JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Songwriter Message Forum Overused Rhymes

I think the warning against overused rhymes is misunderstood. There is a limit to the rhymes available to us, so the problem is probably having too many of the "overused" rhymes in one song which is something beginning songwriters often do. You could probably pull up any number of current "hit" songs and discover "overused" rhymes in them. I think the greater danger is writing lines merely to accommodate a rhyme scheme. This is probably where the overused bit comes into play. Rather than working on a more interesting way to say something, a beginning writer will go for the obvious and predictable rhyme. Another thing to take into consideration is that the problem may not be the ending rhyme but the words or phrase in the line that precede it.