Content

• Steps
• Advice

Since the concept of love, people have been able to write sweet ballads about a special person in their life.The images in the ballads are varied, from the betrayed kings, sailors floating at sea with broken hearts to cowboys riding horses along the dusty plains. sunset lover with many other images. Put on a ballad writer's shirt and compose your own ballad by following these steps, starting with step 1.

Steps

Part 1 of 3: Thinking about the topic

1. 

   Learn about a ballad. A ballad is a poem or song about a particular story. Ballads are often about love, whether it is lost or budding love, or about an event or an influence to express something about the human state. People often think of ballads that are romantic but equally tragic. To get a ballad of your own, it can be helpful to consult the works of other artists.
   • The traditional English ballads can be full of humor, tragedy, or satirical by touching topics of love, work, and even death. Like the press, the music of these ballads is not personal no matter how emotional the story it creates.
   • Ballads printed on large British paper (Its name is because the paper used to print these ballads) is more current (like the press), it deals with events and issues of the era. They are often told from the first-person perspective with stereotypical personalities and are often not very objective.
   • The North American Ballads also refers to love, events, violence, and catastrophe and is often ranked according to the people who perform the song: miners, sailors, cowboys or Indians ... North American ballads classics include "John Henry" and "Casey Jones."

2. 

   
   
   Choose a theme for your ballad. Ballads often tell stories such as events, love, death, catastrophe or even contemporary events. They often follow a clear, orderly plot and rely on scripted actions (a chaotic situation, its climax, and its resolution) to create suspense. Lots of songs tell traditional stories that have been passed down for generations, so you can also start your ballad from adapting a famous story if you don't want to start with two tables. empty hand.
   • Often times, the theme of the ballad will make us feel a certain way about our lives. These can be tragic ballads revolving around lost love to remind us that we must appreciate our own lives and the love we have.

3. 

   
   
   Choose an event or story to describe in your ballad. Themes can range from a major historical event affecting thousands of people to a very personal little moment that you have experienced in your life. Once you have chosen a particular person or event to focus on, you should do a bit of research to choose the parts of the story you want to tell to match the story line and the main theme.

4. 

   
   
   Pick out the most important elements of the plot. Ballads often use a storytelling called "leap and stretch", which means you can ignore the unnecessary elements of the story to spend more time in interesting moments. In this style, you should ignore unnecessary trivia, associations or minor details that deviate the story from the direction you have chosen.
   • Stagger Lee, the ballad shown in this article is a classic American blues ballad about the murder of Billy Lions at the hands of Stagger Lee, who overreacted when Billy lifted his hat off his head. Such controversial stories are often the building blocks of famous ballads.
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Part 2 of 3: Composing a ballad

1. 

   Find an opening phrase. The opening to the ballad is always the hardest part to write but also the most important because it engages the audience and makes them feel like they are part of the story. Ballads usually begin with feature phrases like Welcome everyone to come here. (For example: "Come here young women", "Come here, comrades", ...). You can borrow this wording to start your story (and make your ballad more unique). If you don't want to use an opening phrase, focus on introducing the story to your readers.
   • Mississippi John Hurt's Stagger Lee Start the story right away with the sentence "Sir Officer, how could that be?"

2. 

   Composing rhythm and rhymes. Ballads usually have four-sentence lyrics, each with two or more rhymes. (On the contrary, blues ballads usually have 2 sentences that rhyme together, followed by a third independent.) The easiest way to start the rhythm and rhyme is to finish the 1st word the way you want, then use use it as the background for the rest of the sentence (eg, consistently keeping the length, rhythm, and rhymes of each sentence).
   • Rhymes AA is when the first sentence and second sentence rhyme together.
   • AABB: The first two sentences form a rhyme pair and the next two sentences form a rhyme pair.
   • ABAB: The first sentence rhymes with the third sentence, the second sentence rhymes with the 4th sentence.
   • ABCB: Only the 2nd and the 4th sentence rhyme together.
   • Example from Stagger Lee (first 3 lines follow AAB rhyme - the traditional spelling of blues ballads.)
     
     Police officer, how can it beige?
     You can 'rest everybody but cruel Stagger Lee
     That bad man, cruel Stagger Lee.

3. 

