Take as much time as you need to establish prosody between the motive and the lyric hook: Let the motive express in a musical way what the hook says with words. This is the most crucial place in your song for the prosody to be right on target. Strong motive prosody is one reason that songs like “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” “Yesterday,” and “When a Man Loves a Woman” are still popular so many years after their initial release.

When writing a melody to a lyric, prosody is often used to reinforce the existing message in a direct manner, but it may also be used to add a different shade of meaning than the words alone convey. In the Lee Ann Womack song “I Hope You Dance,” the melodic motive gives the listener a sense of the deep metaphor beneath the simple lyric hook. In Linda Ronstadt's “Poor, Pitiful Me,” the slight playfulness of the melody contrasts with the lyric just enough to add a touch of ironic humor to the song's hook.

Ups and Downs

One of the easiest ways to incorporate prosody into your writing is by moving the melody upward or downward in response to an emotional or visual movement in the lyric. With a “sad” lyric, moving the melody down at the end of a line can help emphasize the emotional impact of pain or loss expressed in the words. A perfect example of this is the last line of the Willie Nelson/Patsy Cline song “Crazy,” which ends a whole octave lower than it begins. Even in a relatively happy song like “When a Man Loves a Woman,” the up to down melodic movement adds an aching, desperate quality to the lyric, giving the listener the feeling that the singer doesn't just love this woman, he loves her so much it hurts. With physical or visual lyric elements, this kind of prosody can bring a word or line to life. Take a listen to Bette Midler's recording of “Wind Beneath My Wings.” Notice that when she sings the word “fly,” the melody makes a long, slow climb that gives a distinct impression of someone soaring to great heights.

Tonal Palettes

The notes you use for the melody of your songs can sometimes be just as important as the words you choose for the lyric. At least as far back as Ancient Greece, songwriters have known the power of certain scales or modes to bring out a particular emotion. A Phrygian mode conjures up images of Spain, a minor pentatonic mode can establish a rock or blues feeling, and a harmonic minor scale can sound like a band of Hungarian gypsies or a traditional Hebrew dance.

As a general rule, minor scales and modes sound sad and major scales and modes sound happy, but this doesn't mean that sad songs always have to have minor key melodies and chords. How the note choices work in combination with the lyric and the chords can influence and even contradict the expected emotional impact of a mode or scale. A good example of how tonal palette choices can alter the vibe of a song is the George Jones hit “He Stopped Loving Her Today.” The lyric, a tale of lost love, would be unbearably sad and bordering on melodramatic, if set to a minor key melody. Instead, the simple arrangement of major chords and a stately, major scale melody make the song a sadly sweet tribute to a man hopelessly in love.

Vowel Choices

Pay special attention to your choice of vowels in places where a note is to be held for any amount of time. You can't sing a “T” or a “K” sound for any longer than they would normally be sounded in conversation and even soft consonants like “N,” “M,” and “R” will often sound odd if held out. It's almost always vowels that get stretched, held, trilled, and yodeled.

Make sure that the words you choose for these spots have vowels that sound right for your song. Also, pay attention to the consonants that end these words. Some consonants get lost or don't sound good after a long hold on a vowel. Often, the best choice for a word that is to be held out is one that ends on a vowel. If a word sounds clumsy when held, the solution can be as easy as finding a different word or rearranging the line so that a better sounding word falls in that spot.

Meter (Again!)

The duration and timing of notes makes a big difference in how well those notes work together. Generally speaking, the verse can have a busier meter with more syllables or notes and the chorus should be a bit simpler to let the important information of the central theme stand out more clearly. Meter can affect prosody: Listen to Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen do “Hot Rod Lincoln” and notice how the fast-paced, staccato meter accentuates the lyric's subject of racing down the highway. The spaces you leave open can be important, too: Notice that in the Billy Joel/Garth Brooks song “Shameless,” space left after the hook makes it stand out.