There are three other effects that the number of lines will create. The first of them is that the number of lines has a way of creating spotlights. That is to say, you can use the number of lines to spotlight important ideas. And this is sort of linked to expectation. When I say, I love the way you look at me, I love the way you look at me. And you hit it that second time, that balancing time, your balancing position, your resolving position, the place where you create stability automatically, by itself, creates a brighter spotlight. So the balancing position that is the position of stability because you are satisfying expectations actually turns on a brighter spotlight. So if I say, I love the way you look at me, I love the way you look at me. That second one in the balancing position really feels like it stands stronger than the first one. So that to create a spotlit or a balancing position. I love the way you look at me. I love the way you look at me. The second, effect that using an odd or an even number of lines is to create an effect of either stopping motion or suggesting further motion. That is to say, an even number of lines tends to create a sense of I'm done. An odd number of lines sort of creates a sense of let's keep going, let's keep going. And so that you can use an even number of lines to stop motion, to say I'm done. Or you can use an odd number of lines to say let's keep going, let's keep going. So, typically, the odd number of lines is used in sections that are made to create forward motion, sections that want to move into something else. So that, for example, the pre-chorus, the thing that bridges between verse and chorus as in The Cars' Why Can't I Have You, that thing that the bridges between those two is often unstable, and it can be unstable in a number of ways as we'll see in in the following segments. But the odd number of lines can work very nicely to do that. I love the way you look at me. I love the way you look at me. I love the way you look at me. And that wants to move. Now, thirdly, you can use your number of lines to create contrast between sections. Now, in terms of being able to create contrast between sections, number of lines is not one of your big players, but it still is useful. So that for example take a look at The Great Pretender written by Buck Ram and as recorded by The Platters. You can check out a link to it. You can download it. But note that the first two verses of that song are four-line verses. And then there's a little two-line bridge, and then the last verse has five lines. And what happens with the five lines is, first of all you, don't expect it to be five lines long. And because you don't expect to be five lines long, big spotlights come into the last line, pretending that you are still around, which, of course, is the reason that I'm the great pretender. And so these huge spotlights come along, but it also creates a contrast between the two sections. Go ahead and listen to it and see what I mean. Welcome back. Now, let's take a look at what we can do in terms of creating a section of a song, and I want to show you two versions of this verse, one with an even number of lines and one with an odd number of lines. And I want you to particularly notice how using the odd number of lines creates kind of a different tone. So here we go. Here we go with stable. One for your belly button, two through your nose. Three for your eyebrows and four that don't show. Some beneath your tan line to give your boyfriend fits. Of course, you've got the tongue stud, you're pretty proud of it. Again. One for your belly button, two through your nose. Three for your eyebrows and four that don't show. Some beneath your tan line to give your boyfriend fits. Of course, you've got that tongue stud, you're pretty proud of it. And so that just feels like, of course, look at all those pieces of body piercings and of that you'd kind of want to throw a rope around the person's leg and throw for bass. Here's the other one. One for your belly button, two through your nose. Three for your eyebrows and four that don't show. Of course you've got the tongue stud to give your boyfriend fits, you're pretty proud of it. Not feels like I want to move forward with a seven-line. One for your belly button, two through your nose. Three for your eyebrows and four that don't show. Of course, you've got the tongue stud to give your boyfriend fits. You're pretty proud of it. And for me what that does, the pretty proud of it takes on kind of a sarcastic tone when it feels unbalanced and just comes in as a fact when it feels balanced. Go back and listen again if you want and maybe make your own judgment about how that odd number of lines makes it feel. So in this segment, we've talked about the uses, the effects of creating an even or an odd number of lines. First, of course, the even or odd number of lines support the emotion of the ideas that you're creating. As we've just seen in the belly button thing, it can actually create an emotion rather than simply support one. So when it feels odd, it feels different than when it feels even. So, secondly, spotlighting ideas, and as you saw, both an even and an odd number of line can spotlight ideas. But what's interesting about, say, The Great Pretender is that rather than subtracting a line from the last verse, they added a line that we didn't expect, and that addition of the line is a spotlighting tool, whereas subtracting a line seems to be a destabilizing tool. So you can create spotlights in balancing position or by adding a line. And then, of course, there is making one section move or making a section stop by creating stable or unstable sequence. And, finally, there is the ability to create a contrast between two.
