This is a widget that will analyse the rhythmic meter of your lyrics. It enables you to view how lyrics sits in musical patterns. Clicking/tapping on the screen controls the interface. Alternatively, use your computer keyboard for quicker control.
Enter a line of lyrics in the upper text box. Then hit the button to add it to the pulse grid. It automatically divide up the words into their syllables and adds a starting stress pattern. There are some preloaded examples that demonstrates anapestic, trochaic, and iambic rhythms if you click on one of the practice buttons. Those will help you get going in no time.
How to Use the Lyrics Meter Tool
Each syllable is represented by a tile in the center timeline. To adjust the stress (weak to strong), tap on any one of the tiles. Use the arrow keys to shift your focus to another syllable. Hit Space or Enter to switch the stress, allowing you to fix the auto-analysis. Match it to how you would actualy sing the line.
If you choose one of the tiles, Boundary Microscope is opened up. Here you see how the syllable fuses or splits from neighbouring ones. It’s possible that the auto-syllabification isn’t correct. To adjust this, hit the cut map buttons and split the syllable into smaller parts. Alternatively, click on the combine buttons to join two syllables into one that could of said as one.
The Breath Tool button inserts a gap in between the selected syllable. It then allows you to hear what it sounds like when played back.
Metrical Fingerprints
This is where you’ll find that they have compared your line to four conventional types of poetic feet. They’ve counted up how many times there was iambic, trochaic, anapestic, and dactylic feet in your line. They do this using your stress marks. Then they give you a percentage reading for each one. To get a feel for which rhythmic form works with your lyric, click any meter card to make it the active reference pattern. The Imprint button allows you to force the line into the selected meter and experiment with this if you like. Alternatively, just consider the alternative reading (runner-up).
Below the analysis panels, you’ll find controls for practicing the rhythm. There is a tempo slider to speed it up or slow it down. There’s a click that you can turn on or off to hear the stress marks more clearly or more subtly. And there are pickup syllables which allow you to remove the first few syllables of the line from the count in time. That comes into play if you begin your line on the upbeat.
Then you have a choice of pulse cell size. This adjust how the audio grid aligns with the syllables.
When you hit the Perform button, it will play back the scansion with different sounds for each syllable. It has a knock that is deeper when it’s a strong syllable and a lighter sound like a click for weak syllables. There’s also a little break of silence as a breath marker indicating where the pause occur. While it is playing, it highlights the tiles of the corresponding syllable on the screen. So you can keep track. Click the button again to stop performing at any point.
Quick edits can be made via keyboard shortcuts. No mouse necessary. To change the type of meter, which has four types, hit the corresponding number key: 1-4. Want a breath mark? Just hit the B key. Undo that last edit? Hit the U key. Want to begin or end a performance? Hit P. The keyboard shortcuts allow for faster testing of meter choices and stress patterns.
These controls are explained in the Help panel. To view the complete set of interactions, toggle it open from the header. You can go into fullscreen mode as well. Doing so increases the amount of room that the widget has on your screen. That’s useful when you’re using a small device. It is also helpful if you just want to focus on the analysis completly.
Play around with various stress patterns until one sounds right, and then try forcing a slightly off-meter on it. Hear what happens. Explore variations using the undo button. It won’t mess up your earlier efforts.
That’s really the point of this tool, hearing how your lyrics are built. Enter some lines from your song (either a chorus line, or even a verse) into the text box. Experiment with moving the stresses around until it sound correct in your head as it plays back. Let the meter scores help guide your ear. Don’t be afraid to trust what feels right about the way your song wants to sound.
When you’re ready, let’s get started.