   
   
   Write the chorus. The chorus is also very versatile in the ballad genre. It can be a sentence that is repeated in each word, two sentences repeated in a number of words, a whole or even two consecutive sentences. Additionally, you can repeat the chorus verbatim or make slight changes in each appearance to create a strong emotional effect.
   • This version of Stagger Lee has a chorus at the end of each word (Chorus is “That bad man, oh cruel Stagger Lee):
     
     Police officer, how can it be?
     You can 'rest everybody but cruel Stagger Lee
     That bad man, oh, cruel Stagger Lee

4. 

   
   
   Write lyrics 2 with the same style as word 1. Use a consistent beat (for example, try to keep the same rhythm as in lyrics 1). Rhythm is basically the type of syllable in a song or poem. Most ballads use the same beat throughout the song, or the tempo of the chorus will be different from the lyrics. This is the deciding factor for the rhythm of the song.
   • "Billy de Lyon told Stagger Lee," Please in take my life,
     I got two little babies, and a darlin 'lovin' wife. "
     That bad man, oh, cruel Stagger Lee

5. 

   
   
   Complete the ballad using your own sample structure. Once you find the style of each word, you just need to perfect the story according to your structure. However, don't let yourself become too dependent on that structure. If you want to change the length of a sentence or word somewhere and there, do as you wish, and don't be shy if you want to do something different from your rhyme if that makes your ballad better. .
   • "What I care about you little babies, your darlin 'lovin' wife?
     You done stole my Stetson hat, I'm bound to take your life. "
     That bad man, cruel Stagger Lee
     
     “Boom-boom, boom-boom,” went the forty-four
     When I spied Billy de Lyon, he was layin 'down on the floor
     That bad man, oh cruel Stagger Lee
     
     "Gentlemen of the jury, what do you think of that?
     Stagger Lee killed Billy de Lyon about a five-dollar Stetson hat. "
     That bad man, oh, cruel Stagger Lee.
     
     And all they gathered, hands way up high,
     At twelve o’clock they killed him, they’re all glad to see him die
     That bad man, oh, cruel Stagger Lee

6. 

   Remember that some ballads like Stagger Lee may have a chorus in each word. In such ballads, the rhyme is usually AAB (see above) or ABAC (where the 2-sentence chorus takes the 2nd and 4th place, B and C of each word).
   • The words "rhyme together" need the same amount of syllables and stresses.

7. 

   Note that you don't have to use 3 or 4 sentence phrases and chorus. Although this is the most common form of ballad, you will sometimes find a ballad with 6 or more sentences with a different number of sentences in each word.
   • Note that there are instances where the beat of the ballad is more important than the rhyme.
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Part 3 of 3: Complete the ballad

1. 

   Put the ballad aside when you're done. After you finish writing, give yourself some time to focus on other things before getting back to editing your ballad. Not thinking about the story or the rhythm will help you when you return to the finished ballad for a different feel when you start editing it.

2. 

   Go back to where you used to be. Perhaps you have not found the right rhyme or there are too many sounds that you do not know how to remove. Try to see if you can fix them now. Get rid of the excess and leave only the words the story needs.

3. 

   Read your ballad out loud. Whether or not you plan to compose music for your ballad or not, you should still read your poem aloud. Reading aloud will help you find areas where listening is clumsy. If you make a mistake in a segment, you will know that you will have to adjust the amount of sound or rhyme to make sure it can be sung, as in the old days most ballads were sung.

4. 

   Ask someone to take a look. Don't tell the person anything about the story to see if they can figure out the story and the theme for themselves. Do you want your audience to be able to understand what you are trying to say? Ballads are not only songs, but stories to teach the listeners about life.
5. Sheet music for your ballad (optional). A lot of ballads have become songs even though the lyrics themselves are good enough to share with others. If you have a musical talent, try the music for your ballad. advertisement

Usually there are 4 sentences per word, but there are exceptions.

Advice

• If you sing or hum along when you compose, sometimes the words will come to you automatically.
• Don't be afraid to choose creative, unusual or imperfect rhymes. If you try to force all of your rhymes to be perfect your lyrics may sound silly in the end.
• If you know the story you want to tell but have difficulty making it a poetic structure, write down the story first and don't worry about the technical details. You may find it easier to turn into a ballad if the story is written clearly.
• You can completely compose a ballad without any music. Ballad is a musical form of poetry, or simply to say, it "can sing", not "must be able to sing".