How To-24: "How to Write Rap Lyrics"

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit


An editor has suggested that this article be merged with: "How to SpecialWrite Rap Lyrics" Per the merge policy, if these topics are determined to be similar but distinct, then the articles will remain separate. Please comment on the discussion page. Notice added on 2008-06-09.
If you want to learn how to write rap lyrics, you've come to the right page.

Steps

1. Know your rap music. Do this by studying different artist's styles, or study a rapper such as: 2pac, The Notorious B.I.G, Nas, Eminem, 50 Cent, etc.
   
2. Choose your style. You can rap like Eminem, with big multies and big words and a unique way of rhyming. Or like 50 Cent, with different styles such as gangster rap, a dance music, hip hop, etc. The Notorious B.I.G's style changes from slow to fast flow, and the same applies for 2pac.
   
3. Carry a notebook with you everywhere, but you don't have to in public if you feel uncomfortable. If you’re in public, carry an IPod/Walkman, pen, and a few sheets of paper to jot down rhymes that you come up with.
   
4. Learn to freestyle!
   
5. Listen to different types of instrumentals. If you are old enough to drive, keep a few instrumental CD's in your car and freestyle to those.
   
6. Keep repeating these steps.
   

Tips

• Don’t get discouraged or let people put you down. You will learn some skills and get better.
  
• If you’re white, don’t give up or feel like you can't do it. One of the best rappers of all time is white (EMINEM).
  

Things You'll Need

• Pen
  
• Paper/Notebook
  
• CD's/IPod/Walkman (you don't NEED it but it would help)
  
• Instrumentals (you don't NEED it but it would help)
  

Sources and Citations

• Wikipedia.org (look up freestyle rapping or type in how to rap in the toolbar).
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Write Rap Lyircs. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

How to-22: "How to Copyright a Song"

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Under international law, copyright is the automatic right of the creator of the work, this means that copyright exist as soon as you have a tangible version of the music, such as sheet music and/or CDs.
Registering the copyright of your work makes it easier to be compensated in court if your copyright is infringed.

Steps

1. Get the proper forms. The form needed for a sound recording to copyright is the Form SR and possibly Form CON. The form for Performing Arts, such as what people listen to on the radio, from Cd's, and live, is the Form PA or Short Form PA, and possibly Form CON. These copyright forms can be requested at (202) 707-3000, requested through mail at US Copyright Office Library of Congress Washington D.C. 20559, or found on the Internet at external links #1 and #2.
   
2. Fill out the forms. Read the instructions carefully and fill it out exactly how explained.
   
3. Send it to
   
   • Library of Congress
     
   • Copyright Office
     
   • Independence Avenue, S.E.
     
   • Washington, D.C. 20559-6000
     
   
   
4. Include a $45 and a non-returnable copy of the music.
   
5. If your submission was filled out right, you will get a certificate of registration in the next 4-5 months.
   

Tips

• Copyright albums at a time rather than each song. It is a lot cheaper to pay $45 instead of $300 or more. The exception is if the publisher insists to copyright each song.
  
• Send your work to the Copyright Office by certified mail, and request a return receipt. This costs about $5.00. When you receive the return receipt, you'll know they have it and the process has started.
  

Warnings

• Make sure that your music is totally original. The rap hit Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice copied the bass line from Queen and David Bowie's song Under Pressure, and Vanilla Ice was sued.
  
• The above advice assumes that your are a US citizen. In 1989, the US became a party to the Berne Convention, meaning that if you are from outside the US, you are not required to register with the US Copyright Office before you can make a claim in a US court (more on US Copyright rules).
  

Things You'll Need

• Recording
  
• $45
  
• Internet Connection (I hope you have it if you are viewing this)
  
• PA, SR, or CON Forms
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Publish Your Music
  
• How to Write a Vocal Melody over a Piece of Music
  
• How to Write and Sell Your Songs
  
• How to Find Your Own Singing Voice
  
• How to Write a Song and Put Guitar Chords to It
  
• How to Compose and Perform a Rock Song
  

Sources and Citations

• Where to register copyright (includes non-US registration offices)
  
• US Copyright Office - Registering Sound Recordings
  
• US Copyright Office - Registering Performing Art
  
• How to register copyright in the US
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Copyright a Song. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

How To-21: "How to Write and Sell Your Songs"

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Ever wonder why some songwriters get the deals while others, with incredible talent, style and know-how, never even get the slightest nod from industry professionals? As if talent and know-how weren’t enough, today’s writers are faced with the ever increasing challenge of partitioning their writing styles from the endless barrage of production makeovers of what would otherwise be mediocre songs at best.
Read on to learn how to get your songs published!

Steps

1. Understand how the industry works and your new role within it. Gone are the days when great songs were recorded in what would seem the worst of conditions for a recording facility and recording hardware. Today, the onset of the computer, drum loops, samples and limited music abilities rule – or do they? In one sense that last statement is true, and in another, it’s not. Let’s take a closer look.
   
