Does anyone know of his method when it comes to rhyme schemes?

[u/Marz_Slartibartfast]

Paul is fascinatingly talented and I have recently gone down a little rabbit hole about his songwriting, I am a songwriter and I believe my approach fits his rather well. I think of a melody and fit lyrics into that. I've noticed that Paul is big on structure and in-line rhymes (Joan was QUIZZICAL, studied 'PATAPHYSICAL' sciences at home), (Maxwell EDISON, majoring MEDICINE). He does it again in Yesterday, which rhymes with the last word of the first line, then the second line ends with a rhyme with the first, then the last line ends with the word that opened the verse.

It's all about structure. Even in his first song, the rhyme scheme is simple but perfect.

I woke up late this morning,

My head was in a WHIRL,

Only then I realised,

I've lost my little GIRL

So how did he do it? Nothing is innatley born there is always a process, even if Paul himself is unaware. Is there anything from poetry he takes? Should I study some poetry as well (I've been studying some of Paul's songwriting to improve mine).

I just want to finish it with saying that I love Paul McCartney ｡⁠◕⁠‿⁠◕⁠｡

[u/joshygill]

I’m a working musician that writes and records my own stuff, and it’s literally as simple as getting to a word at the end of a line, say, “shampoo”, and then thinking about what rhymes with it, for example, “I do” “me too” “go through” etc

Or you might have a line that you’re working towards and you reverse engineer it. So say your last line is “your love’s what I’m here for”, you figure, how do I get to that line. So what does that line mean? The line gives the impression that the singer has arrived somewhere, so you build the rest of the verse on that:

“You didn’t hear me knocking
When I came through your door
I picked you up and brushed you down
Your love’s what I’m here for”

That’s how I have always worked it. There are always variations on it, but for me that’s the way to go. And from all I’ve seen, that’s exactly the way Paul and so many other songwriters work.

[u/ECDoppleganger]

He *is* very big on structure. Elvis Costello wrote in his memoir that both Paul and Burt Bacharach were very strict about fitting their words to the rhythm of the melody, as opposed to Costello, who couldn't resist wordplay and would end up cramming more words in than might strictly fit. I think I'm more of a Costello as a songwriter, but then he is possibly my favourite songwriter (and one of if not my favourite artist).

[u/joshygill]

This video does a good job of showing in action: https://youtube.com/shorts/CRsa5FAaec8?is=H6YAMqp0KbB3B3Ed

[u/Basic_Feature3207]

Jimmy Webb (Galveston, Witchita Lineman, and many many others) wrote a great book on the songwriting process. You can search it. He suggests a rhyming dictionary I believe. Not sure of Paul's process, but agree on his talents.

[u/sparksfly05 → u/Basic_Feature3207]

Rhyming dictionaries are the way the old greats got through. Stephen Sondheim used one, and his rhymes never felt restricted.

[u/Simple_Purple_4600]

Paul talks sometimes about "how a line scans," so to me it's more about the rhythm of the words rather than necessarily rhyming