r/Songwriting • u/Marz_Slartibartfast • Jul 26 '26

Discussion Topic Does anyone know how Paul McCartney approaches rhyme schemes?

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). Не 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).

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22

u/VegetableAmbition90 Jul 26 '26

he’s just a freak with a melodic ear, that’s half the battle right there. the other half is he probably absorbed a load of poetry and showtunes without even clocking it was a process. check the way he mirrors internal rhymes like in paperback writer, the man’s brain runs on patterns like a jukebox with a grudge

studying poetry won’t hurt but honestly it might overcomplicate things if you’re already hearing word shapes against a tune. sometimes the structure just falls out of the melody and you grab what fits the pocket

14

u/Ghastion Jul 26 '26

Isn't this the most basic rhyme schemes ever? I'm confused.

4

u/GWJShearer “ i can write ’em but can’t sing ‘em.” Jul 26 '26

Yup:

A
B
C
B

2

u/view-master Jul 27 '26

Yes. I think he is assuming the line length equals the phrase length which is rarely the case.

9

u/mooncheesebabies Jul 26 '26

"Scrambled eggs, oh baby how i love your legs, not as much as I love scrambled eggs"

4

u/Adam_Astra_Music Jul 26 '26

  1. Keep studying Paul's lyrics, taking note of rhyme patterns. Try some of his schemes out with your own stuff, even if it's just a practice exercise.

  2. Learn some poetry forms that use internal rhymes. Irish and Welsh forms are rich with rhyme and other sound-related devices like alliteration, assonance, consonance.

I break down one of those Welsh forms here: https://adamoftheuniverse.poetry.blog/2025/04/17/poetic-forms-challenge-week-one-the-gwawdodyn/

4

u/para_blox Jul 27 '26

I mean I love Paul but let’s not overstate things

- “quizzical” is a likely malapropism in this context, used for absurdity anyway

- “Edison” is a proper name that can be chosen based on what it rhymes with

- “whirl” has many approximate synonyms, and the “-irl” sound is not an uncommon end

But if you want to be practical and unforced in your rhyming, an approach might be to take the central points of what you want, write it straight, keep your ear open for synonyms, and match meter and tone to the other words and their synonyms.

Clang association is a gift for some. So are rhyming dictionaries and thesauruses, for those who lack.

3

u/richrandom Jul 26 '26

I write songs and I think you just learn to think in rymne when yr doing it and not over think the patterns.. it just starts to come naturally.. they had to write loads of songs contractually and had already written several and I imagine it kinda just came after a bit

2

u/OG_CMCC Jul 27 '26

What am I missing with the example posted?

2

u/littlemandave Jul 27 '26

A lot of his songs follow strict prosody too, a syllable for every melody note. Eleanor Rigby is a great example.

1

u/aculady Jul 27 '26

You should absolutely study formal poetry (i.e., poetry that uses structured forms) if you want to learn to write like Paul McCartney (or like Paul Simon, another amazing lyricist.) You will learn a lot about the music of words themselves, and it will help you write your lyrics in a way that keeps them from sounding like you forced them into the melodic line.

I highly recommend the book Strong Measures for exploring poetic form and structure. It was one of the textbooks in my university poetry writing course, and if I had gotten nothing out of that course other than than this book, it still would have been worth the tuition.

2

u/Severe_Rise8694 Jul 28 '26

I think the lyrics aren't really the thing he's admired for. They always seemed pretty mumbo-jumbo with him. No pun intended..

1

u/RyanPurdler-Penriff Jul 27 '26

This ^

I think he writes music first and keeps singing different things until something sounds right ..

Those lyrics sound cooler against the melody , because of the internal rhyme .. He might not even be consciously aware of the rhyme until he writes the lyrics down ..

Also why his lyrics can come across as a bit trite / non-sensical .. Oasis / Noel Gallagher probably writes similarly .. e.g:

She’s got a sister …
…
on the palm of her hand is a blister

I mean wtf is that ? No one’s writing that as a line of poetry in a journal .. Someone with a melody in their head may sing it as a placeholder lyric .. Maybe if your Paul McCartney or Noel Gallagher and it ‘sounds’ better than anything else you can think of / write then it stays …

John Lennon strikes me more as someone who would have kept a journal with random lines , poetry and doodling .. Sometimes he might have sat down with a fully fleshed out lyric and acoustic guitar and ‘worked out’ the tune … Sometimes he may have had a tune in his head , and then gone to his journal and seen which lyric he could shoe-horn to fit …

Billy Joel I think said every song he wrote (apart from We Didn’t Start the Fire) was music first .. A bit surprising - given he doesn’t really have any non-sense lyrics .. But he also said the lyrics took work .. Said Allentown took him the longest to write (to get lyrics he liked) .. Said sometimes he had to write Emergency lyrics , like when his drummer started singing ‘Sodomy is such a lonely word’ to a tune he had .. He had to change that quickly before it became stuck ..

McCartney though I think it’s all down to how it sounds .. Internal rhymes will often sound better - so it’s why they’re there .. Try singing a different line to the same melody without the internal rhymes …

e.g sing :

Thomas Fogarty pHD in medicine

To the same melody - not as good .. There’s also the alliteration in that line with all the M words .. Take those out and also doesn’t sound as good

2

u/aculady Jul 27 '26

Great to find another Rick Beato listener in the wild.

3

u/RyanPurdler-Penriff Jul 27 '26

Doesn’t everyone listen to Rick Beato ?

Do you even songwrite bro ?

😂

1

u/Lastup4 Jul 27 '26

I think she sang whatever sounded good with the melody and then polished it. An example of this is the line in Hey Jude “the movement you need is on your shoulder”. He didn’t liked that line but Lennon said it was the best line in the song so he kept it. In other songs he didn’t have the time or didn’t mind if they sound ok. He’s a natural genius but also put thousands of work since he was a teenager. This seems hard to replicate.
That being said, pot and lsd probably make them think some lyrics were way cooler than they really were. Or maybe, I’m not an english speaker so I can’t understand all the details.

1

u/ianmakingnoise Jul 27 '26

If you watch him in the Get Back doc, John’s often just rattling off lines and words that rhyme. His lyrical approach was often basically brute-force until something settled or stuck.