Perfect Rhyme and Family Rhyme

Perfect Rhyme has three characteristics:

• The rhyming syllables have the same vowel sounds
• The consonant sounds after the vowel (if any) have the same sounds
• The rhyming syllables begin differently

A good substitute for Perfect Rhyme is Family Rhyme:

• The rhyming syllables have the same vowel sounds
• The consonant sounds after the vowel are phonetically related
• The rhyming syllables begin differently

In Family Rhyme, there are three phonetic families:

• Plosives: b, d, g, p, t, k
• Fricatives: v, TH, z, zh, j, f, th, s, sh, ch
• Nasals: m, n, ng

You can substitute members of the same family: cut/luck, rich/wish, fun/sung. Use this chart to help you find family rhymes:

In the future I’ll talk about how to use rhyme to control the pace and flow of your lyrics, use rhyme to balance and unbalance your verses, and a lot more. Remember that rhyme is a powerful songwriting tool to help you say what you mean.