ha, can share the second quality of perfect rhyme, that is, if there are consonants after the vowel, those consonants also are the same sound. So mud, blood, or trees, breeze. And note that trees, breeze, though spelled differently, again, have the same final or ending consonant sound. The third condition for perfect rhyme is that the rhyming syllables begin differently. So mud, blood. Because rhyme, being a sonic event, actually is a musical event that works on the musical principle of tension, resolution; difference moving into similarity. So mud, blood. Note that if I say, blood, blood, blood, blood, blood, blood, that your first response isn't, oh my goodness, those sound so much alike. What you're hearing is repetition, because there is no tension to be resolved. When I say blood, blood, blood or even blood, blunt, when I start the syllables the same, you are hearing essentially repetition. That's called an identity. Now, it's not wrong to use an identity, simply, an identity gives you a sense of repetition, not a sense of rhyme. So it does not create a rhyming function. But those are the three conditions of perfect rhyme. Number one, identical vowel sounds. Number two, identical consonants following the vowel, if any. Note by the way, that free and tree have no consanant after the long e sound, and consequently, though they are still perfect rhymes, the second condition for perfect rhyme doesn't figure in here. So if there is a consonant following the vowels, those sounds must be identical for it to be a perfect or fully resolved rhyme. And then finally three, the syllables that are rhyming must begin differently in order to create tension that will be resolved. Those are the three conditions for perfect rhyme. Perfect rhyme is fully resolved. When you are working, say, with exclusively perfect rhymes, now you have a challenge, because English is a rhyme Poor language. It is a rhyme poor language for several reasons, number 1, it doesn't use the endings of words for grammatical purposes. Number two, it has 17 vowel sounds. Now, if on the other hand we look at a rhyme rich language, for example, Italian. Five vowel sounds, only five vowel sounds. And every word in Italian, ends in a vowel. So rhymes galore in Italian. Very few rhymes in English, relatively speaking, so that rhyming in English is much more difficult, and perfect rhyming in English is even more difficult, because of all of the differences in vowel sounds and, of course, all of the different ways that consonants can end English words. So, what we're going to try to do, is expand our rhyming possibilities and go beyond perfect rhyme, and move into the various rhyme types. And see how they relate to perfect rhyme, and see what emotional significance or what emotional consequences they have. So I guess it's probably possible, to think of perfect rhyme as [music] da, da, da, da, dum [music]. Fully resolved.
