Song — beat sheet, word budgets + line rules
The parent's beat sheet is LOCKED (PB §1, concept-formula "Iteration mode"); this is its shape. Change one thing per song: normally the accuser + verbatim line (+ the witness room it implies).
Clock math. Suno sings ~1.9-2.6 wps whatever the prompt says (10-04 picks: 1.86 / 2.58 / 2.01; voice refs ~1.9; verses ≤2.7, choruses ~1.5). Budget at 2.0-2.5 wps: a 4:00-4:40 song = 550-630 sung words (parent exhibit A 684 words / 271.5 s; 10-04 S3 548 words / 262.8 s). Under 2.0 wps the song drags; over 2.7 it turns into a jingle. Percentages are of sung runtime; a beat = whole lyric lines, never mid-line.
Long form (default, ≥3 min; MAP §3 keeps length fixed)
| # | Beat | % | Words (of ~590) | Lines | Job | Line rules |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Accuser hook | 0-4 | 20-25 | 1-4 | Stop the scroll on HER | Line 1 = the accuser's verbatim VOC line in quotes, or her stake, ≤10 words; in action; no backstory, no product. Same sentence goes in title:/overlay: |
| 2 | Her world | 4-17 | 80-100 | 5-17 | Prove she IS the alarm | Counts + times from VOC ("At six-thirty I knock soft on his door"); the trips escalate (knock → light → blinds → blanket); failed solutions generic (louder alarms, phone across the room, lights on), never brands, never bed shakers; her own cost (late to work, bus pulling away) |
| 3 | Chorus 1 | 17-23 | 35-45 | 18-22 | The repeatable idea | "The record vs the mornings": the accuser's paper vs what she does at 6 am; short plain lines, sung slower; this text returns MIRRORED in beat 9 |
| 4 | Public escalation + witness | 23-35 | 80-90 | 23-35 | The blame goes public and costs her | ONE new person in ONE new room sees it (mediator, attendance officer, family dinner, school social worker); the cost is concrete (a letter, an exhibit, a court referral, a fight in front of the kid); a witness asks a question she can't win ("Is this accurate?") |
| 5 | Hand-over test | 35-45 | 65-75 | 36-45 | He tries and fails | "Then you take the mornings" / "let's see"; 2-3 failed mornings in fast lines (day names work: "Monday. Late."); the accuser stays reasonable and wrong; humour from the failure, never from mocking her |
| 6 | Low point + reversal | 45-52 | 35-45 | 46-51 | Make her doubt, then turn | "Maybe it's me" alone and still; the turn arrives from outside her (the pings, the kid's text, the accuser's own late call) |
| 7 | Explainer | 52-60 | 40-50 | 52-57 | Root cause from a person in the story | Nurse / pediatrician / counselor / attendance officer, named with a title the singer can sing ("Doctor Shah"); ≤3 lines; Fish's root-cause line verbatim: sound doesn't reach a deep-sleeping brain (habituation line "tunes out a sound it hears every morning" is untested in songs: only as the one variable) |
| 8 | Discovery | 60-70 | 50-60 | 58-65 | Mechanism + product | FIRST band beat; she wears it first; the three ruled mechanism lines: touch gets through, silent to everyone else, keeps going until he turns it off; product named once ("Dawn Band"); product facts per product-truth.md only |
| 9 | Vindication | 70-94 | 100-115 | 66-82 | Payoff on HER | Proof first (kid out on time, nobody at his door, a time stamp she can see); then the public moment in front of the accuser/witness: the kid says it was never her and holds his arm OUT toward them; the accuser's concession; mirrored final chorus |
| 10 | CTA / close | 94-100 | 25-30 | 83-86 | Offer | The close line ("You're not the reason he's late. You're the reason he ever made it." is the parent's; write the new song's own); "sixty nights" sung; end card (optional, --end-card; off by default per Fish 10-06) carries name + offer |
Product first appears at ~60 % (10-04: beat 54-56 of 85-98). A viewer who leaves before ~2:30 never sees the band; that is accepted for the long form (the story pays); early reveal is tested only through the short cell.
Line rules (all beats)
- One sung line per pack line, 5-9 words, staccato but full sentences (Fish 9-26: fragments read robotic). Said-out-loud test; pronoun-first.
- Numbers spelled out ("six-thirty", "seven-oh-two"); titles written out ("Doctor", "Mister").
- No two-word lines that can flip ("It was." → "It was true."). No ad-libs, no "[Spoken]" tags, no stage directions in the lyric block.
- Real-life test on every line (PB §2): right age, right place, real channel, the narrator only reports what she could see.
- Every line must be filmable literally; a line that only works as a close-up of someone singing gets rewritten.
- Stakes from VOC/stake bank, caused by the mornings, landing on her; never the kid's future money.
Short-song cell (TEST only, labelled; one variable = length)
45-60 s at ~2.0-2.5 wps = 100-140 sung words. Same accuser hook, same style string, same art style as the parent; own floored ad set. Tests the davidaistar length (30-60 s) and early product reveal against the ≥3 min rule.
| # | Beat | % | Words | Job |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Accuser hook | 0-10 | 12-15 | Parent's line 1, unchanged |
| 2 | Her world + failed solutions | 10-30 | 25-30 | 2-3 trips + generic failed solutions |
| 3 | Root cause (explainer in one line) | 30-38 | 10-12 | The ruled root-cause line, from a named person |
| 4 | Discovery at ~⅓ | 38-55 | 20-25 | Band named; rhymed 3-item mechanism chant: silent to the house / touch gets through / keeps going till it's off |
| 5 | Vindication | 55-85 | 25-30 | Kid out on time; the accuser sees it |
| 6 | CTA | 85-100 | 12-15 | "Sixty nights" + end card (optional, --end-card; off by default per Fish 10-06) |
Structure example (ILLUSTRATIVE — shows the shape only; not shipping copy; real lines come from VOC, the red-team and Fish's approval)
[Verse 1]
"Your name is on the truancy letter, ma'am." ← 1 accuser hook (school official, verbatim-style)
I read it twice in the school parking lot.
[Verse 2]
At six-fifteen I knock on Jordan's door. ← 2 her world
...
[Chorus]
They've got a list of every late arrival. ← 3 chorus: the record vs the mornings
Nobody wrote down the five trips up the stairs.
...
[Verse 4]
"Then you wake him," I told his dad on Sunday. ← 5 hand-over test
...
[Bridge]
The school nurse said his brain can't hear it. ← 7 explainer (root-cause line goes here verbatim)
...
[Final Chorus]
Now the list is empty and so is his doorway. ← 9 mirrored chorus