Structure Driven by Human Speech
I am fortunate to live near a very fine story teller. He has a unique speech pattern that holds listeners. His words are not elaborate, but the really connect people. The structure he uses to tell stories has always fascinated me. In fact, the pattern of his everyday speech and story telling are nearly identical.
This is his pattern:
This structure may seem both odd and not musical. But, it holds listeners. So, I used the structure in a song that tells a story.
Listen to Off of The Bay from my CD 12 Degrees of Separation
This is his pattern:
- Statement - a short sentence
- More information about the statement - again a short sentence
- Then he agrees with himself. After two information-packed sentences he always says "uh-huh"
- The final sentence is a summary, conclusion or prediction
This structure may seem both odd and not musical. But, it holds listeners. So, I used the structure in a song that tells a story.
Listen to Off of The Bay from my CD 12 Degrees of Separation