2. Realize that music is now written, deployed and embarked upon from a market driven perspective. While a volume of music is being created from a very shallow writing and production style, there is left a vacuum for songs and music that is yearned for by a large segment of the population, particularly baby boomers, who miss the “days of the past" where style and passion ruled. Don’t forget that, and in fact, if you will keep that in the back of your mind while you are writing, you will be one step closer to success.
   
3. Continue to write from within and from who you are, but don’t be caught up in the music fads, what’s hot at the moment and what “seems" to work – stay in it for the long haul. If you continue to write with substance, style and from who you are and where “life" has carried your writing style to, you’ll be driven by the craft of the song and not the latest music industry craze.
   
4. Know how to market yourself. Today’s music industry demands that you not only write the next “hit" song, but that you are able to sell and market your next big “hit" – Forget the song selling itself. Sadly enough, this is the case a lot of the time. There are still A&R directors, producers and artists who look at the strength and character of the song, but they’re becoming more and more rare. If you write country music, you’ll have an easier time finding individuals who will look at the strength of your song and not just pure marketing. Other genres are not as conducive to song viability, but marketing viability as the “rule of law".
   
5. Build your production strength. Many great songs today don’t make it simply because the production doesn’t yield the emotional tone, upbeat or not, that the song implores. We all wish the day was back when a great song stood on its own, but many a song demo is actually the track used for the final artist record cut today. You can no longer get away with “fairly" good sounding tracks, they have to sound like a record cut. You may be able to get away with a lo-fi sound in country music, but even this has changed as the popularity of this genre has increased.
   
6. Stay focused, believe in your writing, but be honest at the same time and demand the highest in quality of your song demos and learn from others who have the “sell ability" factor in marketing their songs or products. This is a new day in the music industry, but you can succeed if you will hold to your writing values and not to the latest music whim.
   

Tips

• Have fun making your songs and selling hoping you will make some money.
  
• Try to get a local band that you know well to perform the song.
  

Warnings

• Try not to get too cocky with your songs or you'll get disappointed if your song doesn't sell.
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Publish Your Music
  
• How to Write The Vocal Melody for Music
  
• How to Copyrights
  
• How to Copyright a Song
  
• How to Compose and Perform a Rock Song
  
• How to Find a Tap Harmonic on the Guitar
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Write and Sell Your Songs. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

'Somehow' - Poem by Silverfish

This is what we want, we and our children:
A seat in the best school – somehow;
Very high marks in the exams – somehow;
Then the best course in the best college – somehow;
Again best grades in the college exams – somehow;
After that a lucrative job – somehow;
Then the most beautiful girl to love – somehow;
A fabulously rich girl to marry – somehow;
A Hyundai or a Ford Icon – somehow;
A palatial house to live in – somehow;
God! What a dangerous word this “SOMEHOW’ is!

Poem of the day-18: "Ode on Solitude" by Alexander Pope

Happy the man, whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air,
In his own ground.
Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,
Whose flocks supply him with attire,
Whose trees in summer yield him shade,
In winter fire.
Blest, who can unconcern'dly find
Hours, days, and years slide soft away,
In health of body, peace of mind,
Quiet by day,
Sound sleep by night; study and ease,
Together mixt; sweet recreation;
And innocence, which most does please
With meditation.
Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie.

Wikipedia article on "ALEXANDER POPE":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Pope

Grateful thanks to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

How To-20: "How to Create a List of Rhyming Words for a Poem or Song"

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Lots of times you might want to write a poem or a song that rhymes, for a class or just for fun. Here is an easy way to come up with those rhymes without having to resort to a rhyming dictionary.

Steps

1. Think of an ending to a word, such as -at or -on.
   
2. Write it down so you remember it.
   
3. Go through the alphabet and stick each letter to the beginning of the word. so for -at you would say that 'at' is already a word, then 'bat', 'cat','fat', 'hat', 'mat', 'nat', 'pat', 'rat', 'sat', 'tat', and 'vat' all are real words that rhyme with that ending.
   
4. 4. Once you've gone through all the letters, try two letters a at a time, for example, 'flat', 'gnat', 'stat', 'that'...
   
5. 5. Figure out where in your poem or song you can use these words
   

Tips

• Choose an ending that isn't too common. for example, don't use -ing, because almost every verb out there ends in that.
  
• If you're having real problems, ask your teacher if you can use a rhyming dictionary, which have lists of words that rhyme.
  
• You can also google 'rhymes' or 'online rhyming dictionaries' and find online databases of words that rhyme, often which can be sorted by number of syllables, which is a nice feature
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Become a Writer
  
• How to Rejuvenate a Cliche for Creative Writing
  
• How to Avoid Making a Mary Sue
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Create a List of Rhyming Words for a Poem or Song. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.